Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

7 reviews

eliya's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious slow-paced

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

2.75

I had a whole review written out yesterday and I didn’t save it and now it’s gone 😪
It took me about a month to read this pretty short book lol. 13 hours of reading time.

Loved the “weird” nature of the book, combining two loved genres, the snide remarks the characters make about each other. There are some good quotes from this book that I’ll be listing below. I don’t think you’re supposed to like any character and I definitely didn’t lol. Loved the physical descriptions the author used to describe feelings. 

Did not love the writing style. The author focused a lot on scene dressing and filled most of the book with painful, needless details and empty attempts to develop internal dialogue between the different characters.

I think Casey was spot-on- Amanda and Vanessa were the same character, one just had two moms and talked mostly about how that shaped her vs the other one who wanted to fuck Jeremy so much. Lilah Mae was a caricature of the toxic Christian trope & Renee… I’m conflicted about Renee. She was a curmudgeon the whole book, understandably so, but I don't find valor in just being a hater. 

In the author’s note, the author talks about how it took courage to write this “weird” book, but it truly was not weird enough.

I had a lot of hopes for this book, but all in all, it was: boring, boring, cringy and unbelievable, funny, boring, until 80% through, then it was really exciting!! Where was that the whole rest of the book?

Favorite quotes out of context -

“For Alexa, the knife in my heart”
“But that was the point, wasn’t it? To be reminded.”
“Some pretzel bags are prettier than others…”
"But she's trying to stop searching for herself in the eyes of others"
"Standing over her like a gangly teenager about to ask his mom for lunch money"
"He tasted minty and yet somehow still disgusting, like Altoids that had been scraped off of the floor of the car."
"She imagines what it would be like to have a brain unburdened by intelligence--and then Vanessa's..."
"Casey didn't finish; she wasn't expecting to"
"It seems like the sort of place where you could actually just live life, instead of researching the best way to live your life on the internet."

 

"Leafless trees poking out through the cracks between them, like arms worn down to their sinews reaching up to be fed."
"Nothing but silence and sky. It feels like the end of the world."

" 'Maybe you would have rather gone home with Amanda?! ... You kissed her way better than you ever kissed me!' 'That's because you taste like unwashed asshole, Jeremy' "
"...barely notice it at first, is a fresh human head, detached from a body that is nowhere to be found. Her hair tied in a ponytail, her expression frozen in shock, a layer of blood caking on pale skin. 'Hi, Amanda,' Renee says, looking down at the head. Amanda doesn't speak back, because she's a disembodied head. Alas, poor Amanda."

 

New words:
Indefatigable - Persisting tirelessly.
Eponymous -  

1. (of a person) giving their name to something.
2. "the eponymous hero of the novel"
   • (of a thing) named after a particular person.
   • "Roseanne's eponymous hit TV series"

Adroit -   clever or skillful in using the hands or mind. "he was adroit at tax avoidance" 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, and Gore

Moderate: Alcoholism, Religious bigotry, Gun violence, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Terminal illness, Homophobia, Cancer, and Abortion

Minor: Racism, Fatphobia, and Grief

gruhuken's review

dark funny hopeful fast-paced

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

3.5

I really love this kind of horror. I had a lot of fun reading this; the humour was pretty funny, it had a few really scary moments and the ending was surprisingly sweet. It felt a little too short, I wanted to know way more about the strange main character (what the hell was she even doing on the dating show to begin with??). The second half is where it becomes a slasher but I also felt that went by far too quickly, as if it was trying to get the characters out of the way rather than giving time to breathe within kills. A lot of questions, especially about the members of the island group, went unanswered in a way that didn't satisfy me. Would recommend this though, if not just for a quick, weird and funny queer read about. Found family? And sasquatches.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Car accident, Death, Murder, Violence, and Gore

Moderate: Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Bullying, Grief, and Gun violence

Minor: Abortion, Kidnapping, Cancer, Sexual content, Racism, and Animal cruelty

Strong descriptions of violence, body mutilation and murder committed by a sasquatch creature. A character is grieving the death of her wife from cancer (this is mentioned in the beginning of the book). Some minor misogyny and racism towards the main character from a shitty guy, and some mild homophobia from a religious character. One mention of the D slur. Another character is mentioned multiple times to have alcohol problems. The main warning I would give is the gore: although the book retains a playful and comedic tone, there's a lot of dismemberment and bludgeoning

chasingpages1's review

adventurous dark funny mysterious 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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Car accident, Blood, Toxic relationship, Lesbophobia, Gore, Alcoholism, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Racism, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Toxic friendship, and Violence

Moderate: Torture

Minor: Abortion, Biphobia, Suicide, Sexual content, Outing, and Grief

bi_n_large's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, and Violence

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Gun violence, and Murder

Minor: Abortion, Grief, and Physical abuse

leannanecdote's review

mysterious 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Alcoholism, Blood, Death, Gore, Alcohol, Body horror, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, and Vomit

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Suicidal thoughts, Cancer, Cursing, Sexual content, Classism, and Grief

rebeccajost's review against another edition

dark funny mysterious tense slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Violence, Lesbophobia, Cursing, Religious bigotry, Death, Toxic friendship, Gore, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Alcohol

Moderate: Gaslighting, Bullying, Abortion, Body shaming, Sexism, Racism, Classism, Cancer, Misogyny, and Grief

motaki's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious 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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book, even if having so many pov got confusing at times. 
Apart from Renee which was lovely and deserves only good things, the other characters were truly awful. 
Casey got too many chapters for my taste, she is an arrogant entitled woman and I couldn't care less what she was doing/thinking (which usually consisted in a mix of "I'm way better than anyone" and "what can my superior intellect come up with to improve our ratings") 
Patricia if you need some cuddle time I'm volunteering, in fact I would love to do just that! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Blood, Car accident, Gore, and Homophobia

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Grief, Abortion, and Misogyny