Reviews tagging 'Eating disorder'

Final Girls by Riley Sager

23 reviews

sapphicpenguin's review

dark mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

Much more suspense/mystery than action/thriller. I wasn't expecting to enjoy this as much as I did! I did often get mad at the main character, but I guess I'll give her a pass for the, y'know, slasher-movie trauma. The plot twists were well set up/thought out, and kept me guessing till the very end. I liked the subversion of movie tropes, plus the writing was very satisfying. Great nonlinear storytelling. A good all-in-an-afternoon read.  I guess I don't have the patience for too much mystery, though, as sometimes I just wished we could get to the next thing.

ACAB btw

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Medical content, Gore, Infidelity, Murder, Vomit, Death, Grief, Blood, Toxic friendship, Drug abuse, Forced institutionalization, and Violence

Moderate: Gun violence, Alcoholism, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Death of parent, Eating disorder, Sexual assault, Cancer, and Incest

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Alcoholism, Murder, Drug use, Addiction, and Gore

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Body shaming, Eating disorder, and Vomit

Minor: Sexual content

ramunepocky's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.75

I really enjoyed this book, it certainly kept me on my toes with guessing what was going to happen next, I never knew I could be so wrong and so right simultaneously about what had happened, and what was going to happen. There were certain bits that lulled a bit, but I feel like that worked fairly well as a contrast to the fast paced bits and were equally important to the plot. I didnt particularly like any of the characters, or have any form of attachment to them, but it still interesting to see their development and see how their stories unravelled. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Sexual content, Infidelity, Murder, and Suicide

Moderate: Sexual assault and Eating disorder

theinstabookworm's review

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Murder

Minor: Eating disorder

breadwitchery's review

mysterious medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Murder, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Sexual content, Eating disorder, Blood, Sexual assault, and Addiction

Minor: Misogyny, Vomit, Death of parent, Cancer, Fatphobia, Alcohol, Racism, and Cursing

ivegotyourpaperback's review against another edition

mysterious tense medium-paced

2.0

Unpopular opinion: I didn’t love this. I didn’t even really like much of it. Which is disappointing because I went into it thinking it was going to be right up my alley. Unfortunately this alley had a few wrong turns. 

Let’s start with what I did like. I enjoyed the switching of narratives depending on the time period (Present day = 1st person narrative and the Past = 3rd person). I’m thought it made for interesting storytelling.

The thing I could barely stand? The main character, Quincy Carpenter. It’s a bit of a problem when a book’s main character is so annoying that it makes you want to throw the book across the room (which I would have done, had this not been a library book).

Quincy is so stupid in the present tense that it’s irritating. I don’t know if it’s because she’s been through a trauma so she’s prone to more risk-taking behaviour; or if the author has intentionally made her act stupidly as an homage to horror films (so the reader/audience is shouting “don’t do that”, “don’t go there”, “at night, really?”). Either way, it grated on my nerves.

But the cherry on top of this Moron Pie was when Sam convinced Quincy to walk around Central Park at night hoping someone will mug her so she can try some vigilante bullshit to show she’s ‘strong’. But uh oh, she then ends up kicking in the skull of a dude who was possibly hungry/probably drug affected (but didn’t actually do anything wrong), just because she thinks he tried to slap her (don’t worry, this isn’t a spoiler - it literally had no bearing on the story).

This is where I put the book down at 46% seriously reconsidering whether I really wanted to continue following a dipstick of a main character. The only thing keeping me intrigued at this point were the flashback chapters detailing the night of the massacre.

I then skim read the rest of the book only because I wanted to find out how it ended and I’m behind on my Goodreads reading goal. I actually enjoyed the tension once the story reached it’s crescendo, but getting there just felt like a slog.

Content warnings:

⚠️murder (duh)

⚠️depression/PTSD

⚠️eating disorder 

⚠️mention of suicide

⚠️substance abuse 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Eating disorder, and Drug abuse

Minor: Suicide

enchantressreads's review

dark mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Blood

Moderate: Suicide, Vomit, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Infidelity, and Drug abuse

Minor: Eating disorder, Sexual violence, and Fatphobia

Harry Potter reference

readwithzoe_'s review

dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Violence, Suicide, Murder, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, and Vomit

alinwonderland's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Drug abuse, Gore, Murder, Violence, and Stalking

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual content, Grief, and Toxic friendship

Minor: Car accident, Cursing, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Forced institutionalization

davidrb's review

dark mysterious tense 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

1.0

Christ.

No spoilers, but this is a tedious mess. For a thriller (and make no mistake: this is a thriller and not a horror), the pace is unbearably slow. The characters are beyond flat and contrived. The writing style gives absolutely nothing. Most damningly, the author takes a very dismissive approach towards more "traditional" trauma victims (i.e. survivors of rape and assault) in favor of his prototypical final girl, which is both uncomfortable to read and doesn't at all serve the story, considering it's a narrative about how trauma shapes people. Ostensibly.

Horror satire can still be suspenseful and scary (think Scream), but this forgoes any meaningful commentary in favor of cheap twists, and, in fact, has very little to say about the genre at all. I only gave it 1 star because I gave The Maidens 1 star, and I wouldn't say I hated it more. (I'm really striking out with thrillers lately.)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Ableism, Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Grief, Gun violence, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Violence