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samflowerv6's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
“Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl.
Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl. For a long time Cool Girl offended me. I used to see men – friends, coworkers, strangers – giddy over these awful pretender women, and I’d want to sit these men down and calmly say: You are not dating a woman, you are dating a woman who has watched too many movies written by socially awkward men who’d like to believe that this kind of woman exists and might kiss them. I’d want to grab the poor guy by his lapels or messenger bag and say: The bitch doesn’t really love chili dogs that much – no one loves chili dogs that much! And the Cool Girls are even more pathetic: They’re not even pretending to be the woman they want to be, they’re pretending to be the woman a man wants them to be. Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version – maybe he’s a vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every fucking thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like: “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point fuck someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”)”
“There’s something disturbing about recalling a warm memory and feeling utterly cold.”
“Tampon commercial, detergent commercial, maxi pad commercial, windex commercial - you'd think all women do is clean and bleed.”
“It’s a very difficult era in which to be a person, just a real, actual person, instead of a collection of personality traits selected from an endless Automat of characters.”
Moderate: Gaslighting, Vomit, Domestic abuse, Blood, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Stalking, and Miscarriage
maloriblake's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Body horror, Stalking, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Blood, Death of parent, Suicide attempt, Sexual violence, Self harm, Physical abuse, Medical content, and Domestic abuse
sarah984's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Gaslighting, Infidelity, Dementia, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Stalking, Blood, Death, Vomit, Alcohol, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, and Terminal illness
Minor: Miscarriage, Pregnancy, Classism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Confinement, and Incest
Incest is alluded to several times but does not actually take place in the story._fallinglight_'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
3.75
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Medical content, Mental illness, Sexism, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Sexual content, and Infidelity
Minor: Pregnancy, Death of parent, and Dementia
becca_w_'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
3.75
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit
Moderate: Fatphobia and Pedophilia
Minor: Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, and Kidnapping
rachaelallyn'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
4.0
Graphic: Abandonment, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infertility, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, and Suicide attempt
featherbrain'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
4.0
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Sexual content, Blood, Rape, Cancer, Dementia, Death, Death of parent, Medical content, Misogyny, Vomit, and Miscarriage
magicalsocks'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
4.0
“Love should require both partners to be their very best at all times. Unconditional love is an undisciplined love, and as we all have seen, undisciplined love is disastrous.”
“You two are the most fucked-up people I have ever met, and I specialize in fucked-up people.”
my god these white people are fucking craaaaaaaaaaaaazy.
devoured this completely within the span of four-ish hours and even with my advance knowledge of all the major plot point and spoilers it fully completely absolutely lived up to and surpassed the hype. 1 star taken off because
that said, maybe the first book i’ve read where i can so viscerally hate these characters for their ego and self-righteousness and inner monologue and simultaneously see some of my own flaws reflected within them so clearly. but maybe that’s just because i’m a virgo.
gillian flynn is a GENIUS.
Moderate: Infidelity, Medical content, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Child abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Cursing, Dementia, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Blood, Body shaming, Death, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and Cancer
Minor: Alcoholism, Incest, and Addiction