Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Glitterland by Alexis Hall

16 reviews

booksthatburn's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Ash Winters is frequently a mess and thinks he's unlovable. With BPD driving a mix of depression and anxiety, he's given up on actually feeling emotions and being interested in anyone longer than a one-night stand. Some guy from Essex was supposed to be such a one-night stand, it wasn't supposed to matter that he has a name (Darian), or that he is annoyingly upbeat, or that he's from Essex, because it was supposed to be over. But it's not. Ash runs into Darian again and wants that spark of some emotion again, because he's pretty sure it was a good emotion.

Ash and Darian genuinely work well together, I love how their relationship develops. Ash is just as much of an asshole by the end of the book as the start, but he's more sure of himself and more willing to take risks for Darian than it seems like he was for his other friends. Due to his high anxiety, "taking risks" includes, in this case, going to the store, spending the night in the same bed, and being emotionally vulnerable. Neither of them are people it's necessarily easy to be around (Ash moreso than Darian), and that shows up in many different ways.

The ending caught me off guard, especially the incident which precedes it. I was pleasantly surprised by how things end up, but the story lingers in an uncomfortable situation for far longer than I can normally handle reading. Part of what helped is the way the narrative had handled anxiety and tension up until that point, I had built up enough trust in the author that I was able to wait for how things shook out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Ableism, Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Mental illness, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Grief, Fatphobia, Abandonment, Forced institutionalization, Biphobia, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide, Medical content, Death of parent, Death, Suicide attempt, and Medical trauma

galleytrot's review against another edition

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

3.75

FIRST READ: Sep 2022

SECOND READ: Feb 2024 

FORMAT: Digital, Audio

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3.75 / 5⭐ 

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 4 / 5⭐ 

FINAL – OVERALL: 3.75 / 5⭐ 

In this book, Ash’s history with mania, depression, and anxiety leave him questioning every choice he makes and any right he has to health or happiness – to say nothing of his inability to provide someone else with such things. When a fabulous, glam’d up, spray-tanned, glorious mess of a man enthusiastically inserts himself into Ash’s life, he is happy to take a night of fun so long as they can forget each other in the morning. Darian isn’t quite as keen on letting go of a beautiful thing though, and while he represents everything Ash should stay far away from, maybe it’d be okay to have some fun and live a little wild before it all has to come crashing down. 

Writing that summary paragraph was an exercise in frustration because reducing the massive breadth of emotional complexity within these pages to a handful of sentences is unfairly reductive. The crushing mountain of insecurity that comes from years of shaky mental health mixed with terrible self esteem and a broken system of support (one which might bring you down just as often as build you up or advocate for you) makes it a Sisyphean struggle to escape from under. This is something I connect with all too strongly. Darian does an excellent job at pushing Ash to do better and make the difficult choices while never babying him, whereas Nash treats Ash with embittered frustration and Max juts waits and hopes Ash will come to him in time. 

It's been nearly a year and a half since my first read-through of this book, and I was compelled to revisit it after seeing a number of the Spires books getting facelifts and re-releases. I wasn’t sure if the stories themselves would be reworked, but as far as I could recall, there were no significant changes. The two major additions to the book come as bonus content: a short story detailing Nile’s encounter with Max on the night of the stag, plus a peek into what Ash’s pulp fiction crime novel might look like. The former left me agitated and with an even less flattering view of Nile’s character, and the latter was a beautifully over-the-top trainwreck of cliches and grit that had me snickering. 

This book has representation for gays and bisexuals. It features a character who struggles with bipolar depression. Beyond that, there is little else in the way of diversity. 

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.

This book contains:

alcohol use; implication of infidelity; biphobia; mentions of past self-harm; past suicide attempt; mental illness (bipolar depression); mentions of drug use (ecstasy); bipolar lows, episodes of deep depression; suicidal thoughts; mention of past successful suicide; eating disorder used as the punchline of a joke; classism; panic attacks, anxiety; past toxic relationship (you cannot love the bipolar out of someone, y’all); fatphobia; and, past child abandonment.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Classism, Grief, Mental illness, Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Cursing

Minor: Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide, Abandonment, Death, Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Toxic relationship, and Eating disorder

heckingchonk's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts and Mental illness

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Outing, Classism, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Self harm, Suicide attempt, Fatphobia, and Homophobia

lauralia's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, and Self harm

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Homophobia, Fatphobia, and Drug use

zarahzoe's review against another edition

1.75

Fatshaming as a cutesy bonding moment and a protagonist who never manages to get over his classis  views. Also I couldn't get over how easily Ash was forgiven for his hurtful, atrocious actions. I know this is supposed to be a HFN (with possibilities for a HEA) but I just don't see the possibilities. 
Alexis tends to be quite hit or miss for me, but the hits hit so high that I sometimes have to endure the misses, but... Uhm. Was this ever a miss.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Classism, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual content, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide attempt, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Self harm

Minor: Fatphobia

adrienanthony's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Ableism, Classism, Fatphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Grief, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Body shaming, Cursing, and Biphobia

emrosenq's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, and Mental illness

Moderate: Suicide attempt, Drug use, Self harm, Alcohol, and Fatphobia

Minor: Biphobia

o3tri's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Addiction, Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, and Panic attacks/disorders

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Classism, and Body shaming

chaos_carrie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Glitterland is a painfully relatable story of the struggles with mental health and relationships. Ash is content in his isolation, only venturing out when he needs to for book releases and events, but his relentless friends didn’t get that memo… Suddenly he finds himself enamored with a glitter pirate and navigating dynamics of both friendship and romance that he was sure he was just fine ignoring. The audiobook is absolutely stunning, capturing two drastically different personalities seamlessly.

While this is a gorgeous queer love story, I will note the disordered eating and focus on physical attributes was a bit of a struggle for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Self harm, Alcohol, Panic attacks/disorders, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, and Dysphoria

analenegrace's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-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

3.5

The thing I appreciate most about Alexis Hall is his ability to write completely unlikeable characters but keep you engaged in their story. He is also funny in a way I don't think I fully get because I am American, and god, Alexis Hall is the most British British author to ever British. 

I've read most of his books at this point, and I genuinely don't know if I ever come out of them having loved them, but I also keep wanting to read anything he writes. When I saw this, his earliest book, was getting an expanded rerelease, I figured I'd pick it up; It was so very Alexis Hall in a way I think I've grown to appreciate even though they are very, very wild books to read.

Plot and character-wise, this was sad, hopeful, and kind of lovely. The writing of the Essex accent really had me laughing because it reminded me of reading Harry Styles fanfic in like 2014, I guess, which is when this book was first written...

Lastly, the religious references and comparison were hilarious, and the part where he compared "being a bit mean at a wedding" to Peter denying Jesus Christ had me actually laughing at my desk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Panic attacks/disorders, Classism, Sexual content, Alcohol, Biphobia, Cursing, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Forced institutionalization and Fatphobia