Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio

46 reviews

the_annia's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.5

Beautifully written, but the story itself is absolutely brutal and very difficult to process. Don’t read if you’re on the emotional/sensitive side.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Drug abuse, Death, Addiction, Violence, Murder, and Blood

Moderate: Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Eating disorder, Grief, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

recycled_personalities's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

I do recommend it. There’s one outdated term that used near the beginning of the book that stopped it from getting a higher score. But it’s a compelling mystery, with a side of tragic love.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body shaming, Classism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Alcohol, Bullying, Drug abuse, Suicide, Alcoholism, Sexual content, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Body horror, Death, Gore, Suicidal thoughts, Eating disorder, Addiction, Drug use, Gaslighting, Grief, Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, and Toxic friendship

mar's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

jesus christ. fucking theatre kids, man

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, and Death

Moderate: Homophobia, Blood, Drug abuse, Sexism, Addiction, Body shaming, and Panic attacks/disorders

Minor: Sexual content, Racism, Transphobia, Racial slurs, Suicide, and Eating disorder

_piercingwords_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

A really intense read that got me out of a reading slump. 

The story feels very real, on an emotional rather than logical level. The structure is a nice touch and fitting for the Shakespeare centered story. There's a lot to be analysed, a lot of foreshadowing and parallels to the plays alluded to in the book;
definitely a book you need to read in depth to really be able to appreciate the thought put into it, I will have to read it again, more thoroughly and with the knowledge of everything happening.

In the end, it is a love story, in a twisted, untraditional way.
It left me with a few questions unanswered but I couldn't put it down, the tension high until the last page and I do recommend it, especially to Shakespeare lovers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Alcohol, Eating disorder, Vomit, Outing, Bullying, Body shaming, Misogyny, Grief, Drug abuse, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Drug use, Mental illness, Sexism, and Addiction

isleoflinds's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Biphobia, Blood, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Suicide

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Addiction, Body shaming, Classism, and Infidelity

G slur, pretentious

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual content, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Blood, Suicide, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, and Addiction

Minor: Classism and Homophobia

Near the end of the book when the truth behind a character's death is revealed, the murdered character uses the word Queer as a slur towards a character and their friend, main protag's sister is shown in about four chapters struggling with an eating disorder and it's discussed heavily within those chapters, A character is caught using cocaine and reveals they've been regularly using it and later the same character overdoses on pills (unknown whether it was on purpose or not), a character's boyfriend starts to physically abuse her and publicly slutshame her

itsheyfay's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Biphobia, Body shaming, Blood, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Misogyny, Addiction, Grief, Homophobia, Mental illness, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Transphobia, Gaslighting, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Panic attacks/disorders, Alcoholism, Confinement, Cursing, Mental illness, and Outing

charlereads's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Drug abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Toxic relationship, Murder, Body shaming, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Domestic abuse, Addiction, and Toxic friendship

jacobandthefrogs's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Give this books all the trigger warnings ever. 
Theatre troupe of 7 turns to a shatter 6 when one of them is dead after the opening night of their first show of the year. 
The characters in this book took me as a reader by storm, with terrible decisions but realistic voices. If someone spoke to me any of their dialogue in real life I would tinge on the feeling of unsafeness and insanity around them, because their voices are dipped and coated in that old English of Shakespeare in at least 25% of their words on paper. I knew this book would highlight many of Shakespeare’s plays given the synopsis but the depth and thought given to how they are interpreted really adds a much deeper level to how I appreciated the novel. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Terminal illness, Violence, Alcoholism, Body shaming, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Biphobia and Homophobia

sofipitch's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

This book is entertaining, I spent all day reading it, but it matches up so completly with Donna Tartt's The Secret History it sets itself up for a comparison in which it's going to fall flat. Everything about it feels less well done than The Secret History, including the lgbt romance, I feel like this book doesn't deserve to be in the lgbt genre category for the slim amount it has, the subtext that Richard is gay in TSH seems like so much more. The plot was good, but again not very original, but the prose was just meh, it's not literary which from a book where the set up is about literary/pretentious characters feels like a let down.
Again, I enjoyed this in that it was entertaining but I expected more.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol and Drug use

Moderate: Murder and Suicide attempt

Minor: Misogyny, Body shaming, Homophobia, and Violence