Reviews tagging Fatphobia

A Good Girl's Guide to Murder, by Holly Jackson

43 reviews

nv0101's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Bullying, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Death, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Self harm, Infidelity, Body shaming, and Child death

Minor: Abandonment and Body horror

annniiieee_333's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Stalking, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Bullying, Sexual assault, and Violence

Minor: Cancer, Car accident, Dementia, Eating disorder, Grief, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, and Fatphobia

cassidyalainebull's review

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Racism, Animal death, Sexual assault, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Fatphobia, Self harm, Bullying, and Sexism

mceleste22's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Welcome to a ramble of thoughts about the book! ♕I’ll try to make it make sense:) ♕

First of all, if you’re deciding whether to read it or not, here’s a few things that might help you decide: 

• Reliable narrator.
• Mystery gets solved in ONE book (at least it does resolve all the main parts and details given, and from the synopsis of the next it sounds unrelated).
• Great secondary characters (good, bad and morally grey).
• Not too graphic until the actual evidence reveals.
• Many clues.
• Mild romance subplot.
• Actually appropriate for the YA genre.

Spoilers Ahead!

Few things that called my attention:

• Spoiler

  The protagonist was solving the case of a murdered mean girl
• The chapters that were novel-like had quite a few lyrical descriptions which I loved.
• The everyday life wasn’t left behind in the storytelling.
• Also, the fact that it changed between narrative prose and log entries made it go by so fast, plus not redundant ;)

Moreover:

Spoiler

~ It was weird that the author was trying to put a romance in there while we were trying to solve a murder-mystery. But I do love Ravi and Pip together, they feel balanced, even with the slight age difference. AND when the author poses Ravi as smart he actually pushes through with it when he gets what’s actually going on with Pip. (When she was going to stop and he put 2-and-2 together and knew what’s going on I was quite glad, it was a “I knew you could do it!” moment).

~ I do hope that as children Pip and Josh gave Barney purple hair.

Spoiler

~ Does Pip get amnesia after all of it and Ravi has to remind her of Becca’s confession?

 

~ Starving Cara with Spanish words sprinkled in her sentences was completely necessary to my reading experience. Thank you. *not sarcasm*

Spoiler

~ When the application essay for Columbia came up and she actually wrote it, I had really hoped the whole essay would be the end of the book and the title would be “A good girl’s guide to murder”. Imagine that application! (Plus, she could've added the "willing to do anything for an assignment", though I don't know if that would appeal to an admissions officer (?))

 

Weird details:

Spoiler

~ Almost turned into a plot-hole but was saved last minute: how was Pip coming up with such wild theories when her family is the kind of family that hides their spare key under the doormat??!? Like?!?? Make it make sense. But then, there’s the tiniest mention of her watching crime documentaries and I was “Okay, I guess that’s fair.” But like, tell your family to hide their spare key elsewhere, please.

 

Spoiler

~ Gotta say, it was curious how Pip put Naomi and Mr. Elliot on the list and actually went through with them as suspects and then decided to tell Becca to escape.

 

~ The physical description of Andie matched the author’s photo, idk if it was intentional but it did weird me out everytime the book flipped open on it.

~ Totally unrelated to the story: the book came with two dust jackets, exactly the same (I think? I should probably check). It was like Barnes and Nobles knew I would need space for a murder board if I had actually pushed throught with it, still I don’t think I would’ve guessed it. 

As a closing/overall thoughts:

I did quite enjoy the book, even if it wasn't totally my sort of book. It was definitely that change in genre I was hoping for when I bought it. Not much was too mindblowing, when the reveals came, I was like “That makes total sense!” and I did remember all the details that led to it which I was proud about. It was pretty straight-forward and it did guide through the whole plot.

 On another note, I’m glad the second book is about a new mystery, and I really hope it doesn’t relate to this one so that if I read it time after I will still be able to enjoy it without remembering everything that happened in the first book. It’s interesting for a series for the plot to not be totally connected, but it does have a settled main character to guide you through the plot details.

Spoiler

I feel like it would be cool if in the second or third book the person in question was still alive and found alive, just for a change.

~ Celeste

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Body shaming, Bullying, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Grief, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Vomit

introverted_reads's review

adventurous mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Vomit, Animal death, Car accident, Child abuse, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Self harm, Terminal illness, Fatphobia, and Misogyny

taleofabibliophile's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Car accident, Rape, Vomit, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Drug use, Bullying, Suicide, Emotional abuse, Toxic friendship, Murder, Racism, Xenophobia, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Cursing, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Dementia

Minor: Death of parent, Fatphobia, Self harm, Sexism, Eating disorder, and Ableism

CW: mention of Harry Potter costume/mention of Harry Potter book in acknowledgments

wtfedin's review

dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.75

I would’ve given the 5/5 if the plot twist of

Spoiler

Elliot’s kidnapped girl

wasn’t as predictable as it was.

Sorry for my bad English, it’s not my first language.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, and Rape

Minor: Suicide, Fatphobia, Self harm, Rape, Toxic relationship, and Sexual content

lucia5678's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Car accident, Death, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Injury/injury detail, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Suicide attempt, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism

draculagirl's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? N/A

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Rape, Blood, Injury/injury detail, Kidnapping, Stalking, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Sexual assault

Minor: Animal death, Body shaming, Car accident, Racism, Death of parent, Fatphobia, Emotional abuse, Animal cruelty, Bullying, and Vomit

azqkaban's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

3.5

from the start i knew this book was gonna be a 5 stars read for me. the writing is so simple yet so effective. it had a grip on me and i loved it. the twists were widening my eyes, making my breath hitch and the tension made my chest tight and heartbeat fast. i lived this book, at least it feels like that. like i lived with the characters, characters which were exceptionally written and i loved. i truly cared for them and their well being or in some cases hated and despised them. this story was so wild and so fun to read. made me cry when

Spoiler

barney died.

.
im glad the book wasnt just: murder, death, clues, betrayal. there were some sweet moments in there too, pip with her friends or with her family. it was like a little break and i loved that.

i recommend this book to everyone whos looking for a great mystery with plot twists you cant expect.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug use, Death, Drug abuse, and Grief

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Gaslighting, Racism, Rape, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Body shaming, Dementia, Fatphobia, and Panic attacks/disorders