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A review by jurnee_reads
Callie's Catastrophe by Ruby Dixon
2.0
Things I like: Harry Potter references, fat female lead, the humor, dealings with grief and loss of family, found family
Things I don’t like: drugging, treating female lead like a womb instead of a person, lack of proper communication, angry fat woman trope being used AGAIN
Calida is a fierce lady dealing with grief and resonance at the same time which is a really ugly mix. She doesn’t get the time to actually handle her grief before she’s thrust into resonance with a male who has very little consideration for her situation. M’Tok is funny and interesting to read about, but he’s not very empathetic. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a Slytherin, but he doesn’t have to be so “sly and cunning” that he completely ignores the wants and needs of his woman and isn’t able to properly communicate with her at some point.
I kept thinking it would get better, he’d be an ass for a while and then Calida would get vulnerable with him so he’d feel remorse for how aggressive he was with her. But that didn’t happen! He just stayed in the same state of mind. Even them bonding over losing their families didn’t change his thinking at all. He should understand how hard things are for her, he should feel bad for putting all that extra pressure on her, but he doesn’t. He’s just “resonance will fix it, let’s fuck” and that’s it.
One thing that sorta kinda pertains to the story I want to rant about… This is why I prefer Slytherins paired with Hufflepuffs as opposed to a Gryffindor. A Hufflepuff will at least be a good influence on the Slytherin, a Gryffindor will not! Calida even hates on Hufflepuffs at the beginning which is annoying as hell. Calida could have been a Hufflepuff type character and been more gentle and able to encourage empathy in M’Tok so he could see where he’d gone wrong, sort of like Ellie with Bek, but instead he just wears her down with his trickery and stubbornness… which is gross. She’s basically tricked and forced into giving consent which isn’t actually consent… so the ending of this was really unsatisfying. No character growth, just rewarded bad behavior.
Why Ruby keeps making her fat character angry every single time I have no clue… but it’s wearing me out. Fat women are gentle and sensitive too! We’re not all aggressive and angry at the world but portrayed as “feisty” for a more palatable experience. All the other smaller sized characters get depth, get to be different and diverse, but all the fat women are angry… it’s gross. I hope she does better in the future books.
Also… Calida may be depressed, she’s grieving, but she doesn’t actually have depression… there is a difference. It may not be a noticeable difference for those who don’t have depression, but there is one. We’re not just sad when things are bad, we’re sad all the damn time… even when everything is great.
Things I don’t like: drugging, treating female lead like a womb instead of a person, lack of proper communication, angry fat woman trope being used AGAIN
Calida is a fierce lady dealing with grief and resonance at the same time which is a really ugly mix. She doesn’t get the time to actually handle her grief before she’s thrust into resonance with a male who has very little consideration for her situation. M’Tok is funny and interesting to read about, but he’s not very empathetic. Don’t get me wrong, I love me a Slytherin, but he doesn’t have to be so “sly and cunning” that he completely ignores the wants and needs of his woman and isn’t able to properly communicate with her at some point.
I kept thinking it would get better, he’d be an ass for a while and then Calida would get vulnerable with him so he’d feel remorse for how aggressive he was with her. But that didn’t happen! He just stayed in the same state of mind. Even them bonding over losing their families didn’t change his thinking at all. He should understand how hard things are for her, he should feel bad for putting all that extra pressure on her, but he doesn’t. He’s just “resonance will fix it, let’s fuck” and that’s it.
One thing that sorta kinda pertains to the story I want to rant about… This is why I prefer Slytherins paired with Hufflepuffs as opposed to a Gryffindor. A Hufflepuff will at least be a good influence on the Slytherin, a Gryffindor will not! Calida even hates on Hufflepuffs at the beginning which is annoying as hell. Calida could have been a Hufflepuff type character and been more gentle and able to encourage empathy in M’Tok so he could see where he’d gone wrong, sort of like Ellie with Bek, but instead he just wears her down with his trickery and stubbornness… which is gross. She’s basically tricked and forced into giving consent which isn’t actually consent… so the ending of this was really unsatisfying. No character growth, just rewarded bad behavior.
Why Ruby keeps making her fat character angry every single time I have no clue… but it’s wearing me out. Fat women are gentle and sensitive too! We’re not all aggressive and angry at the world but portrayed as “feisty” for a more palatable experience. All the other smaller sized characters get depth, get to be different and diverse, but all the fat women are angry… it’s gross. I hope she does better in the future books.
Also… Calida may be depressed, she’s grieving, but she doesn’t actually have depression… there is a difference. It may not be a noticeable difference for those who don’t have depression, but there is one. We’re not just sad when things are bad, we’re sad all the damn time… even when everything is great.