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valpyre's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
[audiobook]
2.5 stars
i gotta say, the immense fatphobia and ableist language pretty much soured this entire book for me.
i found the parts past the halfway mark the most interesting, basically most of the parts where things are being revealed and bishop collected concrete information. but overall this was super tedious to me, even with the reveal/explanation of the bigger picture.
2.5 stars
i gotta say, the immense fatphobia and ableist language pretty much soured this entire book for me.
i found the parts past the halfway mark the most interesting, basically most of the parts where things are being revealed and bishop collected concrete information. but overall this was super tedious to me, even with the reveal/explanation of the bigger picture.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Child death, and Murder
Moderate: Ableism, Torture, Grief, Drug abuse, and Blood
Minor: Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault
tiredcath's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-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
3.0
3.5 more likely.
I can’t deny this book is a really fun read.
When it’s good, it’s very good. It’s fast and tense and gripping. There are so many questions and interweaving stories that practically force you to keep reading. I just have to know how this ends.
The twist was surprisingly good. I had a weird suspicion it was going to end very lukewarmly because the premise was so good but I was happy with the ending and satisfied with the reveal of the killer.
I’ve never truly read a mystery, so I was surprised at how much I liked putting the pieces together and completing the puzzle along with Aiden.
[Very mild spoiler]
However, there’s a lot about this book that falls short. The number one reason this couldn’t be a 5 star read was the insane amount of fatphobic, ablest, and ageist comments littered throughout the book. I felt particularly... icky, during chapter eleven. (If you know, you know). A lot of the language when describing characters or how Aiden feels inside his host is very repetitive or downright insulting. He constantly talks about how slow or weak or difficult it is to be in his host bodies or goes on about their physical strength. At some point, it was like, “okay we get it! You’re able bodied again!”
The “villains” are a bit cartoonish but not enough to put me off. With the exception of two, there’s not one character I cared about. Found interesting? Yes. Cared for? Not really. This isn’t the book if you’re a reader for prefers characters driven stories. This is purely plot.
All in all, the book is a fun fast read. It’s very atmospheric and easily pulls you in with the initial first chapter. It’s not too complicated but has great “gasping” moments where I felt like I needed to read scenes other again to appreciate them. But I do feel like this book could’ve gone through some major editing. The third half of the book falls slightly short, after you understand the rules you want it to move a bit quicker, and for Turton to be finished with describing every characters’ physique.
— SPOILER —
why was the plague doctor’s name Oliver? I absolutely hated that.
I can’t deny this book is a really fun read.
When it’s good, it’s very good. It’s fast and tense and gripping. There are so many questions and interweaving stories that practically force you to keep reading. I just have to know how this ends.
The twist was surprisingly good. I had a weird suspicion it was going to end very lukewarmly because the premise was so good but I was happy with the ending and satisfied with the reveal of the killer.
I’ve never truly read a mystery, so I was surprised at how much I liked putting the pieces together and completing the puzzle along with Aiden.
[Very mild spoiler]
However, there’s a lot about this book that falls short. The number one reason this couldn’t be a 5 star read was the insane amount of fatphobic, ablest, and ageist comments littered throughout the book. I felt particularly... icky, during chapter eleven. (If you know, you know). A lot of the language when describing characters or how Aiden feels inside his host is very repetitive or downright insulting. He constantly talks about how slow or weak or difficult it is to be in his host bodies or goes on about their physical strength. At some point, it was like, “okay we get it! You’re able bodied again!”
The “villains” are a bit cartoonish but not enough to put me off. With the exception of two, there’s not one character I cared about. Found interesting? Yes. Cared for? Not really. This isn’t the book if you’re a reader for prefers characters driven stories. This is purely plot.
All in all, the book is a fun fast read. It’s very atmospheric and easily pulls you in with the initial first chapter. It’s not too complicated but has great “gasping” moments where I felt like I needed to read scenes other again to appreciate them. But I do feel like this book could’ve gone through some major editing. The third half of the book falls slightly short, after you understand the rules you want it to move a bit quicker, and for Turton to be finished with describing every characters’ physique.
— SPOILER —
why was the plague doctor’s name Oliver? I absolutely hated that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism
Moderate: Fatphobia
iviarelle's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I really wanted to like this. I tried. I gave it every chance I could find it in me to give.
I just kinda can't. And it's for one primary and one secondary reason.
Firstly, and most obviously, this book doesn't offer its female characters any depth. Every woman on the page is a one note tune. Even in the twists that involve a woman, they're the most overused and unsubtle kind of tropes. If depth is attributed to a woman, it's only through telling us she's more, not by showing us. And that's a problem.
The second problem is... Less widely recognized. The men in this story don't get a whole lot of depth either, which is a little obfuscated by the much wider range of types of men that exist in the story. But, some of those men are horrific tropes walking.
Take Ravencourt: every moment spent with him is spent thinking about how fat he is. Almost every paragraph includes some remark about shameful gross obesity or how difficult his being shamefully obese makes it to walk down a flat hallway. While it's true that being fat is hard, there's WAY too much judgement and downright fatphobia or fatmisia in every line of the parts where he's mentioned.
Take the drug dealing doctor, the privileged rapist whose mother buys his way out of trouble again and again... It's all part of a pattern and not one that flatters the author's sender of creativity or knowledge of human nature.
You could argue that the point of the story is to be flat and unsubtle, but I don't buy it. I think this could have been much more interesting if the author had given a damn. And giving a damn is the least we should expect from people or books these days.
I just kinda can't. And it's for one primary and one secondary reason.
Firstly, and most obviously, this book doesn't offer its female characters any depth. Every woman on the page is a one note tune. Even in the twists that involve a woman, they're the most overused and unsubtle kind of tropes. If depth is attributed to a woman, it's only through telling us she's more, not by showing us. And that's a problem.
The second problem is... Less widely recognized. The men in this story don't get a whole lot of depth either, which is a little obfuscated by the much wider range of types of men that exist in the story. But, some of those men are horrific tropes walking.
Take Ravencourt: every moment spent with him is spent thinking about how fat he is. Almost every paragraph includes some remark about shameful gross obesity or how difficult his being shamefully obese makes it to walk down a flat hallway. While it's true that being fat is hard, there's WAY too much judgement and downright fatphobia or fatmisia in every line of the parts where he's mentioned.
Take the drug dealing doctor, the privileged rapist whose mother buys his way out of trouble again and again... It's all part of a pattern and not one that flatters the author's sender of creativity or knowledge of human nature.
You could argue that the point of the story is to be flat and unsubtle, but I don't buy it. I think this could have been much more interesting if the author had given a damn. And giving a damn is the least we should expect from people or books these days.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Infidelity, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Self harm, Torture, and Violence
Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
anair02's review against another edition
2.0
The set up was intriguing but the execution just didn't do it for me.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Ableism
perditorian's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia
Moderate: Body shaming and Ableism
Minor: Sexual assault
mariekejee's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
so I liked basically 70% of this book a lot. I'll start with that part. First of all, I think the concept of this book is so clever and, although it can be confusing at times, I thought it was very fun as well. I think it was also written well, although I do have some problems with the ending. I'll get to that later.
I loved the mysteries! I'm generally not a fan of thrillers, but this one kept me hooked and I enjoyed it quite a lot. That is not to say that it was super thriller-y, but there were definitely parts of the book that felt very suspenseful. I loved the chapters where the narrator inhabited the body of the cop - although partly because of how nice it was to read about a character with actual friends.
I also liked how the narrator changed in each body, although it could've been incorporated more into the voice or tone of the narrator.
So to the things I don't like: the ending, and the fatphobia. I'll start with the fatphobia: I understand the reasons why the writer wrote a (fat) character with mobility issues, and I have absolutely no problems with writers including fat characters. In fact, I welcome it! But the way this was written was honestly disgusting.
Ravencourt is a very fat man, and suffers from mobility issues because of it. Throughout his chapters, the narrator wants to let us know roughly every page how hard this is for him, how much he hates it, how disgusting he feels. I understand that part of the awful comments are supposed to be internalised shame/fatphobia from the character itself, but there is a lot of it, and some of it really cannot be attributed to Ravencourt himself.
" 'I hear you crying,' I say, attempting to push a sympathetic smile onto my face. It's a difficult thing to achieve with somebody else's mouth, especially when there's so much flesh to move around."
And this is a relatively tame quote, at that. Not only does the narrator keep making fat jokes, or comments on how hard it is to be in a fat body with mobility issues, or how this is possibly the worst thing to happen to him; throughout Ravencourts chapters, the other people at Blackheath all seem to need to include the word "fat" as a slur when mentioning him, betraying just how "important" of a character trait (or flaw, rather) it seems to be.
Ravencourt is basically every fat stereotype in one, except that he is smart and vain. I really wish the writer had written a fat character without mocking him to the extent he does. He doesn't have to be a nice, or good, or decent character - most are not - just not the lazy fatphobic stereotype that he is.
Another gripe with the book is the ending. Up until chapter 55, I loved it. There were plotholes that needed adressing, and they were all adressed in the end, but it really left me a bit hollow. I thought I would feel at least satisfied when the murder was resolved, but I really felt shitty afterwards. For the most part I was able to follow along with the narrator and figure some things out for myself, but the final reveal felt really sudden.
This is basically just a long, ranty list explaining I didn't enjoy the ending. Although it might just be preference on my part.
So why give it 3.5 stars? It deals with some interesting themes, the concept is really cool and it kept me entertained throughout most of it. If it weren't for the fatphobia and the ending that left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth, it would've been a five stars read for sure.
I loved the mysteries! I'm generally not a fan of thrillers, but this one kept me hooked and I enjoyed it quite a lot. That is not to say that it was super thriller-y, but there were definitely parts of the book that felt very suspenseful. I loved the chapters where the narrator inhabited the body of the cop - although partly because of how nice it was to read about a character with actual friends.
I also liked how the narrator changed in each body, although it could've been incorporated more into the voice or tone of the narrator.
So to the things I don't like: the ending, and the fatphobia. I'll start with the fatphobia: I understand the reasons why the writer wrote a (fat) character with mobility issues, and I have absolutely no problems with writers including fat characters. In fact, I welcome it! But the way this was written was honestly disgusting.
Ravencourt is a very fat man, and suffers from mobility issues because of it. Throughout his chapters, the narrator wants to let us know roughly every page how hard this is for him, how much he hates it, how disgusting he feels. I understand that part of the awful comments are supposed to be internalised shame/fatphobia from the character itself, but there is a lot of it, and some of it really cannot be attributed to Ravencourt himself.
" 'I hear you crying,' I say, attempting to push a sympathetic smile onto my face. It's a difficult thing to achieve with somebody else's mouth, especially when there's so much flesh to move around."
And this is a relatively tame quote, at that. Not only does the narrator keep making fat jokes, or comments on how hard it is to be in a fat body with mobility issues, or how this is possibly the worst thing to happen to him; throughout Ravencourts chapters, the other people at Blackheath all seem to need to include the word "fat" as a slur when mentioning him, betraying just how "important" of a character trait (or flaw, rather) it seems to be.
Ravencourt is basically every fat stereotype in one, except that he is smart and vain. I really wish the writer had written a fat character without mocking him to the extent he does. He doesn't have to be a nice, or good, or decent character - most are not - just not the lazy fatphobic stereotype that he is.
Another gripe with the book is the ending. Up until chapter 55, I loved it. There were plotholes that needed adressing, and they were all adressed in the end, but it really left me a bit hollow. I thought I would feel at least satisfied when the murder was resolved, but I really felt shitty afterwards. For the most part I was able to follow along with the narrator and figure some things out for myself, but the final reveal felt really sudden.
This is basically just a long, ranty list explaining I didn't enjoy the ending. Although it might just be preference on my part.
So why give it 3.5 stars? It deals with some interesting themes, the concept is really cool and it kept me entertained throughout most of it. If it weren't for the fatphobia and the ending that left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth, it would've been a five stars read for sure.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Fatphobia, Suicide, and Violence
Moderate: Drug use, Rape, and Sexual violence
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