Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

49 reviews

chelbelle122's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

Wow.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Racism, Torture, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

fionnapillow's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

0.25

I really would love it if we left the transgender plot twist at the end of horror stories behind. It’s exhausting. Young Christian junkie woman comes to nanny a wealthy woke atheist vegetarian family who drive Priuses to care for their child. The mother literally purchases a book for the very young child which includes instructions on oral and anal sex and sees no problem with it. The family is a joke, the author is depicting these parents as caricatures of how he sees liberal people. The child in the end turns out to be transgender, but no wait actually it’s just a poor little girl that was kidnapped and FORCED to transition by the evil parents and this poor child is just begging to be a girl. I think it’s fucking deplorable to use a dangerous political strawman in a horror novel. It’s not over though, the whimsical spiritual fortune teller next door is addicted to opium and is racist toward the main family’s Mexican lawn care providers. Everyone that is Christian is hot and fit, anyone not fitting that mold is fat or has something else wrong with them. Don’t recommend this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Fatphobia, Racism, and Transphobia

yvo_about_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

2.5

Finished reading: October 29th 2024

"When you eliminate the impossible, all that remains, however improbable, must be the truth."

I had a fantastic time reading this author's debut back when I read it in 2017, and I've been looking forward to read more of his writing ever since. I'm still not sure why it took me over two years to finally get to his second book Hidden Pictures... The blurb made it sound like a fitting read for Halloween month, and it was the perfect excuse to finally pick it up. Things started out well enough and I was really enjoying my time with this book despite some red flags. Sadly, the plot made a drastic turn around the 70-80% mark that completely ruined the story for me. Not only were the twists absolutely ridiculous, but they also left me with a bad taste in my mouth and the main gender-related twist was borderline offensive. Transphobia, racism, discrimination against atheists, fatphobia... This story seemed to have a particular right-wing political agenda, and this not only made me dislike certain characters but also ruined the reading experience for me. It's such a shame, because the premise itself is fantastic and I can't deny that I was really enjoying myself during most of the book despite the previously mentioned red flags present throughout the story. I also loved the illustrations, which really complemented the plot... I gave Hidden Pictures an extra star for them, but the rest pretty much ended in a trainwreck. I do hope his newest story has less of a political angle, because I will probably have to give up his writing otherwise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Infertility, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

lulibooks's review against another edition

challenging dark tense fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infertility, Racism, Blood, Kidnapping, Stalking, Car accident, Death of parent, and Murder

ravensalwaysreading's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

2.5

Too many plotholes and strange character interactions. What idiot tells a pair of murderers that she knew they had murdered? The main character was incredibly shallow from a writing aspect and as a person. Manic pixie dream girl except a vapid Christian version.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Fatphobia, Racism, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Stalking, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

joxinabox's review against another edition

 Full of Alt-Right dogwhistles with a transphobic as hell twist.

And yes, just because they don't outright say the word "Transgender" doesn't mean it's not transphobic. "Two leftist parents force the child they kidnapped to identify as a different gender" is obviously transphobic. Along with the comments about explaining Nonbinary identities being on the same level as explaining anal sex to a child? Yeah, not subtle.

  I really don't think it's a coincidence that any "good guy" in the book is explicitly Christian and racist snide comments are ignored and treated as quirky. I could go on. Absolute garbage.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Racism, Transphobia, and Xenophobia

All tags above are explicit and are outright condoned by the text. A racist character is treated as a quirky cat lady and [spoilers but not that you should care]

the twist that these leftist parents are "forcing" their child to identify as a boy?

Yeah, that's transphobia.

claireandreese's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.75

I've been reading a lot of college romances lately, so this book was definitely a refresher. The story was super fast paced and I didn't see the ending coming. However, I feel that it was so out of nowhere, it made me go "huh."

My favorite part of the book was all the added illustrations. It really added to the horror and spooky vibes of the book. The last chapter tried to leave a final bow on these characters but still left me unsatisfied.

There's a few underlying issues that I didn't like that would have made this book a five star. The FMC continuously makes comments about other characters weight. I think there are many other issues that deal with the FMCs relationship to religion and the family's Christianity.

i would agree with other reviewers that Mallory's drug addiction was merely a device used so that the Maxwells and the readers would be distrustful towards her. There are murky waters when it comes to borderline transphobia and the Maxwells being atheists.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Violence

Moderate: Death, Fatphobia, Infertility, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Racial slurs and Racism

Kidnapping, Child Abduction, Transphobia?

hauntedantiqueshop's review against another edition

mysterious fast-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? No

1.0

Man. Fuck this book. And you know what, I kinda liked the beginning!! Like it had flaws but I assumed they’d be resolved or vilified as it went on (it didn’t). But then we got hit with the twists and reveals and they STINK!!! BOO!! 🍅🍅🍅 

What the fuck was UP with

• The immediate disregard of neighbor lady’s racism
• The Lawn Boy thing. Why is she calling that man that?? Racism.
• ANTI METOO MOVEMENT?????
• The weird book about teaching children their bodies but it covers anal sex and cunnilingus???
• The religious shit
• oh of course they’re forcing a child to be transgender. of course
• PRO JK ROWLING?? twice in one book after 2018? Actually, yeah that fucking tracks for this book

This book really is some right wing propaganda. Like it was not slick with it at all. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Transphobia, Murder, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Racism, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

Minor: Fatphobia

Rehab, NA, weird religious tones , drugging/drug overdose, a completely fabricated and hallucinated relationship???

Ted was fucking weird and delusional

matchamarimo's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Fatphobia, Racism, and Transphobia

anissawren's review against another edition

You don't have to be trying to be transphobic to be transphobic.

Also, the female main character is clearly written by a man and the writing is just painful to read generally.

I would 1 star this if I could.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Fatphobia

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