Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - Ready Player One

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

21 reviews

olive_lol's review against another edition

adventurous funny lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

To me, one of the biggest appeals of this book is the world it creates. It intertwines old video games and futuristic technology in a compelling way. If you're a fan of references to 80s pop culture and classic video games, you'll probably like this book.

A few parts in the middle felt like they were rushed over to maintain the story's momentum, but other than that the pacing is pretty good.

Spoiler

The ending wrapped the story up nicely. It might be a bit too clean for some, but I still enjoyed it.

Overall, I liked the story and loved the world it's set in.

Content Warnings

danka66's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

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wesleyreads's review against another edition

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fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.0

The writing style was very dry, at times cringy, at the level of a teenager. I was bored throughout almost the entire book. Many descriptive words are used and re-used a lot throughout a chapter and the whole book, sometimes even within a page. Often the only description given to a place/thing is that it looks like [insert 80s reference]. The pacing was off, there were large parts of the book where nothing really happened but there were massive detailed unnecessary descriptions that added nothing to the plot or character development. When there were finally scenes that were supposed to drive the plot forward, they were described in a rushed pace without any tension, making them fall flat.

Spoiler

(spoiler warning for this paragraph:)
The characters themselves lacked depth, were unlikable, with the main character being the worst. He was self-involved, arrogant, transphobic and fatphobic, and way too good at 80's pop culture knowledge and playing video games to be believable. Allegedly he had dozens of complete movies, video games and tv shows as well as this whole 'Almanak' memorised. As in, their entire scripts, all the words, in their entirety. He also pulls off some elaborate stunts which are left unexplained (e.g. after being detained at one point he simply hacks into the system of this highly secured building to let himself literally walk out, conveniently avoiding any security). His romance was clumsily done (and included our 'hero' obsessively stalking his love interest) and added nothing to the plot. The deceased inventor of the OASIS, who for some unknown (plot hole?!) reasons after his death set out a competition for all OASIS players to go on a quest and ultimately win ownership of the OASIS, was widely regarded as a hero, yet many of the descriptions of him were about how hard he was to work with and how rude he was?? None of the characters experience any growth. Two Japanese sidecharacters are portrayed as racist stereotypes.

To be fair, I don't know much of the 80's pop culture. But the book is clearly written in order to show off the author's extensive 80s pop culture knowledge as there are so many references per page that it gets extremely repetitive.

The worldbuilding is interesting but since a lot of time is focused on describing OASIS and its technology, the dystopian state of the world is left unexplained.

Overall, this book is just bad. Would only recommend for people who love 80's pop culture or are interested in the way the fictional technology of the OASIS functions.

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jasminrain's review

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adventurous fast-paced

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

4.5

I really enjoyed this book. I think it's a very beautiful portrayal of the gaming community and an ode to pop culture. It was researched really well and it was just an absolute joy to immerse myself to the story even though I have little to no connection to the world.

I was a bit hesitant to read the book having seen the film, but the storyline was actually quite different to the film adaptation and brought more layers to the story. I listened to the audiobook read by Wil Wheaton and it just really brought the story to life in all the best ways possible.

All this being said, there was some problematic language and transphobia that were left completely unaddressed, which I found really problematic considering the target age and audience of this book. So not a five star but really good read.

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tisi5247's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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eli_jw's review against another edition

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adventurous hopeful medium-paced

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

3.5

The story itself was interesting, and the book was at its best when it was focusing on the quest and all the nostalgia that came with it. Unfortunately the characterisation and dialog were both really, really terrible. Every time Parzival and Art3mis spoke I wanted to throw the book out the window, honestly. Overall an entertaining but also uniquely frustrating read.

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jessthanthree's review against another edition

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adventurous informative lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

ishouldbereading's review

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adventurous tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

zakcebulski's review against another edition

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adventurous tense slow-paced

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

0.25

Spoiler

Yeah, this book is not for me. This review is going to be very... very ranty and more than a little discombobulated. This review is also going to be VERY vulgar, so, if you are sensitive to that, then please do not read.

I read this book 10-11 years ago, and I remember loving it. I found a used copy and I thought it would be fun to go through this one again and relive some of the feeling that I loved back in the day. Now, I don't know if I read it more in depth now, or, if I have just matured a bit in general. But, holy fuck dude, this book is soooooo not for me.

First, I cannot stand Wade- the main character. This dude is fucking insufferable if not for anything more than his general temperament and his weirdly manipulative incel like reaction to rejection?
He confesses his love to another character- Art3mis- and she does not reciprocate the feelings- sure, a bummer, but, a totally normal thing.
Wade then talks about how "winning the money is more important to her than he is", which is just the most manipulative shit around. And then, when she talks about how she could save the world if she won the OASIS he replies "how fuckin' noble of you". Dawg, are you serious?
And, what the fuck is up with the talks about this dude being a virgin? Stop? He is 18 in this book- why is this a point of discussion more than once? Why is it a fucking discussion point at all? Who gives a shit? Just... stop?
I don't understand the obsession with people's obsession with virginity- but, whatever at this point.
And, Wade has, one of the most incelliest incel comments in the history of incel behavior- "The female of the species has always found me repellent."
What.
The.
Fuck.
I am going to go ahead and put this out there. If every girl you talk to does not like you... then you are the problem.
FUCCCCCK I hate Wade.
Do we want to fucking discuss how he talks about using a fucking sex doll? And how he references to a passage in this stupid ass book he uses as a guide for life about how James Halliday also masturbated alot and so it's fine? What a weird fucking inclusion, Cline.

I absolutely cannot stand the amount of pop culture references within this goddamn book.
We get it. 80s. The. FUCKING. NINETEEN. MOTHERFUCKING. 80s. DO YOU GET IT?? Holy shit. This book came off as little more to me than an overindulgent masturbatory exploration of Ernest Cline's love for the 80s where he just proves that he knows so fucking much about the 1980s you wouldn't even believe it. And, it is every fucking page. It is just written in such an unbelievable way, too. Some super obscure thing from the 80s? Oh you bet your bottom dollar that our boy Wade knows exactly what it is because, I mean, obviously he does. This guy is SO fucking cool and SO fucking prepared! Hell yeah Wade. GODDAMMIT.
This shit is so fucking annoying is just where I am at when I think about this fucking book. How flippantly people talk about this stuff "oh, what're you doing" "Just brushed up on some old- coin ops". Fuck. Off. The amount of eye rolling I did in this book is beyond compare. We are really, truly supposed to believe that an 18 year old kid has the entirety of fucking WarGames memorized? Jesus Christ.
When Aech and Wade "flex" their knowledge on another gunter (don't even get me fucking started) it is the most cringe inducing scene fucking hell.
But, the worst scene is by far... by fucking FAR when Wade opts to go and fucking stalk Art3mis after they stop talking and he send her flowers and all of this shit and then goes to her castle complex and holds a boombox over his head to play "In Your Eyes" by Peter Gabriel because- what's that? You guessed it.... MOTHERFUCKIN 80s REFERENCE, FUCKER- it might be one of my least favorite scenes in books this year.
This shit could have been so fucking cool. But, it wasn't, it missed the mark so much by fucking flooding so many goddamn references to the 80s to the point where I wonder why Ernest Cline didn't just write a book entitled "The 80s: A Cultural Exploration" because that is clearly what he wanted to write.

And why... why why why why why why why why why why why was Aech's big reveal of being a black lesbian a reveal at all? I guess the whole idea is to say "people feel like that can't be themselves", but, really? That falls flat when this is a big reveal that is not at all explored at all. Goddammit. What a piece of shit "twist" this was. To me, it doesn't come off as representation if it is a bait and switch like did Cline really think "hmm, I am going to get the readers to love this character and then reveal him to be a her" and think that that counts as representation? It really rubs me the worst kind of way.
And Art3mis? Could have been such a great character, but you know what we should do instead? Relegate her to love interest, stalking target and lady in need of a big strong man aka mother fucking Wade to come through and use his brain knowledge about the fucking 1980s to show how fucking RADICAL he is. And, I am giving absolutely zero fucking points for Wade accepting Art3mis even though she has a *GASP* port wine birthmark. She is described as Pro-tip- accepting someone for their appearance doesn't make you an absolutely wonderful person.

I am going to go on record and say that having a billionaire die and leave 240,000,000,000 not to the starving people of the world, but rather hidden where it might never be found is the pinnacle of why we should eat the fucking rich. I don't know why this should be lauded? The guy had the means to kinda sorta even START to unfuck parts of the world and instead he opted, posthumously, to say "good fucking luck you little peasants!". I fucking loathed this goddamn plot. Ohhhh the big bad guy works for a big bad corporation? Get it? Do you get it? DO YOU FUCKING UNDERSTAND??? CORPORATIONS ARE BAD!
We know. We fucking understand what you're saying.
There are authors who have re-written scenes and whole portions of books so that they can undo or rectify a plot hole.
The dude Ernie C? Nahhhhh can't be fucking bothered doing that. This guy has no time- he has to tune his boombox while waxing his fucking DeLorean while reciting the entirety of The Breakfast Club while voting for Walter Mondale while listening to Madonna because fucking 19 goddamn mother fucking 80s!
Instead, our guy? He has an ace up his white jacket sleeve from the Thriller album cover- Deus Ex Machina.
Need to get out of a pickle? Don't want to do the work to make things make sense? EZ PZ just have an extra life granted for a perfect game of Pac-Man! No one else in the history of the OASIS did that? DON'T QUESTION IT!
Need some hyper obscure 1980s knowledge to get you out of a jam? Well, luckily for me, I actually can recite every moment of the 1980s from memory because I studied it all while bored one day, so, I have it!

If there is one thing I can commend Cline on it is his complete and unabashed dedication to the death of subtlety. This book read as the worst fucking kind of overindulgent gatekeeping fanfiction masquerading as a book.
I hated this book, I think that much is clear.
I need to stop writing before I have a goddamn conniption.
Fuck this book. Don't waste your time with this trash. This may legitimately be my least favorite book I have ever had the displeasure of reading.

Content Warnings

natalie_rosemary's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging inspiring tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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