Scan barcode
wrensreadingroom's review
5.0
Graphic: Bullying, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Abandonment, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Chronic illness, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Cursing, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Suicide attempt, Vomit, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
readingwithcoffee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
0.25
Also all the Meta commentary/break the forth wall is incredibly bad and is showing not telling and trying to force the horrible plot along hamfisted (which is a shame bc when the story is trying the protagonist like the sun the solar systems revolves around the writing is fairly good) especially when the only other character who really does this is a fifth character who isn’t funny but self declares himself the comic relief that’ll die first or second when he’s not funny he’s just very cruel and hypocritical and his presence at a wedding of people he can’t name doesn’t even make sense if he only cares about a woman who barely got invited as well and it’s never addressed how he he clearly has a pattern of sexism if he was horrible to talia the entire time especially when she was in danger, abandoned cat when she was suffering, and his wife is only brought up by other people-yet isn’t brought up when he tells another man to abandon his wife?
It feels like the book reward narcissist cruel behavior because it presents the protagonist as always right even when she’s clearly in the wrong and as if it’s too much for her supposed best friend who stopped her from suicide to ask her to be literally just a decent person at his wedding she invited herself to? And again bending over backwards to have the non Japanese character know more then the Japanese man while also kinda over randomly bringing up the white man’s race to say he’s so privileged when Asian characters saying it are established as rich, are more dehumanizing of the woman of color they’re not friends with (and there’s a contrived love triangle) and again the two men who both happened to reject the protagonist are punished by the book and presented as deeply flawed when they’re dramatically kinder and more compassionate then the protagonist or her friend and literally explicitly established as saving her life which makes the book lack any real moral compass or coherent theme. Like the man who possibly lost his wife to a brutal death gets no sympathy for breaking down over it but the book has the protagonist say she’s not weak because she didn’t cry over another person dying which screams thinking real men don’t cry is somehow feminist if women (or men) don’t express basic decency and compassion??
The novella also brings up race weirdly to have the Chinese character say why would he know Chinese when the half Japanese man doesn’t when his again so close friend that’s studied Malaysian studied Japanese art and is kinda racist in multiple ways an assumption? Or even saying the queer character dies first in horror when that’s not even typically true versus the black character but there are no black people and it reads hypocritical and whiny for the characters to want to enjoy a characters money (especially when they are also clearly upper middle class) but also use it? Especially for a book that tries to confront Eurocentrismo for how it punished the white man it made into a caricature of American white privileged with class and blond hair and even a quarter back for all that it is a book that doesn’t really explore or do anything with undead Japanese woman, Bengali bride who both feel like anticlimactic props for the protagonist who screams not like other girls to punish the groom and white guy for dumping her when again she explicitly states they saved her life. It’s just odd how aware of race the book wants to be when it does not care about the brutalized women of color in the book beyond the development of the protagonist who does not gain any self awareness and scream not like other girls the entire time. Even her bisexuality screams shoe horned it and as a feminist felt squeezed in to pretend the protagonist isn’t as centered around male attention and desirability as she clearly is.
The book had such a cool premise and good writing at parts like when the ghost “laughed as if someone had told her the joke that killed god”. But the plot is so badly written and frankly the lack of themes that If exist incredibly sexist is what kills the book and predictability of a not like other girls protagonist always being right even when she’s a grown woman bullying another woman at her own wedding
Graphic: Abandonment, Body horror, Death, Sexism, Classism, and Misogyny
aparker89's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Cursing, Alcohol, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Body horror, Gore, Mental illness, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Excrement, Suicide attempt, Classism, Biphobia, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Self harm, and Abandonment
peachani's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Body horror, Self harm, Blood, and Bullying
Minor: Abandonment, Classism, Alcohol, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, and Gaslighting
nixieba25f's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Graphic: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Forced institutionalization, Cultural appropriation, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Blood, Bullying, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Body horror, Infidelity, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail
_morgreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Grief, Confinement, Blood, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Violence, Gore, and Body horror
Moderate: Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Murder, Mental illness, and Sexual content
jjjreads's review against another edition
- 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? It's complicated
Graphic: Abandonment, Ableism, Alcohol, Confinement, Cursing, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, Bullying, Death, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts
kyrstin_p1989's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
Graphic: Blood, Classism, Abandonment, Torture, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Death, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit
misty_muskrat's review
4.25
Graphic: Abandonment, Blood, Body horror, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, and Violence
Moderate: Gaslighting, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Cultural appropriation