Reviews tagging 'Antisemitism'

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

29 reviews

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

morgue666's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious reflective 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

4.5

Took time to get used to the pretentiousness of the character but this is by no means a negative! I love cannibalism as a metaphor for love so I ate this up. My one criticism is I didn’t feel like the rape scene was necessary as quick as it was. Dorothy maybe could’ve avoided all this murder and cannibalism by dating Emma.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Murder, Violence, Rape, and Blood

Minor: Antisemitism

cj_tatertott's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.25

This was a really interesting read, and I did really enjoy the visceral, descriptive writing style. The main character is fascinating, and is both relatable in some aspects and utterly horrifying in others. Good read, both entertaining and darkly philosophical at times. Definitely not for everyone, but I enjoyed it a lot!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Murder, Cannibalism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Gore, Violence, Mental illness, and Death

Minor: Antisemitism, Animal death, and Cancer

avantlafinn's review against another edition

3.5

honestly not sure how i feel about this. it was fine, but i hated the narrator, and while that isn't inherently a problem, i found her annoying and it was very hard to read from her perspective because of the fact that i thought she was incredibly pretentious, and the lack of consistent interaction with other characters made it difficult to get past that, but i thought the concept was interesting and relatively well-executed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Gore, Murder, Cannibalism, and Violence

mmefish's review against another edition

Not only it's blatantly racist and anti-Semitic (you can't just say "my character is a psychopath" and pretend that it makes anything you write OK), it's also laughably edgy, overwritten and unnecessary vulgar in relations to sex.

Includes gems like:

"In an arc as perfect as a fifteen-year-old girl's breast [...]"

And

"I imagined the relief after my hymen broke [...]"

For the love of god, learn your own body's anatomy.

Chelsea Summers writes women as Men-Writing-Women write women. In what world this piece of garbage is feminist?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Sexual content, Antisemitism, and Rape

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

paumdza's review against another edition

boring annoying and uninteresting  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism and Rape

calamitymeat's review against another edition

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? Yes

1.5

I understand WHY the book was written like this but it was fucking exhausting and impossible to get through and I was sick of this book by the second week of reading it because WHY is it taking me two entire weeks to read a 250 page book

also?? killing her jewish ex in a kosher way?? fucking weird and i don't even really care if "the point is that she's a psychopath" or whatever

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cannibalism, Antisemitism, Sexual content, and Gore

Minor: Sexual assault

emmagrace012's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

Honestly loved it. So enjoyable to read, if a bit grandiloquent. Really enjoyed the immersive character experience and the overall plot lines. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Cannibalism, Violence, and Animal death

Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, Gore, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Car accident, and Blood

Minor: Cancer, Death of parent, Antisemitism, and Terminal illness