Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

In My Dreams I Hold a Knife by Ashley Winstead

11 reviews

vaguely_pink's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Classism, Death, and Murder

Moderate: Drug use, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, Sexual assault, Blood, Violence, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Addiction

Minor: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Medical content, Body shaming, Homophobia, Outing, Bullying, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Death of parent, and Stalking

carina_dreamer's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.5

✂️ We have a college that is not Ivy League but is famous for its old look and for attracting rich families. Our narrator is named Jessica and she wanted to enter Harvard to please her dad, and when she failed she applied for this college, which she can't pay for. That's how her life of pretence starts and things get easy when she meets: Heather, Caro, Coop, Jack, Frankie and Mint. The seven of them will become The East House Seven, a nickname that would follow them throughout their popular college life.

✂️ Their appearance-focused daily life, mean girls' behaviour, sorority/fraternity crazy shenanigans... All that comes to a halt when one of their friends is murdered and the group falls apart. Ten years later, the crime is still unsolved and the little brother of the victim organizes a college reunion to antagonize the group for answers.

✂️ We have two timelines, I enjoyed the back and forward because it felt like an episode of HTGAWM since every time a secret was revealed in the present we got a flashback about it. And there's a feeling of thriller and anticipation when we start to get closer to the truth and I enjoyed that a lot.

✂️ Unfortunately, for me, I couldn't stand the characters! They're awful people, the high school stereotypes but make it college-centered, their friendship and love affairs are revealed to be full of lies... It's toxicity over and over again. I can't say it doesn't go well with the plot of the book, cause it does, but I couldn't enjoy their self-centred minds to the point I had to DNF my next read the book "Asking for it" by Louise O'Neill because the characters were also awful people.

✂️ The revelation of the true killer was satisfying and the motive was valid, I liked it. The ending I wasn't such a fan, didn't want a happy ending for them...

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence

Moderate: Body shaming, Infidelity, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Drug abuse, Addiction, and Outing

Minor: Homophobia, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, Gore, and Rape

bootsmom3's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Outing, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Classism, Eating disorder, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Misogyny, Death of parent, Drug use, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic friendship, and Murder

ssarahbbeth's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Moderate: Bullying, Death of parent, Alcohol, Biphobia, Body shaming, Classism, Drug use, Infidelity, Murder, Sexual harassment, Cursing, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide attempt, Violence, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Fire/Fire injury

a_libraryghost's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

3.75

It was fine. It took me a while to be able to distinguish between all the characters and I didn’t really latch onto any of them. The only ones I ever really cared about were Jack and Caro, and Jack is barely in the book. I didn’t mind Jess as a protagonist but she could definitely be frustrating, those who struggle with unlikeable protagonists will have a hard time getting through this one. 

All the twists and reveals were pretty good but there was so many of them it became easy to lose track and when the killer is finally revealed, it goes into a previous conversation that seemed like it was supposed to be some form of setup but I couldn’t remember any of it and when the killers “real” personality is revealed it just kind of feels out of nowhere. 

I did really like the relationship between Jess and Coop and just the general college vibe, I don’t know what it is that makes me love academic settings but I do. Jess’s relationship with her father was also a really interesting B story that fuelled her motivations really well and gave a lot of context to her unlikeable traits. But these relationships are the only things that really got any depth and everything else just felt thrown in.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Murder

Moderate: Homophobia, Death of parent, and Drug abuse

Minor: Suicide attempt and Fatphobia

cassielaj's review

challenging dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I love a timeline switch, and it worked perfectly to build suspense in this book.

I found it hard to root for Jessica, which was the point, but at the same time I didn’t think she’d actually killed Heather. However, the final bit of information at the very end was brilliantly eerie. Jessica was coldblooded

As events unfolded it got kind of predictable, but overall it was a very engaging read. I just wanted to know what happened the whole time. 
Update: it’s been three days since I finished this book, and I haven’t stopped thinking about it, nor have I read anything else. That’s powerful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Drug use, Murder, Suicide attempt, Drug abuse, Death of parent, and Grief

Moderate: Bullying, Fatphobia, Rape, and Sexual content

booksofautumn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Eating disorder, Addiction, Alcohol, Death, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Biphobia, Bullying, and Drug use

lovelyannalee's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Grief, Fatphobia, Death of parent, Rape, Sexual assault, Drug use, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Homophobia and Outing

ayeonia's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

• 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

3.0

some of the twists really had me GASPING but the final reveal was a bit???? to me
i also skimmed through a LOT of stuff because jessica's mind was UNBEARABLE at some points like girl shut up we get itttttt
if you have nothing better to read and love seeing rich people fuck up go ahead and pick this one up!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Blood, Infidelity, Misogyny, Cursing, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Grief, Suicide, Murder, Addiction, Biphobia, Classism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Outing, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

alinwonderland's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Alcohol, Drug use, Eating disorder, Toxic relationship, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Hate crime, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Drug abuse, and Addiction