Reviews with content warning for Fatphobia - The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes

Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

The Unraveling of Cassidy Holmes by Elissa R. Sloan

5 reviews

readbycarina's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.5

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mariahcervelli's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

The plot I read before I actually read the book was gratifying. When I opened the first page I wanted to know how far it was going to get into those topics, there was small tangents and tid bits mostly from cassidy, and there was some depth to it, I just don’t think there was a ton of depth for any of the other gloss girls pov’s in the book. This book is the unraveling of Cassidy holmes so i think it showed it well. But, with the alongside of the other Pov’s I didn’t really like the some of the gloss girls if you think about their actions throughout the book. Rose had some secrets and they were unexpected but her development as a character never really hit, she was still the same until the last few chapters. Back to Cassies death. The real question is how exactly did she die? and another question is Why was the ending that? I honestly didn’t like the ending, the book didn’t tell me how she committed it just gave us hints at her depression which isn’t bad i just thought the entire premise of the book was about that. I felt super bad for Cassie and she made mistakes along the way but she was honestly trying her best. I wish they touched base with Cassie’s sexuality and her relationship she had (no spoilers) rather than it be constant denying. I didn’t care for Merry’s daughter and she honestly was kind of a bad person regardless of the information she was looking for and there was no big discoveries in the entire book. But I actually enjoyed hearing about her in her gloss days and sometimes it was super entertaining! This isn’t a bad review I just had the wrong expectations!

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maggies's review against another edition

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challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I had high hopes for this book, but I found it fell short of other similar novels about fame and its consequences, like Daisy Jones & The Six or The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo—maybe Taylor Jenkins Reid is just really good at that theme?
There was a lot to recommend it at the start, great writing and an interesting premise, but ultimately it lost its way pretty quickly. Perhaps because there was so much going on that none of it could actually be afforded the proper attention and care? Sure, that can be taken as a reflection of real life, but doesn't make for a particularly enjoyable book, in my opinion.

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cassie7e's review against another edition

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dark sad slow-paced

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

2.0

One star for competent writing, one star for prominent queer rep. If this had been marketed as YA instead of adult, I might have had different expectations.

Maybe I'm just too old for immature teen drama, but I found all the characters offputting and unlikeable. They are terrible to each other and all think they are in the right, or are responsible for all the wrong in the world. I don't think it's unrealistic, especially in how teen girl performers are exploited, but made it very hard for me to root for any of them or really care how their storylines played out.

I also found the "mystery" of Cassidy's depression confusing. It was neither surprising to me that a character in her position would struggle with mental health for years, nor was there ever a conclusive explanation found for her struggles to justify everyone's bizarre interest/confusion about it.

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jackieyvette's review

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dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense slow-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

3.25

I read it because I wanted a book that was similar to Daisy Jones & the Six and this one was listed everywhere as something in the same realm. I loved the premise idea, early 2000s pop girl groups are my favorite, but I think this book was just too slow. I felt like it took getting through more than half the book to really get anything of interest. I like Cassidy and Merry’s storylines, but I feel like Rose and Yumi’s fell flat which sucked because I actually really like the idea of Yumi, but Rose was just unlikeable from beginning to end.
I wouldn’t say it’s really anything like DJ&TS other than it being the music industry, but maybe I would have liked it more if I would have found it as a stand alone book and not a similarity between the two.

Crying Score: None, but Cassidy and Merry had me for a minute.

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