Killer body or body killer? When fat shaming backfires… murders in small suburbs, no one’s noticed the pattern…until now.
Rookie journalist Camarin Torres is a crusader against discrimination, partially to assuage the guilt she feels over the suicide of her obese, bullied twin sister. She reluctantly accepts a job offered by handsome publisher Lyle Fletcher, a widower with a vendetta, who sees Torres as salvation for Trend, his fledgling fashion magazine. Torres, however, detests everything the publication stands for, and joins solely to transform its judgmental, objectifying content.
As an unexpected romance blossoms, the overconfident, justice-hungry reporter defies orders and infiltrates Mangel’s world—only to find herself in the crosshairs of a vigilante group targeting the sixty-billion-dollar diet industry. Unmasking the killer may save her life but shatter her heart: every clue seems to implicate Fletcher, her mercurial mentor and lover, as the group’s mastermind.
With a sassy, snarky voice and multi-cultural overtones, Slashing Mona Lisa explores body shaming and its victims: the disenfranchised who don’t conform to society’s arbitrary norms, and the lengths they will go to for love and acceptance.
Content Warning: contains some strong language, violence, and explicit sexual scenes
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Very powerful idea behind this book, and I loved the way the author went about expressing it by having a strong lead character, Camarin. From the moment she was introduced to the story, I loved her. Her background was fascinating, and when she came into conflict, she was not afraid to speak her mind, and did what she wanted to do, even when other people tried to tell her differently. This story is studded with mystery and suspense with a powerful hook right at the beginning to draw readers in. The murders in the story take an interesting angle compared to other stories that I’ve read in a similar genre. Definitely worth the read!
**Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure in hopes of an unbiased opinion, a review was not a requirement.**
I had never heard of the book Slashing Mona Lisa, or its author D.M. Barr but if you’ve learned anything from me, you know I’m a sucker for books with mysteries. Add in vigilantes, murders, and body shaming issues and I was all in with this book! I was a fan of the main character Camarin from the minute she confronted the woman who thought it was her job to monitor any food that goes into an overweight person’s mouth. How can you not be a fan of someone willing to put herself out for a stranger like that? I was suspicious of Lyle the minute he was introduced into the story. I felt like I was on edge throughout this book just waiting for the shoe to drop! But, Lyle was a good guy suffering from the loss of his wife and everything that brought her to the end of her life.
There were some parts of the story that felt a little tedious, but I think that was more because I wanted to get to the “good stuff”, lol. Reading through this book had me constantly feeling that something was about to happen. The suspense was so well done! But, it feels that way because there’s a lot of different storylines running in the background that you’re not aware of until later in the book. I had guessed the secrets behind Camarin and Lyle, but until it was confirmed, it was just my suspicions. I felt like the reveal of the truth behind Camarin’s most painful memories was a part many will be surprised by, whereas I was like, Yes, I knew it!
The body shaming versus the love yourself conversations in this book were fantastically well done! I thought the love yourself movement was pretty interesting, though Terry, the guy running it was a creep of the first order. I was suspicious of him from the beginning and was not surprised by anything that happened when he was involved. Despite my suspicions being proven right over and over again with this book, I still enjoyed it! Something that did annoy me, Rachel. I liked her and her friendship with Camarin but the ridiculousness of her “slang” annoyed me.
I loved this book! It was full of interesting characters and storylines. I just could not put this book down once I started reading it. Some of it seemed too good to be true, like Camarin and Lyle’s relationship and Lyle’s reaction to the hidden parts of Camarin. But, who wants to read fiction that doesn’t have a HEA element and is depressing? I mean, sure people want to read that, but not me! In mystery/suspense/murder books you don’t always get a HEA but I thought this book had a great ending that gave that ending to readers.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Fat Shaming, Suspense, and Romance
This book starts with a pretty intense and gruesome-sounding murder scene. The author left us hanging on the hook for quite a bit about this as we’re introduced to the main characters in a fantastic scene on a subway platform. You can’t help but like the heroine of this book when you first meet her. Camerin is quick to leap to the defense of a complete stranger as that poor young woman is fat-shamed in front of a crowd by a skinny woman. The heroine’s sister committed suicide when they were much younger because she was fat-shamed. This leads to public support for the young woman from other people on the platform and ultimately to a job interview for Camerin. She is torn about the job, though she’s in desperate need of one, because she has absolutely no respect for the magazine as she believes it promotes precisely what she is against. But the new publisher that she met on the train states that he wants to reform the publication.
As a woman of size myself, I was curious to see how fat-shaming was going to be handled in this book. I really liked the way the author approached it, and I appreciated the resources she had at the end of the book. She also had several elements going on here, which I enjoyed. There’s both a mystery/suspense element as well as a romance element. And despite the weighty topic, pun intended, she is able to provide quite a few moments of humor. If you’re interested in a well-written novel about this often hidden topic that has elements of mystery and romance (and you don’t mind a younger woman/older man love story), you may very well enjoy this book.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.