Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

8 reviews

everesto's review

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emotional funny reflective slow-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? Yes

4.25

This book was hard to put down, it was written in a way that made me need to know what happened to the characters. Here are some miscellaneous thoughts I have:
- I love the way the author utilized the different perspectives of Fay, Nell, the F&N unit, and the invert society. I really enjoyed how the chapters that were the F&N unit and the invert society were in first person and used the 'we' pronoun whereas the Fay and Nell chapters were in third person and were reflective on the events in high school.
- knowing how close Fay and Nell were in highschool and that they did not talk at all after highschool really made me curious about what could have happened to separate them.
- The faunfic was weird (don't write fanfic about real people, ESPECIALLY don't write smut. It's just weird)
and though it ended up being and important plot point
it still made me feel weird.
-
the ending was pretty unsatisfying to me. I don't know what could have been different but I don't think the story was concluded really. I think that makes sense given the way their relationship ended but still.

-
I think Fay's plot point of being a gay trans man was NOT resolved in the slightest, though I think that Fay wouldn't end up resolving it at all and would stay living as a woman. Despite this, I wish that something went different with it due to the miscommunication about gay stuff between Fay and Nell being a big point of tension in their friendship (at least for Nell).

-I want to know more about Theo. 

Overall I really enjoyed the book and thought that the characters and their relationships were written really well!
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kitta's review

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emotional reflective 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

3.0

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sarahgehrke's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

4.0

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duzzle's review

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

4.5

Thomas's writing was so disgustingly relatable. It shocked me how well he was able to articulate and dredge up feelings I hadn't thought about since my own teenage-queer-friend-obsession fraught with exploratory RPs, insomnia-inducing anxiety, and being a little SHIT. Idlewild does a wonderful job exploring the many different ways teens can be fucking awful, and I'm so here for it. Don't come expecting a fuzzy-feel-good story.

The only gripe I'd have is with a certain scarecrow-esque figure in the book who isn't really given much humanity (but at the same time, we all know a person like them, so I feel like the author knew what he was doing there).
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arissthearies's review

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emotional reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

4.5

A grippingly tense book centered around a fraught teenage queer friendship. The ultimate reveal was done in a fantastic all-bold paragraph. Very well paced and deeply understanding of how intense friendships can be

Racism was tackled with complexity. 

I could have done without the casual fatphobia (the fat characters just weren't written well - it tipped into shamey at times). Theo felt like he needed extra explanation instead of just being a sociopath (especially in his adult self). The high school theater stuff was a lot, but I never liked theatre

Overall a very very good departure form most trans narratives
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leonidskies's review

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challenging emotional sad 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? Yes

5.0

This book has ruined me, I will never stop thinking about it and everyone should read it.
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chefboyavi's review

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adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Beautifully written, well conceived, and ultimately heartbreaking. I’ve never been more grateful to have gone to public school. 
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dystopia's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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? Yes

5.0

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