Reviews tagging 'Racism'

You'd Look Better as a Ghost by Joanna Wallace

5 reviews

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Vomit

Minor: Ableism, Miscarriage, and Racism

beate251's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Claire is a serial killer and has been for a long time. There is deep seated childhood trauma through a mean, neglectful mother and an overindulgent father.

When her beloved Dad dies, she finds herself in a bereavement group with a handful of weird characters bemoaning the loss of a loved one. There are Jemma, Christiana, Evelyn,  Welshman and Weird Little Man because Claire doesn't bother learning the names of people she isn't really interested in.

Her life begins to unravel when she kills Lucas, a man who overlooked her for an art prize or something and then Jemma from her bereavement group visits her at home and tells her that she and him were blackmailing people and she saw him disappear into her house and never come out.

The plot is way too complicated for me to detail here but it involves murders, planned murders, Jemma's sister Helen and regular visits to a posh care home.

Claire's acerbic inner commentary is hilarious. She knows she is not like other people. She constantly refers to how ordinary people would react or what they would say. The first person POV works really well to show what a sociopath she is. The flashbacks to her childhood are illuminating and disturbing in equal measures.

The book is darkly funny but also unsettling as there is no remorse or character development for Claire. She's simply too damaged to ever be normal again so the only questions are, will she be found out and will we want her to be?

The cover reminds me a lot of Eat Slay Love by Julie Mae Cohen, whereas the title reminds me a lot of I Bet You'd Look Good in a Coffin by Katy Brent, both authors I love. I'm usually a fan of female serial killers in books but Claire is a bit too unhinged for me, killing men and women alike for the slightest transgressions.

It was nevertheless a well-written intriguing, tense read with a lot of twists and turns that made the book fun. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Miscarriage, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Dementia, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Racism

sn0w0's review against another edition

dark funny informative lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The UK specific racism was highly informative. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cancer, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Racism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

uranaishi's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Cancer, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexual content, Excrement, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

gawdz0rz's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

claire doesn’t have much of a personality beyond hating everyone, and literally every other character is empty and unlikeable. the advertised (dry) humor in the book isn’t really there, either, but instead feels extremely underwhelming and is presented as the internal monologue of a clearly neurodivergent person, but i did exhale through my nose a few times, if that counts. the story was pretty unique in an american psycho/dexter kind of way with a lot of good twists, so it has that going for it. 

i dunno, i had much higher hopes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Physical abuse, Racism, and Death of parent