Reviews with content warning for Racism - Patricia Wants to Cuddle

This book had been hyped up to me, and from how it's advertised and the cover, I was thinking "Oh, so it's almost like a lesbian version of King Kong with a smattering of satire about reality TV, sounds like fun!" but while it definitely has quite a bit of satire at the beginning, things get, pardon the pun, hairy, and not in the fun way.

The problem for me was I wasn't sure how I was supposed to feel about the violence happening to a good chunk of the characters by the end, and the choice one particular character makes regarding it. Is this supposed to be horrifying, am I supposed to root for it because it's happening to bad people? It'd be one thing if the author was making it ambiguous on purpose, but it more or less felt more like a tone problem than anything else. I just don't get why all of these women decided they're perfectly okay with letting Patricia kill a bunch of people. The idea that all of these women are outsiders that are being screwed over should've been much more prevalent if the author wanted us to root for the ending, because while Patricia's victims are flawed I wouldn't say I felt like they deserved the fates they got, especially since even the raging homophobe started to show some humanity before her gruesome end.

Content Warnings

ameliafr's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark funny mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

This book is about the contestant and producer of a The Bachelor-like reality TV show, who travel to a remote island as one of their destinations.

It switches between their perspectives, which I really enjoyed!

The first 75% is a satire of reality TV/influencer culture and it’s fun to see the different motivations of the characters. The last 25% is horror, to a degree that I was not expecting.

This was a good fast-paced book to get me out of a reading slump, but it was also a lot darker and more intense than I had anticipated. (See content warnings!)

Content Warnings

sapphicshark's review against another edition

Go to review page

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? No

4.0

Content Warnings

shaysbookshelf's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous funny

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

2.5

I hated nearly every character (I understand it’s a satire but my GOD most of these characters were insufferable) and I felt like there wasn’t enough time with the ones that I did enjoy. I think I would’ve enjoyed it more if it focused on the point of view of the characters that really mattered (the sapphics). I did really love the ending, though. One time for mountain lesbians!!! All in all this was fun in theory but I wasn’t really into the execution.

Content Warnings