Reviews - Glitterland | The StoryGraph

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1.54k reviews for:

Glitterland

Alexis Hall

3.93 AVERAGE

wardegus's review against another edition

3.0

dark emotional funny medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

capyval's review against another edition

3.0

emotional funny hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Mixed feelings with this book. I thought the representation of depression was well done, almost as good as BoJack Horseman. I liked to also see Ash slowly challenging some of his ideas and thoughts, and I loved seeing him be just vulnerable (that actually made me cry). But, it's hard to ignore how awful Ash can be, mainly how classist and fatphobic he sounds at some points. With the first, I'm quite sure Alexis Hall does not agree with the character when he says the things he says. With the second I'm less sure, because fatphobia is still a socially acceptable type of discrimination, especially when it's "I don't care how the rest look, but I don't want to be fat". It's very disappointing that the characters never challenge this idea, especially because it was all mixed with it being the reason to reject a specific antidepressants that seem to be effective for Ash. Also, while Darian is often against some of the statements Ash makes (and, especially, that Niall does), and is not afraid to offer a different point of view, in the case of the fatphobia he agrees with Ash. Maybe Alexis Hall used to have fatphobic ideas and with time they changed those (the book is more than 10 years old), or maybe they didn't, and now Hall writes and publishes books with fat characters because it makes them look good, and there's a market for them... Maybe they never were fatphobic, and were just showing how imperfect Ash and Darian are. I guess we can't really know, or at least, I didn't find any clarification made by Hall regarding this.

All in all, I'm glad I only read this book after having already read other books by this author, which are much better than Glitterland. Otherwise, maybe I would have thought their books weren't for me.

Content Warnings