Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Devil Takes You Home by Gabino Iglesias

3 reviews

blacksphinx's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

I loved this story. Gabino Iglesias is an incredible writer, who could take an awful person like Mario and still make him a compelling protagonist. When given an opportunity to help pay off some of his child's medical debt by shooting a man in the back of the head, he doesn't hesitate for long and finds he enjoyed being a hit man. When later given the opportunity to rob a cartel truck and stealing their drug money for a $200,000 payout, he's all for it. But Iglesias makes you care about him, want to follow him on this heist.

There's some great stuff in this book. The discussions of religion are so real, so refreshing, and it's not even my culture and religion! The way characters dipped into and out of Spanish felt real, as someone who lives in an area with a high Mexican population. There amount of swearing in this novel is perfect, it always felt like actual people talking to each other. The supernatural horrors are just as bad as the things humans do to each other. One of the few things that I didn't like is that Mario spends a large portion of the book inside his own head, and all he can think about are his child and his wife and how he failed them in the same ways and it got repetitive, but I could live with that.

And then we get to that fucking ending. I hate it.

This entire book is a "shoot the shaggy dog" story and it made me feel like I had wasted 10 hours of my time.

This is a wonderful and beloved book for someone, but it is extremely not for me. 

Also, we are not messing around with the "murder", "gore", and "violence" tags. Consider this to be a Dead Dove Don't Eat warning.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Cancer, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Child death, Misogyny, Transphobia, and Deportation

shiftycow1313's review against another edition

I knew based on the description that this book was going to be dark, but it is DARK DARK DARK. I'll try to pick it up again someday when my head is in a better space.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ouijabroad's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

I slogged through this one. I feel like this happened for several reasons. The first one being that there’s sooooooooo much fluff before the “action” begins (I use action loosely and I’ll get to that). This book could have easily been a novella in my opinion and summed everything up much faster, however I still don’t think it would’ve been a worthy enough story to tell.

I knew going in that the characters weren’t likable and I’m fine with that. The thing is I didn’t care about them, the story they were telling or what happened to them. The beginning was sad and I had empathy for Mario’s financial struggles and how healthcare is a sick joke, but that’s about all I felt the entire book.

The messed up and sometimes (weirdly and randomly) even supernatural things that happened had no explanation and the violence was purely there to shock the reader. 

The author cannot write women, he is as bad as Stephen king. Any woman is just there to further plot and they're either reduced to their looks and bodies or viewed as a mother figure (or both like Stephanie!).  Also really loves telling us about fat folks because that totally adds to the story. And all the fat folks were objectively bad people. 

I didn’t dig his writing style; This author really likes to use similes at a distracting rate. 

Now, the “action” during the climax: it was such a dud. All this lead up and exposition with so many unexplained happenings, violence and then it’s just over. I can’t believe I spent so long trying to get through this one. I wish I had put this in the DNF pile.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Animal cruelty and Animal death