Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

43 reviews

mal_reads_books's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.5

The story was gripping and suspenseful, full of red herrings that actually tricked and surprised me. I loved how the drawings were included so that I felt immersed in the story. Overall, it's one of the better thrillers I've read.

However, it gave me weird vibes at times.

The "male gaze" experiment at the beginning was weird and didn't relate to the rest of the story.

The anti-religious parents were stereotypical liberals who don't even say "bless you" or celebrate Christmas. They have discussions with the child about private parts and exposing oneself, even buying a graphic sex book for the child. The main character is Christian and saves the child from the parents

, who kidnapped the child and forced the child to change gender. The child transitions back to a girl and the main character goes "I knew [the child] was a girl all along."

. Reviewers have debated whether this book is transphobic. On a surface level, it may not seem so. Given this was published last year and alludes to right-wing views on the matter, I feel the author was making a statement supporting these ideas.

There were also fatphobic statements like "she ballooned to a size eight", which is not even fat. The main character criticized her mom for being fat and unhelpful, but all is well when she loses weight.

Other issues include one-dimensional stereotypical characters such the crazy right-wing neighbor and the main character's landscaper Latino friend, and how technology turns children into zombies.

To an extent, I enjoyed the book. I liked its originality with the drawings. Unfortunately, it got heavy-handed with the political and religious ideology, especially toward the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Transphobia

Minor: Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual content

prettyflyforascienceguy's review against another edition

3.0

On the surface level, it’s a fine thriller that is hard to put down. However, there is fatphobia and transphobia in the book. It basically felt like “Morally Just Christian FMC overcomes her battle with temptation and must save child from evil Atheist parents” it was a little heavy handed at times. Any time the FMC and Charlotte had a disagreement, it was always “Charlotte glanced disapprovingly at my cross necklace” and “she won’t believe me because she’s an atheist.” 

I almost wish there was no ghost element to the story. It would have been much more unnerving if there wasn’t a supernatural explanation for the occurrences. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Fatphobia and Transphobia

mkwreads's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Fatphobia, Infertility, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

annahamburger's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Violence, Medical trauma, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Stalking, Car accident, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Confinement, Cursing, Fatphobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Sexual content, Transphobia, Blood, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Gaslighting, Alcohol, and Dysphoria

kaitieg97's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious sad tense 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

4.0

Really enjoyed this story, I didn't expect those plot twists! A pretty thrilling read!

Dropped 1 star after a reread for the excessive use of the phrases "healthy eating", always bring up the fact they were drinking seltzer water, and describing people as "fat" for no reason. It didn't add anything to the plot and was unnecessary.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, and Murder

Moderate: Body shaming, Drug use, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, and Car accident

Minor: Infertility

mitchell_1's review against another edition

dark mysterious fast-paced

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction and Body shaming

Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Racism, Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Car accident

onceandfuturereads's review against another edition

fast-paced

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

2.0

Until about halfway in I didn’t *hate* it. But by then even the pictures couldn’t save it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism

Moderate: Addiction

Minor: Fatphobia and Transphobia

ktame001's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Gun violence, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Gaslighting

Minor: Fatphobia

voidcrawler's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

0.5

littered with right wing propaganda, primarily in the form of transphobia. sprinkle in some casual fatphobia, racism, and religious bigotry, and you have this book.

i’m now convinced booktok, especially the horror side of it, either don’t read the books they promote or they severely lack reading comprehension skills. everyone’s more obsessed with how “wOw fUcKed uP!!! 🥴” something is in terms of gore and jump-scares over the actual problematic shit in this book. bonkers, really, since so many horrortok creators are left-leaning and lgbtq+.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Fatphobia, Racism, Sexism, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Gaslighting, and Sexual harassment

alisonfaith426's review against another edition

mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Racism, Transphobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Cursing, Sexual content, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

Minor: Dementia