Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall

59 reviews

kathis_wonderland's review against another edition

challenging medium-paced

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

3.5

Paris Daillencourt Is about to Crumble by Alexis Hall is the second book in the Winner Bakes All series. Paris was entered by his flatmate into the baking competition to boost his self-esteem. There he meets Tariq, another contestant, and they start to date. However, Paris' anxiety and the pressure and opinions from the outside are too strong for the relationship to last. It is not easy for him to work through his troubles, but he realises that it might be worth it. 

After really liking Rosaline's story, I was excited to read Paris' story. However, I did not enjoy it as much as the first book. Even though I can relate to Paris' thoughts and troubles, he annoyed me. His anxiety was over the top and made me nervous while reading. He is poor and I feel so sorry for him, but I did not enjoy his behaviour. Tariq is a cutie, but he is desperately trying to kind of fix Paris, even though he says he does not. I am not 100% convinced that they are the perfect couple. 

It still was a nice read. I absolutely loved the diversity in the book. We rarely see a Muslim representation in books. Quite fitting that Ramadan is currently happening. However, I hated the religious bigotry happening in the book. 

The book was not bad, but I enjoyed the first one more. Nonetheless, I pre-ordered the next book in the series and am excited for it! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Islamophobia

Minor: Bullying, Sexual content, Blood, Religious bigotry, and Alcohol

mirandyli's review

lighthearted tense slow-paced

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

2.5

This book is about a rich white boy who annoys everyone with his crippling anxiety. He desperately needs therapy and SSRIs, which he doesn’t get until the last 20% of the book. No idea what the poc Muslim love interest with unending patience saw in him tbh.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Cancer, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Islamophobia, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

sdevs12's review

emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

Paris’ inner monologue felt very (sometimes too) familiar and I felt myself rooting for him to get the help he needed. Tariq was a sunshiny character but I wish we got to know him better. I didn’t always like or agree with the way he reacted to Paris’ anxiety and I’m happy he acknowledged that in the end.

I did feel like there was more baking in the first book which I missed in this one! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Moderate: Homophobia and Racism

ninjamuse's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Religious bigotry

themdash's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

moonylovesstars's review

adventurous funny hopeful lighthearted reflective relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Racism

vishnork's review

emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders and Abandonment

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Religious bigotry

adventuresinfantasy's review

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Racism and Religious bigotry

vagaybond's review

emotional sad tense

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I have a lot of baggage that this book poked at. I wanted to sympathize with the protagonist but the kissing without asking and the groping without asking are just not things that make a character likeable or relatable.

The mental illness stuff also seemed well above and beyond generalized anxiety disorder, IMO. But maybe wealthy cis men have a different experience with pathologization than I do. I've been diagnosed with BPD a few times over and feel doubtful that Paris didn't have some kind of cluster B thing going on. Also just applying 1 therapy and 1 medication just seemed like way too simple a fix and not representative of the reality of what interacting with the mental health care system is like.

I've got other stuff I typed out and then deleted but yeah. This is definitely my least favourite Alexis Hall book by a long shot.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Racism and Sexual assault

bzliz's review

emotional hopeful tense slow-paced

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

2.75

This was much tougher to get through than Rosaline’s story. Paris has severe undiagnosed anxiety and panic disorders and it was challenging to keep going. There’s a lot of spiraling in fits of anxiety that was minorly triggering for me and I don’t typically find that’s something I experience. 

Not only does Paris have real issues he needs to see a medical professional about but Tariq is trying to fix him without realizing it and without being equipped to help. On top of that, Paris keeps reaching out to his parents and gets nothing in return in a way that really hurt my heart. Honestly, my favorite character was the cat. 

The structure also suffered in my opinion, because there was so much to cover post-filming. There were relatively few mid-week scenes which made everything feel like a rinse and repeat of Paris buried so deeply in his own head that he can scarcely function. Over all, I didn’t hate it but I certainly wouldn’t read it again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Cursing and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Islamophobia

All the phobias and isms are from a particular contestant and from discussion surrounding the show on social media. Otherwise they are merely mentioned in the same way someone would say “I’m from X place, nothing can scare me.”