Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Plain Bad Heroines by Emily M. Danforth

30 reviews

mar's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

i usually get frustrated with audiobooks longer than ~8 hours, but I listened to the 19.5h of this one no problem and enjoyed it!! it's slow, but also really captivating and does a great job of building up the tension and creepiness, though it's sadly a little lacking in payoff in the end - I found the ends of both narratives a little abrupt and unsatisfying in different ways (genuinely finished it and went huh. more people should've died :/ or at least get traumatized a little more :/ FJDKGNKF) but overall I did have fun. the characters are compelling, if not always likeable, and the snarky omniscient narrator is excellent. in conclusion i love messy horror sapphics

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicide, Vomit, and Grief

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Car accident, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

ionka's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Alcoholism, Body horror, Drug use, and Fatphobia

joufancyhuh's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

 Points for being super sapphic, but I think I hated every character at least once during the story. I wouldn't call this horror so much as super gross bug experiences. I do think I know who the narrator is, considering the whole speech of "knowing everything" that's given near the end. Not sure I would recommend this to anyone. It's a lengthy commitment for a story I left feeling meh about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Bullying, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Biphobia, Drug use, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Death of parent, and Pregnancy

violet_pages's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror and Death

Moderate: Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Mental illness, and Vomit

Minor: Fatphobia, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, Dementia, and Grief

littleseven's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, and Fatphobia

camkiwi's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

• 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

4.0

This book both surprised me and disappointed me in a few ways. The plot of the story -and its concept as a whole- is interesting and intrigued me enough to read all 600+ pages of this story. However, there were some parts that I really disliked and kind of pulled me out of the flow of reading.

For example, some of the dialogue/social media bits of this book are very much written like an older adult trying to use internet slang/sound like a "hip" young adult which really just didn't work for me. In addition, the readers of the book are referenced all throughout this story in a sort of fourth wall break, and this element of the story seemed a bit misplaced at times and pulled me out of the story.

The book overall had good wlw representation and it truly felt like a sapphic-centered gothic story. There were also clever bits mentioned in some parts of the story that tied in much later. It had a nice creep factor and ambience to it. But as a whole, this story felt as though it was trying to weave too many threads together, which in turn created some unsatisfying endings. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Moderate: Addiction and Alcoholism

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Rape, and Sexism

reading_between_the_trees's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

A beautifully frightening and mysterious sapphic masterpiece. The historical story within the present day story gave the actor and author characters such a rich additional dimension, and upped the slow burn spookiness a level. I listened to this on audio and thoroughly enjoyed it even as a person who does not usually read horror/thrillers. The narrator was great and the characters were extremely well developed; they are the kind of people that still frequently think "______ would do/like that" as I go about my day months after reading it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, and Blood

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Homophobia, Suicide, and Grief

Minor: Fatphobia

manicfemme's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• 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

 Plain Bad Heroines was a haunting, humorous, and extremely sapphic blend of historical & contemporary storylines that I absolutely adored. I was intimidated by the length at first, but this book was compulsively readable, and hard to put down! I'm not usually a gothic horror reader, so I wasn't sure how I would feel about Plain Bad Heroines, but the promise of explicitly stated, on page lesbian rep lured me in, and I'm so glad it did!

I know this is a book review, but I gotta say: Can y'all imagine how amazing Plain Bad Heroines would be as a movie? Come on, Hollywood, make it happen!

ARC Note: This one is a little complicated, because I received an e-ARC from Netgalley, then won a physical ARC in a Goodreads giveaway, and then received an ALC from Libro.FM. So thank you to Netgalley, Goodreads, Libro.fm and William Morrow! All opinions are my own. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Suicide, Forced institutionalization, and Grief

Minor: Fatphobia

glitzersmilla's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Death, and Homophobia

Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, Violence, and Grief

isnotacrayon's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-paced

• 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Cursing, Death, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Religious bigotry, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Drug use and Forced institutionalization

Minor: Fatphobia and Dementia