Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

26 reviews

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

2.5

Finished reading: October 29th 2024

"When you eliminate the impossible, all that remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

I had a fantastic time reading this author's debut back when I read it in 2017, and I've been looking forward to read more of his writing ever since. I'm still not sure why it took me over two years to finally get to his second book Hidden Pictures... The blurb made it sound like a fitting read for Halloween month, and it was the perfect excuse to finally pick it up. Things started out well enough and I was really enjoying my time with this book despite some red flags. Sadly, the plot made a drastic turn around the 70-80% mark that completely ruined the story for me. Not only were the twists absolutely ridiculous, but they also left me with a bad taste in my mouth and the main gender-related twist was borderline offensive. Transphobia, racism, discrimination against atheists, fatphobia... This story seemed to have a particular right-wing political agenda, and this not only made me dislike certain characters but also ruined the reading experience for me. It's such a shame, because the premise itself is fantastic and I can't deny that I was really enjoying myself during most of the book despite the previously mentioned red flags present throughout the story. I also loved the illustrations, which really complemented the plot... I gave Hidden Pictures an extra star for them, but the rest pretty much ended in a trainwreck. I do hope his newest story has less of a political angle, because I will probably have to give up his writing otherwise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infertility, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

joxinabox's review against another edition

 Full of Alt-Right dogwhistles with a transphobic as hell twist.

And yes, just because they don't outright say the word "Transgender" doesn't mean it's not transphobic. "Two leftist parents force the child they kidnapped to identify as a different gender" is obviously transphobic. Along with the comments about explaining Nonbinary identities being on the same level as explaining anal sex to a child? Yeah, not subtle.

  I really don't think it's a coincidence that any "good guy" in the book is explicitly Christian and racist snide comments are ignored and treated as quirky. I could go on. Absolute garbage.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Racism, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

All tags above are explicit and are outright condoned by the text. A racist character is treated as a quirky cat lady and [spoilers but not that you should care]

the twist that these leftist parents are "forcing" their child to identify as a boy?

Yeah, that's transphobia.

micku's review against another edition

challenging dark funny 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Xenophobia and Medical trauma

bookaddictlt's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, and Murder

Moderate: Kidnapping

caffeinatednymph's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse

Moderate: Kidnapping and Abandonment

Minor: Transphobia and Xenophobia

edsbian's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This was a solid (not standout, but solid) little supernatural horror story until the random reveal hit, and everything went kinda off the rails. I don’t know how no one told Jason Rekulak that

having a character who was forced to be trans, a child especially, by their atheist liberal parents

for no other reason than adding more shock value to your twist sucks, is

transphobic

, and is weak writing. I wouldn’t put people through this book knowing the author randomly decided to add that in without considering the real world politics it mirrors. Thank god a good Christian girl was able to save her, right?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Blood, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Car accident, and Death of parent

bohboh's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Mental illness, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Racism

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, and Car accident

xtrememonotreme's review against another edition

3.0

I originally rated this book 4.75 stars. I lowered it after 24 hours because I took some time to reflect on certain things in the book. 

The way the author made the atheist characters caricatures of atheist people and the bad guys, while the racist side character is a victim by the end. A lot of the shocking stuff they do sounds a lot like what conservatives claim about drag shows and (other) LGBT communities (seriously who would buy a 5yr old a book that discussed anal and oral sex????). It didn’t really sit well with me considering the other themes in the book

It’s a well written and spooky book with some really good pictures hence my original rating but part of it did read like right wing fear mongering with some light fatphobia sprinkled in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug use, Transphobia, Kidnapping, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Racism, and Xenophobia

annahamburger's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

molthetroll's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Murder

Moderate: Racism and Xenophobia

Minor: Infertility