Reviews with content warning for Dysphoria - Hidden Pictures

For the first half of this book I was bored and found Malory fairly annoying. The constant commenting on other people's weight and life style was completely unnecessary and real judgmental coming from someone who used to do heroin. Like we get it, you found jesus and started running again, do we really need several pages discussing the calories in the lunch you are eating. Also, if you're going to have a character lie all the time stop having them talk about how much they hate lying. It was so annoying for Malory to keep going on and on about how guilty she felt and how perfect the timing was to not lie but then keep doing it. Another thing that annoyed me was the SUPER Christian overtones, the family was evil because the kidnapped a kid not cause they didn't believe in god I even had to Google the author in the middle to figure out if I had accidentally borrowed a Christian novel. The whole part of the husband being in love with Malory and wanting them to run away made no sense because I felt like he was barely in the book. Two awkward interactions don't really lead to a lets runway together moment and having him watch her sleep just seems like a cop out. The ghost being a different ghost was kind of a cool point and I feel like the clues worked well to lead to both conclusion. keeping Teddy as a boy even after they left upstate New York and no one was suspicious was just weird and unnecessary, and that coupled with the constant reference to JK rowling makes me a little more then suspicious of the author's intentions. </Spoiler>

Content Warnings

magellen's review against another edition

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hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

As an ex-nanny, there are certain parts of this book that ring very true. Then there's portions where woof this female mc is written by a man.
The book was also oddly dated - the first Harry Potter mention was surprising, but by the point the mc was praising its author's talent (😒) I thought I'd picked up a much older book but nope. 2022 publish date. Also the 'oh my god you like star warrrrs what a nerd!' bit was like...buddy, no one has thought that in decades.

Much of the book is a red herring - like literally the book takes some sharp turns in the back quarter that peel it entirely away from the first mystery. And like...yeah? I guess the bread crumbs are there, amongst the weird disdain lacing nearly every character.

Like...its not terrible? But it squicked me out more than once with author choices that like Mmmmm frankly, make me feel his bad vibes, much like a largely abandoned plot point from the beginning of the novel.
I wouldn't recommend it to a friend or read it again, but if you're shooting for a reading goal eh, it is a book.

Content Warnings

bookswithbethx's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

chris_reads's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.25

Content Warnings

spookily's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Content Warnings

whatathymeitwas's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? It's complicated

4.0

Well that was a trip, I kept thinking I knew what was going on and boy, was I wrong. I liked this quite a bit. It does have its issues, but the fact that it was a well written, unique story, pretty much held my attention. I also appreciated that it was presented with artwork within, that was refreshing. Overall I enjoyed it.

Content Warnings

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