Reviews tagging 'Fatphobia'

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline

36 reviews

solcatcat's review against another edition

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

3.0

 The loudest nerd fantasy, nerd revenge narrative. Complete with a manic pixie dream girl. Overall it was fine, I had fun with the puzzles and action bits. But the middle dragged on and the narrative became repetitive. I found myself thinking, “Ok, we get it” a few times. Sometimes, the dialogue seemed so forced and unnatural. It was as if the author was writing what he thought teenagers would talk like instead of an actual conversation between teenagers if that makes sense.

I can’t fault the author for all of my qualms with the book though. I am not sympathetic to the ~nerd boy obsessed with the nerd dream fantasy girl that he puts on a pedestal and then ultimately feels entitled to her love and affection and gets all sadboi for 100 pages when it doesn’t work out for him~. I get that there are readers who would totally dig that, but it is just not for me. Outside of that narrative though, the premise is super interesting and cool. 
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lizzyelrick's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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stindex's review against another edition

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adventurous informative lighthearted fast-paced
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

2.0

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arnold_shelby's review against another edition

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

3.0

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magmaticious's review against another edition

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

5.0

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afigandahalf's review against another edition

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4.0

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razkat's review against another edition

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

4.0

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sonjaelisee's review against another edition

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adventurous dark inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

Interesting ideas but doesn’t really say anything. Protagonist is definitely a teen boy from the early 2000s… who has never had a single meaningful female friendship in his life. That said, I did enjoy the quest/adventure… as long as I don’t think too hard about anything and breeze past some (all) of Wade’s problematic views. I am choosing to believe that Wade was written this way as satire/commentary on the classic incel nerd stereotype (even though I know he wasn’t) 
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caitlaird's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

Before I get into this I should state I did actually enjoy this book a lot. The word building is amazing and so well done. I can truly see how realistic of a possibility this world could be. It’s an amazing take on how media and video games can take over and rule society, especially in a world ruined by capitalism, overconsumption, and environmental destruction; and how much easier it is to try and escape from it all rather than facing it. 
The use of 80’s media was truly the best part of it all, made for such a cool and fun world. 

That being said (possible small spoilers ahead but warnings any moral person might want). 
This book is an incels wet dream of a y/n - self insert action hero whatever, complete with casual usage of transphobia and homophobia to really finish it off. Specifically the phrase “twinked out”  when talking about people who are just dancing at a club (that he’s at no less!!) and multiple instances of blatant transphobia that you’d hope and think wouldn’t exist in 2045. Also every inspiration listed in this book is a male creator. Science fiction wouldn’t be what it is without women, Mary Shelly, Ursula Le Guin, I could go on. Do men just not think of women? Honestly curious. 
I would put this book at the top of my list “so obvious it was written by a man it’s actually physically painful”. 

The character Artemis is a queen amongst men. She is however a victim of the manic pixie dream girl ideal but that’s NOT her fault. She is the one voice of reason in this whole book and it feels like that might be the only reason she’s there, other than to be something to lust after and prove that the “nerd” boy can actually get the girl.
That being said Wade is obsessed with her and is totally in love with her so at least he gets one thing right. (This isn’t a spoiler he says it like in the first chapter okay).
And shoutout to Aech, who is just the coolest best friend of all friends. 

I kept waiting for Wade to learn the lesson that was the real world is essential to truly living , something you don’t need to read the book to know I think. But he might actually just be the most dense man that’s ever existed ever. At one point, he admitted that he’s an agoraphobic geek and hates it but then changes absolutely nothing about his life. Also why does he have to make such a point that he’s not a fatty. Like realistically he’d be fat. That’s okay. What’s with the fat phobia my guys?
This feels like an Incel boys Bible of what you should do to be the main character. He is a very bad friend to his best friend and he doesn’t even get better. It’s very much a scary look into the mind of a man.
I originally rated the book 4 stars so it’s not that bad I guess, but zoo wee mama it’s like a punch in the gut sometimes. I really have to pause sometimes and go “huh, I know you didn’t just say what I think you did”, but of course he did. 
And after a few days processing what I read I actually decided this book deserves 2.75 stars. How can a book be 4 stars when the protagonist is literally the worst person in the world. 
Like any other character would’ve been a more interesting protagonist, especially Artemis, not that I want Ernest Cline to write a book from a woman’s pov. The only thing worse than wades pov would be a woman’s pov written by Cline. I think he would really benefit from reading some books written by women with female protagonists. 

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blueacorn1991's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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