Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - One to Watch

Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

One to Watch by Kate Stayman-London

137 reviews

meridith_bex's review

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emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.25

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crystalisreading's review

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challenging emotional

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I don't watch enough reality TV to know if this plot was plausible or not. I questioned that a lot though. I know all marginalized groups are entitled to wish fulfillment romances, but it was hard to believe in at lot of this. also I didn't really like any of the major characters, and didn't really buy the primary romance. two minor couples were cute though, and fat rep is always good. I just wish i had found this more enjoyable than I did. I much preferred On the Plus Side by Jenny Howe, for a reality TV show fat romance

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missmarshey's review

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emotional lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.5

It was an easy book to read, however it was easy to see who the main character was going to end up with. Apart from the main character, there was little character development of any of the other characters and I found the main character hard to like.

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macaronsandmermaids's review against another edition

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emotional informative lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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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zombiewilhelm's review against another edition

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emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

4.0

Y'all, this book. I could not put this book down. I think I stayed up until 2 am on Friday because I was so invested in Bea and her journey. The ups and downs of reality TV dating was wild.
The format is interesting. Mixed in with the storytelling are text conversations, slack channel conversations, podcast transcripts, e-mails, blog posts, etc. I thought this was going to bother me when I first saw it, but it adds to the reality TV storyline.
There are several great characters in this book, but I think my favorite is Bea's stepfather Bob. He's too pure for this world and he's just so adorable in how much he cares about Bea.
Things I didn't like: This book is on a bunch of lists of body-positive books and I think I was hoping that Bea would have had a stronger self-image than she did. She does a good job putting up a strong front, but she gets whiny throughout and is constantly thinking that none of the men could want her. I was hoping she'd live up to her convictions.

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reneebethreads's review

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challenging hopeful lighthearted tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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poisonpotion's review

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funny lighthearted medium-paced

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

2.0

Pros:

Easy to read and fun concept.
Episode 5 and 6 were my favorite ‘chapters’ to read through.
When drama happens, it’s excellent drama.
There were few times where I truly understood Bea’s inner demons and connected with her.
The social media, e-mail, texts, and tabloid portions of the book did add some fun.

Cons:

Bea was one of the biggest issues of this book. I found her way too whiny, can’t go by one ‘chapter’ where she’s self deprecating, a hypocrite,
slept with an engaged man yet the book went light on Bea for that for some reason like only Ray is the bad guy
, switches from being self conscious mouse to sassy and confident for some reason, I had to suffer through her thinking of
Ray
way too many times, and just isn’t a good person yet the book still tries to convince us.
A couple other worst characters that got away too easily was
the producer, Lauren and Luc. Despite being one of the bachelors and the show’s producer, Lauren and Luc slept with each other during the EARLY season and didn’t stop until they got caught by Bea. Once again, the book went light on them like with Bea and didn’t really suffer from the consequences.
Despite being in the book for a short time, I still got incredibly annoyed with
her and Luc
The cast characters themselves are hit or miss. I feel like only 2 characters stood out the most to me while the rest are forgettable or unlikable.

Overall:

Book should’ve been about Bea and her love life than just making it all about her weight because it got incredibly draining (for me personally). They did do well in showing Bea’s insecurities about finding love and if she’ll make the right decision when it does come. Wish it was more of that and loving herself than hating herself due to her weight (yet confident?). At least this was an easy read and had drama to look forward to since it did help me finish the book pretty quick despite the issues I had. A shame because I really did like the premise of the book.

Favorite Quote:
“It’s the hardest thing in the world. To have been that hurt, to feel that afraid, and to know that the only way you can be really, fully happy is to risk going through it all again? It’s a terrifying choice to make. But if you want to let someone be that close to you, it’s the only way.” -Sue (Page: 197)

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rhysellnow's review against another edition

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funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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bookobsessedmommy's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny inspiring 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

4.25

Trigger warning for fat phobia! So this book is about a fat girl who becomes "the batchelorette" on a reality TV show and tries to find love. I'm generally not a big fan of reality TV, but I wanted to give it a shot after liking the True Love Experiment so much. As a general rule of thumb, I avoid internet comments like the Plague, so when the commentary about the shows decision to cast her was so disgusting and vitriolic, I was sick to my stomach. I know this probably an accurate portrayal and I get that the author wants to shock us with the sad reality of how shitty we treat fat people as rule of thumb, but I nearly DNF'd the book. It almost felt like horror if that makes any sense. The most intense hatred directed towards Bea is in the beginning of the book, so once I got past that, I really enjoyed the story. I spent a ton of time yelling at Bea, but I enjoyed following the her journey and couldn't wait to see what happened next. Some of the twists and turns were predictable, others came completel out of left field, but I was still on the edge of my seat for the resolution. I like all the different types of media you get in the audiobook, going between text threads, emails, blogs, and podcasts. Really fun touch.

I loved seeing Ace/aro rep as well!

I would try another book by this author, but I'll be wary of trigger warnings.

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crunchycrystals's review against another edition

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Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

had a lot of fun with it!!! thought the writing was pretty good and it was easy for me to guess what was going to happen but i'd say that's because the good writing made it clear to me what the vibe of the scene was or made it easy to understand character motivations. honestly wondering if i should watch reality tv now lol but it's never gonna be as good as this (plus all the conflict mostly comes from places outside of the normal bachelor villains so you dont need to see them that much after the first few episodes of the show). it made me want to keep reading and i haven't felt that in a while and i thought most of the main characters were pretty fun to read about

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