Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak

3 reviews

kyrstin_p1989's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

4.5

This was so good, I couldn’t put it down. There were so many things that happened that I did not expect in the least. It was a wild ride, especially the last 100 pages or so. This book goes to show that you never know the lengths someone will go to protect their own interests and cover up their own lies and deceit.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Gun violence, Infertility, Infidelity, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Classism, Confinement, Deadnaming, Drug use, Gaslighting, Gore, Grief, Toxic friendship, Transphobia, Violence, Death, Death of parent, Stalking, Torture, Drug abuse, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Outing

spooderman's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Violence, Physical abuse, Addiction, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Drug use, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Car accident, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Kidnapping, Gun violence, Deadnaming, Death, Death of parent, Blood, and Transphobia

Moderate: Ableism, Confinement, Outing, and Stalking

Minor: Bullying, Dementia, Dysphoria, Pregnancy, Racism, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Classism, Infidelity, Vomit, Chronic illness, Fire/Fire injury, Self harm, Animal cruelty, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Xenophobia, Infertility, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Medical content, and Medical trauma

magellen's review

hopeful mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

As an ex-nanny, there are certain parts of this book that ring very true. Then there's portions where woof this female mc is written by a man. 
The book was also oddly dated - the first Harry Potter mention was surprising, but by the point the mc was praising its author's talent (😒) I thought I'd picked up a much older book but nope. 2022 publish date. Also the 'oh my god you like star warrrrs what a nerd!' bit was like...buddy, no one has thought that in decades.

Much of the book is a red herring - like literally the book takes some sharp turns in the back quarter that peel it entirely away from the first mystery. And like...yeah? I guess the bread crumbs are there, amongst the weird disdain lacing nearly every character.

Like...its not terrible? But it squicked me out more than once with author choices that like Mmmmm frankly, make me feel his bad vibes, much like a largely abandoned plot point from the beginning of the novel. 
I wouldn't recommend it to a friend or read it again, but if you're shooting for a reading goal eh, it is a book.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Classism, Outing, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Dysphoria, and Kidnapping