Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Ritual by Adam L.G. Nevill

32 reviews

thanatotics's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny and Fatphobia

chessakat's review against another edition

challenging dark tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I feel like this was almost two books smashed together. I greatly preferred the first half - so scary and atmospheric! Lots of dread but also just magic, friend tension, drama. 

The second half just epically needed an editor - I think I just got EXTREMELY fatigued by the high state of tension. Like, you can only feel despair and hopelessness for so long before my brain is just like, please, for the love of dog, make something plot-y happen again. It just dragged so so much. I think I just strongly preferred the supernatural scary to the humans. They were so banal.

By the time the end came I was so ready for it to be over that finally seeing the monster was just like ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ . 

Curious to see the movie adaptation, as I heard it diverges from the book quite a bit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Grief, Physical abuse, Confinement, Fatphobia, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, and Gore

hick's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia

aleenareadeena's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Misogyny

owlribbon's review against another edition

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Gun violence, Death, Blood, Confinement, and Gore

Minor: Religious bigotry and Fatphobia

giggles692's review against another edition

dark mysterious slow-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? No

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Death

Moderate: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Homophobia, Sexism, and Racism

cuppachaii's review against another edition

dark mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.5

The Ritual was fun! It's like Call Of The Wild had a Lovecraft-inspired fanfiction written by a guy who only wears Patagonia. While I found myself thinking about it when we were apart, the actual experience reading would sometimes drag. This might be due to the fact that I can't visualize, and Adam really leans on visuals to get his ideas across. I found myself getting turned around during fast paced sequences, and many of the scares flew over my head because of how imagery-oriented they are. Don't get me wrong, I still got some good scares in (

I shat myself when he realized Moder had been stalking behind him and Dom was long gone, for example

) especially in Adam's amazing non-visual descriptions, like the soundscape and textures of

the attic

. The characters don't develop so much as their existing dispositions are recontextualized, which I loved. Luke's anger is obviously out of place in London, but instead of just trope-ily going "but in the wild it's an  a s s e t" Adam instead constantly puts Luke in new situations where this anger can mean survival OR death. And while I absolutely loved the scares of

the body in the truck bed, or the goat legs on meemaw

you know what scares I DON'T love?? Fatphobia. Oh my gOd this book has so much pointless, distracting fatphobic moments. Several times, even during the rad climax, Adam couldn't help taking a few lines to remind us how unattractive he thought this fat person looked while fighting for their life through an ancient wood, home to long-forgotten horrors older than any gods for which we still have names, older than names at all. THERE'S MORE INTERESTING STUFF IN THIS FOREST THAN CELLULITE, FRIEND.

All in all, I enjoyed this book and think it's worth reading if you're a fan of horror. It has a lot of cool ideas, and explores themes of nature, survival, and humanity in ways I haven't seen before. For real one of the best contemporary depictions of cosmic horror, and as a former Pretentious Lovecraft Teen, I oohoohoohoo!-d at that. 

Love you bye

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Confinement

Moderate: Fatphobia and Death

Minor: Homophobia

hagss's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

I thought the plot and storyline was really great. But not so much the body shaming and misogynistic view of one of the only female characters or the use of slurs.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror

Minor: Fatphobia, Misogyny, and Body shaming

raychelbennet's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-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

1.0

 If (like me) you decided to read this book because you enjoyed the movie so much, do yourself a favor and don't do that. 

Here's what Adam Nevill told me is the worst horror in the world: being fat. Being fat is the most monstrous thing about humanity. We're going to overlook the cool, tree-like monster thing and instead talk about the fat, flubby, and/or chubby bodies of people in nearly every single sentence. It's exhausting. It's fatphobic. It ruins the whole book IMO

The *real* cincher for me though was when--for absolutely no reason other than to be a creep--Neville decided to describe a teen girl as having a doughy, yogurty-smelling c*nt. I'm going to go vomit somewhere to get that sentence out of my head.

This is another book I wish I hadn't read. Usually I can find some redeeming qualities, but the bad far outweighs the good. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Torture, Confinement, Violence, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Ableism, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Classism, and Gore

Moderate: Violence and Animal death

bugsoup's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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: Gore, Violence, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Blood

Moderate: Vomit, Fatphobia, Murder, and Body shaming

Minor: Addiction, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Toxic friendship, Religious bigotry, and Homophobia