Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

29 reviews

dazedl's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

3.25

ahh i like how intriguing this story and it's actually quite well written.. as long as you can get past the overtly cliched trope of "atheistic vegan leftist millenial parents" like how avid fox news views people who are not conservative in their book lol

also the epilogue was boring and the book would be better off without that part 😭

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Religious bigotry, and Abandonment

ladypuercoloco'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I got into this one way more than I expected to - not sure why I chose it/how I came by it until I realized it fulfilled a Kindle Challenge requirement for a Goodreads pick.  I read horror/mysteries/thrillers all the time and honestly the blurb sounded a bit familiar to me, but as I got into the book I realized this one really stands out from other nanny horror books I've read.  The supernatural aspects are really well done

"Anya" being the mother was mind-blowing!  I liked the red herring of the mid-century murder plot that wasn't a murder...So many twists and turns came as surprises but even though I marked this spoiler and I seriously doubt anyone cares to read my reviews just in case I won't give more away.

. Having known a few addicts in various stages of use/recovery I really liked the future that was laid out for Mallory and the amount of work she was willing to put in.  This one was a pleasant early January surprise that will be hopefully setting the pace for the year - I LOVE being surprised by plot twists I really don't see coming!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Infertility, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, Toxic relationship, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, Car accident, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria

Overall I don't feel like any particular thing was too graphic but the contents/plot/subplot can be a lot to take in in retrospect. It honestly wasn't until I was looking through the trigger warning list that I realized just how many played a part in this book, but I listed all as mild as none were terribly drawn out. It's a horror book. There are bound to be some horrible things in, especially when it has been an award winner. I rated it just about as high as I ever rate anything - it is excellent at what it does and the elements it is able to work in

biblio_creep's review against another edition

The first half of it was going along pretty well, and then things took several turns.

From the jump there is a lot of mention about the main character being Christian, and the two other adult main characters being atheist. We are banged over the head with it on several occasions. It just feels icky, like you're getting reminded that atheists are bad people subtly, over and over. And wouldn’t you know, the Christian ends up to be the hero and the Atheists are bad people. Of course.

Then, we get a plot point/twist using gender identity that I found to be very problematic. In short, it's transphobic. And, it's full of right-wing dog whistles. 

Additionally, it's not even well written. There are many other plot points that are introduced and then not mentioned again until the very end, and didn’t even need to be there. And, a lot of confusing or stupid decisions by characters. Just a trope filled mess.

My advice is to not waste your time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

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

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

izypup's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Grief, and Death of parent

Minor: Cursing, Infertility, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, Transphobia, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Dysphoria

empiricalrisk's review against another edition

dark tense fast-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Transphobia, and Religious bigotry

stonecoldfaux's review against another edition

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Alcoholism and Religious bigotry

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

halierivers's review against another edition

dark 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? No

1.25

I really struggled with what to rate this. On one hand it was such a great concept and the images inside were a unique addition I enjoyed. On top of that, this book is a bestseller. 

It feels like I missed a memo because I not only didn’t like it. I had a handful of problems that stood out to me besides pacing and having way too many unnecessary details and scenes that didn’t need to be there. The big thing was it felt like this author was demonizing “liberal” parents with

absolute extremes to the point of forcing transgenderism on a child and talking to a five year old about anal sex

There was also some overt and unnecessary racism in this book. And weird Christian rhetoric. It almost didn’t seem intentional, but it was distracting none the less since the story would have been perfectly fine without these two things shoved in there. 

The ending was (again) such an interesting idea but it was almost impossible to overlook the amount of time wasted getting there. The ghost reveal part, not the gender part. This book had a few cool ideas just done so poorly. I will not be picking up this author again. Not when there are so many better thrillers/mysteries out there. 

Also I advise avoiding this book if you struggle with gender dysphoria of any type as the author definitely slid some not so covert transphobia in there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Religious bigotry

Minor: Racism