Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

Chef's Kiss by TJ Alexander

10 reviews

eatallthestars's review

funny lighthearted 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Dysphoria, Transphobia, and Homophobia

sage_alexandra's review

funny lighthearted 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Deadnaming, and Transphobia

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Medical content

Minor: Blood, Dysphoria, Excrement, Biphobia, Alcohol, Misogyny, and Ableism

I only gave it 4 stars because I'm not a huge fan of reading queer fiction that isn't "anyone who is queer is established as such from the get go."

I hated that for the first 150 pages, the enby character was being misgendered by everyone bc they hadn't come out yet.

charlottiec's review against another edition

emotional hopeful relaxing fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Biphobia, Homophobia, Deadnaming, and Dysphoria

maeverose's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

3.5

I was worried based on the synopsis that it would be overly cheesy but it’s really not. It is funny though, and the humor  worked for me. You can tell a trans person wrote this book, they definitely understand trans issues and it’s reflected in the book. I loved the conversations about how trans people shouldn’t be expected to teach cis people everything about gender.

My only complaints are the misunderstanding trope and how long it takes for them to finally get together. I do like how everything played out in the end but it was mild torture having to read Simone constantly convince herself Ray didn’t like her. I just wanted them to make out already. But those are mild complaints, overall I had a good time.

I do want to note that there is a lot of misgendering of Ray throughout the story. For the first half everyone, including the main character uses she/her pronouns for them because they aren’t out yet, then once they do come out the antagonists of the book purposefully misgender them every time they interact, and it’s quite infuriating. So if that’s a trigger for you I’d be prepared for that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Sexual content, Transphobia, Bullying, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Dysphoria, Homophobia, Medical content, and Vomit

Minor: Blood, Excrement, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Car accident, Child abuse, and Cursing

Graphic: misgendering, handling of bodily fluids after surgery

friendofdorothea's review

adventurous emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective relaxing fast-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? Yes

4.75

Really great trans representation 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Transphobia, and Biphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming and Dysphoria

nrhilmer's review

lighthearted slow-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming, Transphobia, and Outing

Minor: Dysphoria

arlangrey17's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Dysphoria, Medical content, and Deadnaming

potatogrr's review

• 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Racism, Medical content, Gaslighting, Homophobia, Dysphoria, and Deadnaming

courtneyclouts's review

emotional funny hopeful 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Blood

Moderate: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Bullying, Biphobia, Dysphoria, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Gaslighting

blackmetalblackheart's review

emotional funny hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

 **I was provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

When I started Chef's Kiss, I was certain that my review would end up being a negative one. After finishing, my opinion was completely flipped. Early on, I had trouble with the lack of subtext in the story, a stunted dynamic to the writing, and a feeling that it would all end up being too predictable. Either all of that improved over the course of the book or I got so wrapped up in the story and characters that I no longer cared. Either way, by the end of the story I was fully invested, in tears, and in love with the representation presented within its pages.

I am not a pastry chef, but all of the food related content felt like the author had experience in the field and came off as genuine. The dynamic of the main relationship was cute and honest. The fact that it took a backseat for a lot of the book in order to focus on workplace politics and queer representation was appealing. The story become more than just two people falling for each other and having steamy sex all over the pages. It was great to see a nonbinary character as a lead, and the discussions around trans dynamics was great; not overly preachy, but intelligent and informative. And though some people were bigoted assholes in the book, it never came off as sensationalized, but instead, authentic.

Chef's Kiss is a book that will have you rooting for the main group of characters, a book that makes me, as a nonbinary person, feel represented, and despite some of the serious topics it tackles, a book that will have you laughing and smiling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deadnaming and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual content and Dysphoria

Minor: Homophobia, Alcohol, Cursing, Medical content, and Biphobia