Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

NOS4A2. Ritorno a Christmasland by Joe Hill

12 reviews

madelinequinnee's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-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

5.0

Second book of the year written by someone from the King family! 

I really enjoyed this more than I expected. I went in thinking it would be more ‘vampirey’, if that makes sense, but i guess the Nosferatu mentions are more metaphorical than literal. 

I found this really easy to get lost in, the story was interesting and the writing was really descriptive and painted a great picture of the world it takes place in. 

There are a few trigger warnings i would look out for if you’re going to read this and are sensitive to certain topics.

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priscillarobock's review against another edition

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dark mysterious tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.75


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judassilver's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.25

This book would have greatly benefited from condensing and trimming of the length. It drags, and the parts I feel are unnecessary really drag down the parts I do like in this book. It's somehow both too edgy and too cheesy? Overly long but also somehow underdeveloped/explored
(they don't even get to Christmasland until 90% in and then Vic dies off page!)
? I liked our cast of heros, but there is so much build up that the ending feels underwhelming and the part
about the ornaments felt especially cheap.
Overall the book came off as very crude-- certain metaphors and instances describing child and female characters were especially off-putting to me. And that's not even to mention the gratuitous fat phobia and off-hand racist remarks by various characters (and the narrator) that I don't really feel benefited the narrative. I would recommend the audio book if for nothing else than the benefit of being able to 2.5x speed listen to it, but I would caution to definitely check trigger warnings. Also note that this book is not about vampires. This book came highly recommended, so I'm sad this one just wasn't for me. 
Specific spoilers for those curious:
Random n-slur and k-slur drop in one line, the dog does die--brutally. There are also a lot of descriptions of penises (and synonyms, in varying levels of ridiculous!) and their various actions. The MC gets back into good terms with her abusive father at the end, and one character is excessively, I mean everytime he's in a scene, described as fat until he gets weight loss surgery at the end of the book. Also a few unfortunate Harry Potter refs

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baileyclose's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious tense 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? It's complicated

4.0


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cloudy333's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5


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wrensreadingroom's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

5.0


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savanapavlak's review against another edition

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

3.75


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livbarry's review against another edition

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

3.0

NOS4A2 wasn’t without its flaws; the blatant misogyny of the antagonists not having any direct connection to the story besides making the antagonists more dislikable REALLY bugged me, as did the blatant fatphobia.

I can’t say that I didn’t have a fun time reading this, though. The great thing about the book’s length is that it’s so dense that it’s easy to forget about the flaws until they pop up again. Its length intimidated me, but I whipped through it SO quickly. 

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allie_hil's review against another edition

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

3.5

I did overall enjoy this book. The story is definitely unique and not like anything I've read before. However, it is so long, much too long in my opinion. Whatever tension was built up quickly fizzled out because it took so long to get to the meat of the story. When things were happening the descriptions were definitely image-inducing and gruesome. Many had me squirming in my chair. But when it came to the fear and anxiety I want to feel for characters in a horror story there just wasn't any. 

Not the best horror book I've read but definitely not the worst either. 

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adriennne's review against another edition

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3.0


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