Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

What Stalks Among Us by Sarah Hollowell

18 reviews

blewballoon's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Excellent! Spooky teen corn maze book! The power of friendship! Wow, I really enjoyed this. The audiobook narrator does seem to over-enunciate the dialogue and their range of voices was limited, but I was still quite immersed in the story. It was tense, mysterious, spooky, and funny in a balanced way. I appreciated the way it approached subjects like toxic relationships, neurodiversity, and fat phobia. The best part of the book for me was the pure friendship between Sadie and Logan.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Biphobia, Fatphobia, and Misogyny

ghouligann's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

RATING: 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4.0 / 5.0 

 

REVIEW: 

I’ll be perfectly honest. The first few chapters of this book, I was not having a good time. The writing style is simple and straightforward, but the main character’s constant use of references from popular media really got under my skin. However, around the halfway point, I actually grew to like Sadie’s inner monologue. Not sure what it was in the beginning, but after that little roadblock, I realized that it was sort of endearing. 
 
The book, besides being full of creepy corn monsters, deals with a lot of heavy subjects. The toxicity of various relationships that most people, unfortunately, have to go through. The pain of not being able to fully move on from those past traumas. As well as the societal struggles of being overweight, which is something most books don’t shine any light on. 
 
I went into this expecting just a simple horror story and got hit by serious emotions. Sadie and Logan’s friendship was so sweet. This is the first book I’ve ever read by Sarah Hollowell and I would love to read more of her work.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, and Fatphobia

shaunashares's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Fatphobia

pearlc's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

 

This was so good. Sadie and Logan skip their senior trip and go driving in the rural back roads of Indiana instead. Where they find a mysterious, and out of season, corn maze. Upon entering they find evidence that this is not the first time they've gone into the maze and now they have to figure out a way out before they're trapped there forever. 

This was such a compelling read. Once things got moving in the maze I could not put it down. I wanted to know what would happen next, what would Sadie and Logan try this time, could they figure out the secrets to the maze. The nature of the maze itself made for a very time twisty story. Where things didn't just loop occasionally, but sometimes Sadie and Logan would run across evidence of things that hadn't happened to them yet. The only way out is through and the only way through is the mortifying ordeal of being known and confronting your trauma. This is a story about friendship, forgiving yourself, and learning to move on, but also horrible corn monsters and a maze that tries to eat you. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, and Self harm

Minor: Biphobia

Everything is presented as a negative. POV Protagonist has bad self image due to her weight, but this isn't dwelt on overly. It is mentioned multiple times though.

sierrabowers's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was a very cool but also very confusing read. It was like Maze Runner met Children of the Corn. If you like fantasy, thrillers, and time traveling, this could be the book for you! It also includes LGBTQ+ characters but that isn’t their entire personality which I think is nice. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

ezwolf's review

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This is 10/10 fat girl rep, I have hardly ever felt as seen as a fat person as I have when reading this book. And I will now immediately go read this author's other books. 

It was surprisingly funny! One moment it's creepy as all get out and then I'm laughing at a Supernatural joke. Which is another thing that was surprising, usually I find pop culture references annoying and unnecessary, but that wasn't the case with this book. 

The only reason this doesn't get five stars from me is because it kind of dragged a bit at the end, but everything else was fantastic! 

Also the title's play on words is hilarious!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Biphobia, Cursing, Misogyny, Self harm, and Dysphoria

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Infidelity, and Car accident

abbeyreads13's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to love this, but it was a little too long and repetitive. I fear the author didn’t trust the reader would pick up on what was happening, it was a lot of telling. Ultimately can’t deny it was hard to get through for me. Read on audio 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Mental illness, and Self harm

Moderate: Fatphobia and Homophobia

concertconfetti's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 a little cheesy in places but it's young adult horror. This book is going to be so important for so many teens and its important to me too I think because it's about strong connections and allowing yourself to admit that people have done you dirty. And it's not your fault you were done dirty. Trauma is a maze and you might fight it for nearly a fucking century but you will get out as long as you have love and support and you keep trying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia

This book is about trauma at its core and how you have to fight like hell to recover.

eruanna317's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Self harm, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia and Misogyny

Minor: Miscarriage

clichemarker's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Book of the year
 This book handles all of it's tough topics with so much care and heart. The concept is fresh and interesting. The characters have such a great, layered relationship. The message is powerful. The characters have so much depth to them. Even the humor is so good. It doesn't take you out of the story, but instead adds relief to a tense and emotional plot.
 This book is worth the time it takes to read it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia