Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

People Like Us by Dana Mele

5 reviews

nickoliver's review against another edition

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

3.25

On the one hand, it was a bit predictable - I was able to figure out the exact nature of the plot twist way before the end -, and the characters and the way they acted was incredibly confusing to me sometimes. They often revealed things so nonchalantly as if they were no big deal and did things that seemed to go against what I'd been believed was their nature up until that point. It kind of felt like I was being gaslight by a book sometimes.

I also wasn't the biggest fan of the writing? It wasn't bad for the most part, but every once in a while, Mele would describe things in a way that made no sense. Here's an example:

But with every passing second, I feel a rising anxiety in the pit of my stomach, like I did the first time we kissed. It doesn't feel the same as those quick, crucial moments when Brie and I swirled together in Spencer's room, or the thousand times he and I flung ourselves at each other."

Who describes a make-out like that? "Swirled together"? "Flung ourselves at each other"? Moments like that just took me out of the story, because I just kept being taken aback by them. It just seemed like Mele tried to find ways to describe things without repeating herself, but without making sure the words actually meant what she thought they meant.

On the other hand, I had kind of fun reading this? It was a bit disappointing that the scavenger hunt mentioned in the synopsis didn't take up as much of the plot as I expected, because I was always very curious to see what new scandals it would reveal. I also kind of liked that some of the girls were queer. There was a bit too much cattiness and mean girls energy in this and friends being nasty to each other (which, to someone who hasn't had any meaningful friendship since childhood, has always confused me tremendously), but it didn't bother me quite as much as it usually would. (Possibly because Kay didn't talk about it all too much and always seemed to trivialise her mean streak.) 

So overall, while this wasn't a masterpiece and also very easy to figure out, I read it very quickly (admittedly, it did also have a very big font, which helped) and had fun for the most part. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Bullying, Death, Suicide, Grief, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual violence, and Animal death

Minor: Animal cruelty, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Vomit, and Car accident

about the sexual violence:

Someone sends nudes to their boyfriend, who then in turn sends them to some of his friends after their break-up, who send them to others, and so on. It leads to the girl dying by suicide due to the harassment she gets from that.

I wasn't entirely sure how to tag that otherwise.

quinn24's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Suicide, Violence, Suicide attempt, Car accident, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, and Eating disorder

Minor: Homophobia and Alcohol

alindberg's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia and Body shaming

kuromium's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.5

i liked this book a lot. i think the plot is interesting enough on its own but it has really good character development. it really felt like you were learning with the main character and trusting/mistrusting people with her. none of the characters are without flaw but that makes them so interesting. a lot of the time i didn’t agree with the main character’s choices but i understood why. the ending was fine, slightly rushed but still interesting. a quick read with very good storytelling.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Death, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Fatphobia and Homophobia

sallysimply's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This is probably perfect for fans of Pretty Little Liars and the like. It started out strong, but I could not get invested in the main character AT ALL, which made the entire thing a little tedious at times. The central mystery was interesting enough (though I knew who did it almost instantly), but all the layers of Kay's backstory felt unnecessary and dragged out, to the point that once we learned everything at the very end, I truly could not have cared less.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Fatphobia and Antisemitism