Reviews tagging 'Classism'

a certain hunger by Chelsea G. Summers, Chelsea G. Summers

18 reviews

amalauna's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Blood, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal death, Classism, Car accident, Death, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, and Murder

emmas_reads_'s review against another edition

dark reflective slow-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

wow. this book was long. but short (thank god for that)! Summers sure knows how to write pretentious, unlikeable, unstable characters. and that is exactly what dorothy daniels is.

dorothy daniels is a sex-loving, borderline women-hating, antisemetic, racist, lesbophobic, and classist food snob. this book is supposed to be about dorothy critiquing women’s role in society. she brings up how she thinks monogamy is boring, that she won’t have kids, that she refuses to marry, that men are useful for sex, food, and manipulation and that’s about it. it honestly felt like dorothy hated women who decided to decided to do all of these things with men - the amount of times i wrote “just say you hate women and go” is astonishing for a book critiquing women’s gender roles in society.

the feminism in this book is more outright and blatant instead of the subtle critique i was hoping for. this felt just like the barbie (albeit with a cannibalistic serial murderess) - feminism 101.

the writing is…something. the author often shows what is unnecessary (food descriptions) and tells what is (emma and dorothy’s friendship developments). representations, descriptions, and comparisons are made with one of two things: food or genitalia. it’s very offputting - not necessarily uncomfortable but i did think it got excessive. i think the pretentiousness of the writing fit with dorothy’s characterization though, so even if it was a slog to get through i appreciate it.

i did enjoy the cannibalism (of which i do wish there was more of) and murder though. it’s why i bought this book in the first place. that part definitely delivered, and for that i’m thankful. delightfully sickening!!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Antisemitism, Death, Murder, Violence, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Lesbophobia, Racism, Classism, and Sexual assault

carlomartinez__'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

5.0

Read the trigger warnings! Not for the squeamish, sensitive, or faint of heart. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Rape, Cannibalism, Classism, Animal death, Death, Gore, Sexism, and Violence

nad_books623's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad 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

3.75

This was the most soul sucking and dark book I've ever read. The writing style was so good that I didn't want to put it down, but it was so hard to finish. Dorothy is incredibly insufferable, smart and somewhat self aware. I would say only read this book if you're in a good head space because, of how much detail his book goes into. I originally wanted to rate this book a 4 because, it's nothing I've ever read before and the writing was amazing. I had to knock it down because, of how disgusting this book is and the evil things the main character did.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Torture, Death, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Toxic relationship, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Infertility, Classism, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship

This book goes into deep detail about murdering people and animals being killed for food.

bando_bauldio's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious reflective tense 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

5.0

Such a fascinating book on weaponizing gender norms. The writing was superb! I loved the culinary themes in the book, it adds a certain sophistication to Dolores’ murderous actions that makes me almost admire this baddie of a woman. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Gore, Violence, Rape, Blood, Body horror, Infidelity, Murder, and Sexual content

Moderate: Classism

lucylou's review against another edition

dark slow-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

Crazy read. Interesting enough to finish, but my eyes glazed over a few times reading this, mainly around the 2/3rd mark. A pretentious main character who loves to talk and meander got pretty boring. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Gore, Sexual content, Cannibalism, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Stalking, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Alcohol, Death of parent, Cancer, and Classism

abicaro17's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious slow-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

3.0

The last 25% of the book was very gripping and intriguing. Unfortunately most of the book had me checking my progress and seeing if it was over yet. Im usually a sucker for a gruesome murder which this book technically delivers but, the descriptions of literally anything and everything take up most of the book. Its almost repetitive and it took a lot of self control not to skim the book. Plus the amount of times Dorothy was just like "oh yeah this happened anyways back to this food" was annoying as fuck. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Antisemitism, Body horror, Child abuse, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Cancer, Cannibalism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gore, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Violence, Alcohol, Car accident, Death, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Stalking, Blood, Death of parent, and Classism

ciaranolio's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny fast-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

A comic horror novel written as a cannibal food critic's memoir, reminiscent in ways of American Psycho, darkly funny in places and deeply off-putting in others. Very vivid writing style and truly excellent food descriptions were a delight to me, but my reading experience was somewhat marred by the book's reputation as a feminist girlboss-type story, especially when considering the fact that the protagonist (who, don't get me wrong, is as entertaining as they come, but most certainly not a girlboss in my mind) actively commits a hate crime.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death, Antisemitism, Blood, Car accident, Cannibalism, and Violence

Moderate: Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Sexual content, Rape, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Death of parent, Chronic illness, Classism, Body shaming, Alcohol, and Cancer

blackcatkai's review against another edition

slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

CW: blood, violence, antisemitism, murder, ableism, fatphobia, food/body shaming, classism, racism (slurs and otherwise), sexual content, rape and other types of sexual assault/harassments, gore, animal cruelty and death, sexism, gaslighting, infidelity, alcohol and drug use, passages that may read a bit homophobic and/or transphobic

no. i get that it's supposed to be a satire overall and youre not meant to like the main character, but my biggest issue was how boring the entire novel is. and technically, it's only a satire in regards to the universe of food in real life, not the sexism or murder or sex or society as a whole or whatever. so maybe if it had JUST been about that, it would've been more successful for me. then the character of Dorothy would've read better with her vapid, self important, condescending, holier than thou bullshit. but not here, not when you throw in everything else.

pacing? all over the place, mainly slow. cannibalism and violence? well, its THERE, technically? but it takes forever to get to the gruesome bits and then theyre lackluster at best. this doesnt feel feminist or inclusive or a biting commentary on anything other than narcissists suck. there's also a ton of nuanced information presented in a non-nuanced way that feels like im reading an incomplete wikipedia page with no sources and missing key context. we get it, the author learned about a lot of things and wanted us to know about them, even if some info was left out, leading to what feels like misinformation, even in a fictional story.

this is more a book about gratuitous sex, fancy food, and trips to europe because its the best (except new york city, of course) than it is about cis-female empowerment, cannibalism, or violence. its repetitive use of simile, speaking down to the reader, and infodumps, left me disengaged, bored, and desperate for the end.

basically, this book was not for me, and im so glad its finally over. thank you.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Classism, Rape, Body shaming, Fatphobia, Ableism, Racial slurs, Racism, Acephobia/Arophobia, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Gore, Murder, and Body horror

Moderate: Sexual assault, Outing, Toxic relationship, Sexual harassment, Alcohol, Mental illness, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Cancer, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Drug use, Cannibalism, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Transphobia

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal death, Blood, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Cannibalism, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, Body horror, and Car accident

Moderate: Cancer, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Stalking

Minor: Death of parent, Classism, Cursing, Excrement, and Forced institutionalization