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madamenovelist's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Death, Fatphobia, Sexism, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, and Violence
_alyssar_'s review against another edition
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
chaos_na_regale's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Misogyny, and Death of parent
cozywithraven's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, and Cultural appropriation
Minor: Slavery
ailsaod's review against another edition
- 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
2.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Toxic friendship, and Classism
Minor: Child death
kaziaroo's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
It's a shame to see that children's stories still rely on fatphobia and making fun of "ugly" people for humour, and there was a lot of stereotyping of what "good" and "evil" people look like – although a lot of this is critiqued by the narrative, there were some blurred lines: for example, while we are shown that being mean to Dot about her fatness is bad, the author also mentions her size nearly every time she appears, and her size and appetite makes up most of her characterisation. Thankfully, there wasn't a hooked nose in sight, unlike in the film.
While the plot dragged a bit in places, I really enjoyed the characters in this book and loved the portrayal of a character's descent into madness and the protagonists' respective identity crises. It was a really fun, if dark, read.
Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Death, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Lesbophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Mental illness
saskiajva's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.25
Graphic: Animal death, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Physical abuse, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, and War
samantha_06x's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The book does a good job of making you as a reader become invested in Sophie despite her questionable decisions and ultimately want a happy ending for the 2 main characters.
Lost a star as
As well as this when linking being evil to ugliness there will always be some issues as the concept of ugliness is inherently racist/abelist/fat-phobic. I don't think this was handled well with
Although the book is written for a younger audience I think anyone who enjoys fantasy books like Harry Potter will also enjoy this book.
Moderate: Body shaming and Fatphobia
Minor: Child death, Death, Homophobia, Sexism, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent
chrisljm's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Stalking, and Fire/Fire injury
rumireads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.75
- I haven't encountered a book so viciously fatphobic in at least a decade
- the way it sexualised 12 year olds is absolutely disgusting (I can see why they aged the characters up for the movie)
- weirdly homophobic as well. kids calling each other gay as an insult might be accurate but it's certainly not something that I'd like to model for them??
- I think this author has a reeeealy poor opinion of women
please don't give/recommend this series to the youths, it's genuinely awful towards most kinds of people
Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Fatphobia, Homophobia, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Gaslighting
Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Torture, Blood, and Kidnapping