Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

97 reviews

lottselgar's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious 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? Yes

3.75

meredith, listen. i am free for u always

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Drug use, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Minor: Biphobia and Blood

sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-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? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Death, Drug abuse, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Violence, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Eating disorder

tinstae's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The reveal was predictable, but not so much what came after it. The slight predictability and how slow it felt at some parts, combined with what can be difficult reading if like me you're unfamiliar with theatrical and Shakespearean terminology is what brings this rating down. But otherwise, this is an interesting book and I'm glad to have read it. This might just be personal taste, but I'm not too sure it quite lives up to the hype of its online fandom.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexism, and Sexual content

Minor: Eating disorder, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Vomit

cdt96's review against another edition

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

M.L Rio writes betrayal, loss, guilt and love excellently the characters are well rounded yet perfectly represent their given archetypes. Overall an excellent book 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Addiction, Biphobia, Bullying, Cursing, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Outing, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

moonbeamdmercutio's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Addiction, Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexual content, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Self harm

pagesofkenzie's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, and Injury/Injury detail

danicakvcs's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Death, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Bullying, Cursing, and Suicide

Minor: Eating disorder, Misogyny, and Vomit

kitanda's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, and Murder

Minor: Biphobia, Misogyny, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

liilykke's review against another edition

dark tense fast-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? Yes

2.5

I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone. Too many misogynist quotes and overall icky writing. 
It tried to do what the queen TSH is doing but flopped, hard.
There was no need for 7 characters if you're only gonna explore the 2,5 of them. Also I didn't really care about anyone in particular. 
Why was Meredith treated so badly?? It really took me out of the mediocre plot...
The pacing was fine I guess, but the writing was borderline bad.
Some honorable quotes

"Hm" she said, gaze descending slowly from the top of my head to my feet with the cold scrutiny of a slave trader at auction.

Excuse me 🤨
Also

That's rich coming from a world class attention whore.

And sa warning for the next one:

Me: "you make it sound a lot like date r*pe"
Alexander: "Do as I've said and it won't come to that"

The way I could have lived my life without reading a book containing the one of the worst writing imaginable.
Last one 

Between the six of us we'd called Meredith some version of "slut" a thousand times, but this was horrifically different. 

I really can't fathom how can anyone disregard all of this and more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny and Murder

Minor: Eating disorder

tinyjude's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

4.0

I am conflicted, to say the least. (Also this is a mess but it is 2 am, so my brain juice is at its limit)

Pretentious, dramatic and passionate theatre kids who bring to life shakespearean plays both in ans offstage, are a tangled mess of emotions and riddles while also being quite flat characters. I liked the writing, it was fitting for the theme and atmosphere. I loved some passages and use of the plays throughout the story to obscure and bring light to the characters' feelings. I enjoyed the drama and the story. I had my doubts about dark academia books but this one made it for me and now I know I yearn for more books with theatre actors as protagonists being unhinged and frustrating. I also liked the references to some motifs in Shakespeare's plays (ghosts, lies, blood, guilt, madness). As a Shakespeare enthusiastic, especially his tragedies and villains, I am content.

The parts that mostly bother me are for example, what exactly did send Alexander spiraling into overdose? Was it the guilt in all cases? Did Richard haunt them so bad as a ghost like in Macbeth? Did Wren knew all along it was James? I needed to see them descend into madness more.

At some point I truly thought I was being lied by the internet and my own biased analysis, which always searches for some homoerotic subtext, because HELL the moments between Oliver and James were sparse. Those weren't even crumbs, I was holding the ship with a thread and both eyes closed, going by instinct. So yeah, the slow-burn was way too much, as it didn't deliver the relief you would expect after so many "heteronormative looking" scenes (idk how to describe it bc the book had me doubting my bisexual suspicions and then rooting for a poly relationship between Oliver Meredith and James). (What do you mean a botherly kiss that is not quite brotherly? but yeah, only one brief kiss, nothing else, no more scenes between them that hint at their feelings before or after halloween. I am not even asking for a love confession or any grand gesture, but more subtle scenes between them, more tension... idk i went insane, i am in pain but i also apprecite how complicated their relationship is, as they were best friends, brothers, partners in crime, lovers, enemies...). Or more about the internal turmoil they had going on realizing they are queer, which we barely got because they didn't want to think about it... I wanted to see how they come to terms with their sexuality, the guilt and love they felt (this specially)!!!

I probably forget many things I want to say but frankly I have been reading 3h non-stop and cried at the ending, so cut me some slack.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism