Reviews with content warning for Religious bigotry - Patricia Wants to Cuddle

Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

47 reviews

eliya's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

I had a whole review written out yesterday and I didn’t save it and now it’s gone 😪
It took me about a month to read this pretty short book lol. 13 hours of reading time.

Loved the “weird” nature of the book, combining two loved genres, the snide remarks the characters make about each other. There are some good quotes from this book that I’ll be listing below. I don’t think you’re supposed to like any character and I definitely didn’t lol. Loved the physical descriptions the author used to describe feelings.

Did not love the writing style. The author focused a lot on scene dressing and filled most of the book with painful, needless details and empty attempts to develop internal dialogue between the different characters.

I think Casey was spot-on- Amanda and Vanessa were the same character, one just had two moms and talked mostly about how that shaped her vs the other one who wanted to fuck Jeremy so much. Lilah Mae was a caricature of the toxic Christian trope & Renee… I’m conflicted about Renee. She was a curmudgeon the whole book, understandably so, but I don't find valor in just being a hater.

In the author’s note, the author talks about how it took courage to write this “weird” book, but it truly was not weird enough.

I had a lot of hopes for this book, but all in all, it was: boring, boring, cringy and unbelievable, funny, boring, until 80% through, then it was really exciting!! Where was that the whole rest of the book?

Favorite quotes out of context -

“For Alexa, the knife in my heart”
“But that was the point, wasn’t it? To be reminded.”
“Some pretzel bags are prettier than others…”
"But she's trying to stop searching for herself in the eyes of others"
"Standing over her like a gangly teenager about to ask his mom for lunch money"
"He tasted minty and yet somehow still disgusting, like Altoids that had been scraped off of the floor of the car."
"She imagines what it would be like to have a brain unburdened by intelligence--and then Vanessa's..."
"Casey didn't finish; she wasn't expecting to"
"It seems like the sort of place where you could actually just live life, instead of researching the best way to live your life on the internet."

"Leafless trees poking out through the cracks between them, like arms worn down to their sinews reaching up to be fed."
"Nothing but silence and sky. It feels like the end of the world."

" 'Maybe you would have rather gone home with Amanda?! ... You kissed her way better than you ever kissed me!' 'That's because you taste like unwashed asshole, Jeremy' "
"...barely notice it at first, is a fresh human head, detached from a body that is nowhere to be found. Her hair tied in a ponytail, her expression frozen in shock, a layer of blood caking on pale skin. 'Hi, Amanda,' Renee says, looking down at the head. Amanda doesn't speak back, because she's a disembodied head. Alas, poor Amanda."

New words:
Indefatigable - Persisting tirelessly.
Eponymous -

(of a person) giving their name to something.
"the eponymous hero of the novel"
- (of a thing) named after a particular person.
- "Roseanne's eponymous hit TV series"

Adroit - clever or skillful in using the hands or mind. "he was adroit at tax avoidance"

Content Warnings

ncindc's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

amonkman's review against another edition

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dark funny mysterious fast-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

janeadventures's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted fast-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? No

4.0

This was a fun, quick, easy read that does a lovely job both critiquing Instagram culture/reality TV while at the same time drawing an incredible allegory to how queer women have been 'othered' by society. As a trigger warning, there is some light gore.

Content Warnings

jillaay_h's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

kelly_e's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny fast-paced

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

1.5

Title: Patricia Wants to Cuddle
Author: Samantha Allen
Genre: Horror
Rating: 1.50
Pub Date: June 28, 2022

T H R E E • W O R D S

Unique • Absurd • Gruesome

📖 S Y N O P S I S

On this season of The Catch, contestants must compete for love. And their lives.

When the final four women in competition for an aloof, somewhat sleazy bachelor’s heart arrive on a mysterious island in the Pacific Northwest, they prepare themselves for another week of extreme sleep deprivation, invasive interviews, and, of course, the salacious drama eager viewers nationwide tune in to devour. Each woman came on The Catch for her own reasons—brand sponsorships, followers, and, yes, even love—and they’ve all got their eyes steadfastly trained on their respective prizes. Enter Patricia, a temperamental and woefully misunderstood local living alone in the dark, verdant woods, and desperate for connection. Through twists as unexpected as they are wildly entertaining, the self-absorbed cast and jaded crew each make her acquaintance atop the island’s tallest and most desolate peak, finding themselves at the center of an action-packed thriller that is far from scripted—and only a few will make the final cut.

💭 T H O U G H T S

How did this bizarre, satirical, completely outside my comfort zone, novel fall into my hands? Well that's the beauty of online book club events. This is nothing I would have ever picked up on my own accord, but peer pressure is real even in adulthood.

Writing this review is difficult because I don't even know what I read. I was expecting one thing and got something completely different - so I definitely think there was poor marketing of what this book is. The build up through the first half was slow, yet the second half was packed with senseless violence and trying to cover too many different storyline.

I understand Patricia Wants to Cuddle is Samantha Allen's attempt at social commentary through the reality show trope. However, when I finally made it to the end, I was confused because nothing was resolved. It was was one of those books that left me with that 'what the heck' feeling. I am not really sure what I read. One thing I am sure about is I am not the intended audience for this book. While it's hard for me to see myself recommending this to anyone, if you're book club is looking for something that is guaranteed to spark discussion than this would definitely fit the bill.

📚 R E C O M M E N D • T O
• fans of the reality TV trope

🔖 F A V O U R I T E • Q U O T E S

"By the way, Maggie, quick news flash from the future: we don’t wear socks with Birkenstocks anymore."

"Imagine a world so small that your ego can fill all of it."

Content Warnings