Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

83 reviews

fionamclary's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is beautifully written, and the threads of plot and character are expertly entwined and spooled out. The queer love triangle (arguably square, or even pentagon) slowly takes center stage with all the satisfaction of any good tragedy.

I just wish that the book had explored earlier times more. It is a staple of this genre to show the Golden Days, before everything went wrong, even if there were always hints of darkness. (Think The Secret History, or Babel.) For the first part of the book I was distracted by wondering what the dynamic of the seven was before 4th year, if something changed and why, and if they had ever been more than seven, given that we are told that Dellecher regularly cuts students from the program every year. It made the beginning of the story feel rather abrupt and meager, although this issue became increasingly less prominent as the story progressed.

In summary, I am gay and sad and relieved that I stopped being a theater kid in high school.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Sexism, Vomit, Murder, and Alcohol

Minor: Biphobia, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Brief depiction of a drug overdose

zeitfensterr's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

DAS ENDE???? DAS FUCKING ENDE??? ich hasse offene enden, aber holy shit SJUhdshzhdhxhxhbsncucuffeahUdhshud??? Ich will einen Band 2 😔

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Eating disorder

stratospheric's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Sexual harassment

iane_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cursing, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body horror, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, and Medical content

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Biphobia, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Transphobia, Vomit, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

lefthandlou's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-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

2.0

I wanted to like this book, I was so hopeful from the book description that it would be just my thing, but no. I hated it. It tried to be a Shakespearean Secret History and failed at both. None of the characters felt like real people, their motivations were ridiculous, and they were all selfish, narcissistic, self-obsessed assholes. Asshole characters are fine, I don’t have to like the characters to like the story, but the plot also just didn’t do anything for me. I think this is another book that could have been good, I liked the premise a lot and love an academic setting, but ultimately it just fell short for me. 

Also, even though the author is a woman, the depiction of Meredith in particular felt extremely misogynistic to me. All the women characters felt underdeveloped compared to the men, and the women only really exist to bolster the male drama. They rarely interact with each other, and when they do they treat each other badly. They are just unfleshed out tropes. And maybe that’s the point somehow, they each fill a typical Shakespearean female archetype, but if so it was very badly done. Wouldn’t pass the bechdel test, that’s for sure. 

Station Eleven did what this was trying to do with Shakespeare much, much better. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

teamoneil's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Alcohol

Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, and Sexism

Minor: Suicide

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad fast-paced

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

4.5

Despite being predictable, this was very engaging and entertaining. Reading along with a book club was fun! You don't need to be very familiar with Shakespeare to follow the plot, I've never read anything by Shakespeare and was not confused at all. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, and Medical trauma

sealbrecht's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Body shaming, Confinement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Medical content, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Eating disorder, Homophobia, and Vomit

mikathereviewer's review against another edition

2.0

First of all we have plays, mention of poetry and of course acting. 
Personally, the touch of a play while reading was really cool. We get dialogue only, acts and more. The last play I read was really fun so seeing one now again makes me remember that I didn't read them in a while. 
The acting was relatable as I am or rather was an actor myself. That's also the reason I wanted to read this book. Not 'cause of the Shakespeare and other historical stuff but the acting. 

Some parts were actually crazy/interesting to read about as the book didn't really had the 'it was boring/too slow' problem.
Some examples:
Scene I Act IX was so crazy. Like it felt like real betrayal but also not. And what did James even imagine? What was that aaaah. 
The II. Act was so sad. Especially scene II, I feel so bad for James.

I also think that Oliver has some character depth (Especially in the III. Act as we get to know his family)

The whole drama was the only reason I was still indulged into reading this. It kept me reading.



Since I didn't read the book for the historical stuff I got a bit irriated by the fact that Shakespeare got mentioned often. And with often I mean very often. I get it that's the theme/topic for Year 4 and our protagonists also play historical figures, but honestly it could have been mentioned a bit less and more story instead. It got too much that I, at some point, skipped the Shakespeare parts. 
Also the book isn't very original if over 50% of it is just Shakespeare. 

Never have I ever as an actor reinterpreted/recited my lines as first of all no one would understand, except me and secondly that's usually a thing poets do and not actors. The kids in this story did this and it made me feel weird. Just use your official lines and learn them properly. 

The characters were so weird sometimes and before someone tells me: Some theatre kids are actually weird. Yes SOME and that's no excuse to include only weird characters. 

We never got an explanation why Richard was so mad at some point. Never. Why was he? That apparently didn't happen the years before so that must have triggered something, but we never get any explanation. The other character also have no depth and they all fell flat (except Oliver, as mentioned above)

Meredith was such a useless character who was only depictured as a wh0re the whole time. 

They did use for real, without jokes, as sexual orientation 'sexually amphibious'

The ending was so predictable. It was right the person you would feel suspicious at first. The ending is nothing shocking. 

31. July 2024

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, and Sexism

Minor: Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, and Alcohol

boaabie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

I haven’t had a book make me emotional in a long time, the ending ripped out my heart and gave me hope, stomped on the hope and breathed new life into it all at once. 
The writing is beautiful, I can only hope to have a small amount of skill this author has to create such beautifully tragic scenes they have

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Blood, and Alcohol