Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Ritual by Adam L.G. Nevill

34 reviews

izypup's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Stalking, and Murder

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Physical abuse, Excrement, Islamophobia, Kidnapping, and Fire/Fire injury

emmylgrajinski's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.25

The first half of this book is incredibly chilling and eerie. Was nearly late for work once because i was so engrossed. The second half, as the other reviews have said, is a little less gripping in my opinion. But even though I didn't enjoy the direction of the second half as much as the first, the writing, the atmosphere and the imagery is still incredible all the way through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Violence

Minor: Fatphobia, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

gawdz0rz's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

3.5

includes a peek into some more recent parts of norwegian history. i won’t say more than that outside spoilers. 

kinda feels like the book splits into two different books like halfway through? 

author writes a little weird about women’s bodies. “he was smelling her cunt through a nose he knew to be smashed flat.” no he wasn’t. that’s not true. 

some other thoughts:

the tie-in of black metal and the 90s church burnings in norway to the characters’ backgrounds was great. and luke pointing out the conflicting beliefs (different tattoos, getting sacrificed to what was believed a pagan god on an inverted cross, etc.) showed the timeline of some people in that same scene moving between satanism and paganism (or what is now called “odinism”), sincerity not required. and then there’s showing the bigoted beliefs of some in the black metal scene—burzum, for example, being one of the bands fenris listed, was founded by varg vikernes, a nazi. and that wasn’t the only nazi band listed. 

finally, i’m not sure i like how the beast in the woods was kinda just brushed off as some random demon or “mother” or whatever, rather than something way more important to the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Torture, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Vomit

cameronpetrovich's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

It says a lot about an author’s faith in their audience to interpret their writing(s) when you spend multiple chapters in a row with minimal to no dialogue or story in favor of describing rooms and scenery. It’s definitely not the worst, but doing all that just to have an ambiguous ending feels disjointed. 

I’d also like to add I’m not sure if the misogyny and fat phobia are characteristics of the characters or the author, but you can’t write that without projecting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia and Misogyny

nnylelocin's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, and Murder

roxanne_jv's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Fatphobia

charlieeee's review against another edition

dark tense slow-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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexism, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

The first part was fabulous. Some really good examinations of people growing apart; philosophy of life (for male-socialised people anyway); it was tense and had some great metaphors and other strong writing. And then part two happened where I would have sworn I was reading a completely different book altogether! The metaphors were over the top, made no sense in the context of the scene and the characters were really stereotypical - and the less about ‘Surtr’ and the constant repetition about her breasts, body and ‘smell’ of her genitalia the better. Was so disappointed by part two. So so disappointed.

And the reveal of the big beastie ‘the god’ in the woods at the end was such a let down. Everything was leading up to this point and the pay off was so disappointing - we barely get a paragraph. There’s letting your mind fill in the blanks and then there’s this.

broccoli_aesthetics's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

4.0

The first part in the woods is very tense and interesting. The stalking creature is damn scary and the characters are flashed out really well. Unfortunately I feel that the second part of the book falls flat:

the black metal band is honestly too stereotyped to be interesting

and I felt like it killed the mood.
The book then gets better again near the end

with moder and the white children

Overall, i still enjoyed the book quite a bit. 4/5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Gore, Violence, and Blood

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

snazzy10101's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.5

the vibes are wonderful (including the second half with the black metal band, i liked the change of pace) and the descriptions are baller. 
however. none of the characters are remotely likeable, and there are 2  female characters (one old lady, and one teen girl who is fat shamed AND sexualised).
there’s a lot of fat phobia 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Blood

Moderate: Addiction, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Cultural appropriation, and Alcohol

pastelbread's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail