Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - The Last Mrs. Parrish

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Last Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine

76 reviews

nisquah's review

Incorrect description of ASPD, then the further demonizing of those with ASPD and not just the evil character in the book. This isn't a "callout", it's a more personal thing for me. As someone with ASPD who learned cognitive empathy and has many fulfilling and genuine relationships, I just don't enjoy consuming media that speaks about the disorder in this generalizing and/or inaccurate way. There is always a chance that this is rectified later in the book, of course! But I just don't have the energy for it at the moment. I respect those who do!

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chelseamayxxx's review

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

This is such a weird book and so much happens in it that you don’t really understand the plot of the story or what’s happening that much as it’s told from 2 people. I figured out that the husband was a narcissist bully who hated against women and children if there were girls. The 1st part of the story she is so obsessed with the family that it gets too much to read and the 2nd part of the story she is too scared to leave her abusive husband so the story did match up towards the end of the last 30 pages I would so. But this story takes so many twists and turns that is hard to enjoy this book. I got half way and wanted to give up reading this book but I was too addictive to finding out what finally happens in the story that I kept reading it sadly. The characters I absolutely hated them all though the book they were annoying and they kept moaning and winging about stuff that it gets too insufferable. Xxx

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pookiee's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

1.5

The Wife Between Us is a much better version of the same story; read that instead.

a lot of reviews mention plot twists, but I only read one (

that daphne finally realized what amber was up to and wanted her to ’steal’ her husband

). the rest is just a typical story and filling in of the details of the twist. really, the same events we read in pov1 are gone over in pov2 when we could easily assume 2’s thoughts, having found out the twist.

the writing is very bland; everything is “She did this. Then, she did that.” with no interesting figurative language. the simplicity makes it easy to speed through the book at least.

the characters are supremely boring, too. it’s crystal clear whom readers are supposed to root for/against and these people have no life outside of being virtuous/villainous and rich/poor.

the pov in part i is exhaustingly bitter and part ii is filled with tactless descriptions of abuse just to have us pity one chara and hate the other even more. this is not a deeply psychological book or character study, it’s emotional manipulation with total caricatures and major, laughable plot conveniences.

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nicolesbookreviews's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-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

3.0

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danielle_is_reading's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

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lynchca's review

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dark mysterious tense fast-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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lizwarnerr's review against another edition

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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

*This review is a complete spoiler and synopsis. The spoiler tags won’t let me put it all in a spoiler*

When I first started this book, I hated it. I hated amber, the main character. She was trying to con her way into marrying a powerful man because she had had such a bad life, which is an overdone trope IMO. She connects with his wife and instantly becomes her friend and weens her way into their family. I thought her plans for making her way into their lives and getting this man to succumb for her were working too easily, and I was annoyed because that’s not how it would’ve worked in real life.

And then we get to the second part of the book where daphne, the wife, recounts everything that happened. And it starts to click. She’s conning a con woman. She figures out that Amber is conning her, and she starts to formulate a way for both her and Amber to get what they want. Daphne has desperately wanted to leave - the husband is a sociopath. He’s mentally, physically, and emotionally abusive, but has her trapped in the relationship.

The last part of the book plays side by sides of amber and Daphne’s POVs. We get to see it play out of how Amber thinks she’s won when the husband decides to divorce Daphne because she’s finally giving the son he’s always wanted. Daphne is excited because she gets enough money out of the settlement to have trusts for the girls and can escape from him forever.

We think we’ll end on this and we expect that Amber is going to find out it’s not all roses and diamonds. But instead, Daphne gives the info to the husband that Amber is conning him and had a plant in his company so he’s also going to jail for tax fraud. And then Amber is also stuck in this relationship that is as bad as how Daphne was living because he knows her secret and will turn her to police if she tries to leave. And Daphne finally gets to escape that life.

I initially thought I would give this 2-3 stars because of how much I hated the characters. And then it got interesting from Daphne’s POV and I was ready to give it 5 stars. But as other reviewers have mentioned, the idea that domestic abuse is “punishment” for this woman’s actions is a bit unsettling. I think things could’ve been different. It is a book, and you feel the sense of relief and vengeance after reading, but I’m not sure it’s the best message. I’m still unsure on how I feel about this book.

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