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victaphone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Eating disorder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual content, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt
Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, and Fire/Fire injury
issyd23's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
NB Personally disagreed with 90% of the protagonists’ thoughts & actions + her critiques of feminism, consent & cancel culture in a post me too era - but worth reading.
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
breekeeler's review against another edition
3.0
Moderate: Fatphobia and Fire/Fire injury
amanda02143'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
4.5
From that point, the last third of the book seemed almost like an entirely different book. The plot is rushed to a resolution and all of the complexity that was pain-stakingly developed is thrown out with the fire.
Sid and her partner, Vlad and his wife all work things out and everyone just carries on?? Most implausible of all, even dinosaur professors save to the cloud these days. Too neat and tidy.
Graphic: Infidelity and Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Suicide attempt, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Fatphobia, Vomit, and Alcohol
Will definitely look forward to future work from this author!coffeecass's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, and Fatphobia
rachaeldamms'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
5.0
Graphic: Body shaming and Alcohol
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Fatphobia
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Alcohol
Moderate: Drug use, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Pregnancy
noahd's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Fatphobia
Minor: Sexual assault
elleemgee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Alcohol
Moderate: Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Suicide attempt
mangofandango's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
The narrator is frustrating and hard to read sometimes. She is irritating in the same way the cultural scripts and obsessions she stews in are irritating, her lens so cloudy with shame and body hatred and fear of aging that everything comes out sort of...gross and weird like it is inside her own head. It both makes me feel sorry for her and makes me want to...redirect her in some way. For all the sexy presentation of this book in premise and sort of lothario-looking cover, this isn't really a sexy story. The narrator is preoccupied by sex, but her experience of it in real life is always, again, sort of told in an off-putting way and she experiences it in ways that are more disappointing and self-conscious than anything else. She's also like, deeply weird about a lot of things...it goes some places I did not expect, and I guess that's all I will say to avoid spoilers.
I appreciate that it's both a literary-feeling and a light-feeling read, it was fun and clever and the allusions to Lolita are interesting to consider. There's some great lines and good, thoughtful stuff in here and I mostly enjoyed reading it. I just don't know where I land on how to feel about it, when all is said and done.
PS: there should be a content note here for various flavors of suspect, loaded, problematic sexual dynamics and situations, as this is a story about sex and power, gender, consent, etc. and like, a lot goes on?
Graphic: Confinement, Infidelity, and Sexual content
Moderate: Fatphobia