Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

76 reviews

sldibened's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Violence, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Outing, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Body shaming, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Abortion, Chronic illness, Dysphoria, Grief, Bullying, Child death, Infidelity, Death of parent, Forced institutionalization, Toxic friendship, Rape, and Stalking

em_pay22's review

dark mysterious medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Fatphobia

nickitaylor915's review against another edition

dark 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

The Last Mrs. Parrish" by Liv Constantine is a thrilling and suspenseful novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The story follows Amber, a woman who is determined to climb the social ladder and become the wife of a wealthy and powerful man. She sets her sights on Jackson Parrish, a successful businessman who is married to the beautiful and kind Daphne. Amber befriends Daphne and slowly begins to manipulate her way into the Parrish family, with the ultimate goal of stealing Jackson away from his wife.

The novel is well-written and the characters are complex and intriguing. The plot is full of twists and turns, and you never know what is going to happen next. The author does an excellent job of building tension and creating a sense of unease throughout the story, making it difficult to put down.

Overall, "The Last Mrs. Parrish" is a fantastic read for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers and suspenseful novels. I highly recommend it and would give it 5 stars out of 5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Body shaming

nickitaylor915's review

dark 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

The Last Mrs. Parrish" by Liv Constantine is a thrilling and suspenseful novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The story follows Amber, a woman who is determined to climb the social ladder and become the wife of a wealthy and powerful man. She sets her sights on Jackson Parrish, a successful businessman who is married to the beautiful and kind Daphne. Amber befriends Daphne and slowly begins to manipulate her way into the Parrish family, with the ultimate goal of stealing Jackson away from his wife.

The novel is well-written and the characters are complex and intriguing. The plot is full of twists and turns, and you never know what is going to happen next. The author does an excellent job of building tension and creating a sense of unease throughout the story, making it difficult to put down.

Overall, "The Last Mrs. Parrish" is a fantastic read for anyone who enjoys psychological thrillers and suspenseful novels. I highly recommend it and would give it 5 stars out of 5.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, and Body shaming

antidietleah'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Good psychological theory. Walked away thinking, wow, these people are messed up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fatphobia, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Body shaming, and Bullying

megs_readstoomuch's review

dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Domestic abuse, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Cursing, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Classism, Death of parent, and Fatphobia

Minor: Sexual assault, Alcohol, Confinement, Abortion, Toxic friendship, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Violence, and Mental illness

viwilliams's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Domestic abuse, Toxic relationship, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Gaslighting, Sexual content, Rape, Eating disorder, Toxic friendship, and Fatphobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Child death, Chronic illness, Gun violence, Classism, Forced institutionalization, and Abortion

Minor: Incest, Infertility, and Death of parent

daniellenelson's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, Bullying, Violence, Toxic friendship, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Death, Chronic illness, Body shaming, Gun violence, Death of parent, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Fatphobia, Abortion, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Classism, Terminal illness, Grief, and Gaslighting

backlistsandbooze's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional

• Loveable characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, and Gaslighting

minimicropup's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

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

3.0

2 stars + 1 star bump-up 

Main POV: 

• A married parent with the ‘perfect’ family. They are a wealthy philanthropist dedicated to cystic fibrosis awareness and funding. They seem open-minded, docile, spoiled, and naïve due to loneliness.
• A single adult in their 20s working in a real estate office while going for the long-con in a self-concocted scheme to infiltrate the philanthropist’s life, although we don’t know why. It could be revenge; it could be because they are completely unhinged.

 

Atmosphere 😒: Detached, uneasy, vindictive

• Set mostly in a wealthy suburb near Manhattan, NY

 

Cred Rating 🤪: OTT

• On the ‘juicy’ soap opera side of over-the-top. Not a story you want to go in overthinking or looking for meaningful commentary or symbolism from. 

 

Growls and Howls 🐺: 

• I don’t mind OTT, but the SLOW OTT is hard to pull off, so although it was an interesting plot in theory, it fell apart in execution for me. I think it could have benefitted from some cuts because the slowness wasn’t contributing to the story, it was stalling it out. We have the story delivered through overreliance on hold-backs (“If only they knew what I was about to do”), overly descriptive scenes about the clothing and appearances of everyone, and a lot of MC internal monologue that involves reminding the reader of a goal or thought we are already are familiar with because it was previously revealed to us…sometimes multiple times!
• There are some problematic tropes in this book, but I think that’s forgivable with OTT/soap opera type plots. It’s like angrily therapeutic. Someone plotting to steal your life and destroy you in the process? Wouldn’t it be nice to find out they self-destructed? Yes, we have women throwing themselves at a man’s feet, being toxic to other women, and using each other to further their own goals. However, this plot used severe physical, emotional, sexual, AND verbal abuse as a major revenge element. It felt icky. But, we also have stories glorifying female serial killers, so just go in to this one aware that it falls into that territory. 

 

Oops 🙃⭐️: The Housemaid by Freida McFadden (April 26, 2022) is technically a retelling of this work (opinion varies as to whether it was plagiarism, inspiration, or coincidental). The plot and MCs are different between the two, but the plot devices are the same, hence why I would say re-telling (some of my fav books are, so it's not a dig). The main difference is Frieda McFadden’s work is not so deeply in the OTT realm and doesn't rely on the abuse as justice trope. Regardless of where you stand on the matter, The Last Mrs Parrish was first (Oct 17, 2017) and I recognize that I knew the plot elements going in because I read The Housemaid first, which diluted the twists for me. So, I’m going to rate this an extra star to account for that bias.

 

Reading Journey 🙄😬: Sitting through a play when you had high expectations for it. Slow, then repetitive, then even slower, then bam-bam-bam wrap-up. My applause is for finally getting to leave, not for the performance.  

 

Mood Reading Match-Up:

• Juicy, behind closed doors domestic thriller
• B****, I’m gonna steal your life trope
• Slow, scheming, long-con sociopathic mind
• Guilty-pleasure soap opera revenge plots

 

Vibes: 😬😏😑

 

Content Heads-Up: Toxic friendships and relationships. Rape and sexual abuse (descriptive, on page). Physical, verbal, emotional abuse against spouses and children (on page). 

 

Format: Kindle Unlimited

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Ableism and Fatphobia

Minor: Abandonment and Death of parent

Sexual violence, rape, assault etc are on page, repetitive, and occur within a marriage. Ableism refers to reading difficulties in a child

(dyslexia and stuttering)

involving refusal to get treatment and bullying by a parent. Also a parent supporting termination and abandonment of sick or disabled children. Fatphobia is by a male against female spouse to control/demean, female spouses going on extreme diets to gain his approval, and mothers expressing disgust with their bodies after childbirth. Abandonment refers to parental rejection

(father abandoning daughters in favour of his son

.