Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

All This Could Be Different by Sarah Thankam Mathews

21 reviews

janaptrsn's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Truly an extraordinarily beautifully complex novel. What drew me in was the cover art, of course; the fact that it played in Milwaukee, a city I have personal ties to; and the perspective of a queer brown immigrant. From the first few pages, I was drawn into the setting of the book by its beautiful prose, which in some parts still felt like reading a diary or text from a friend. Reading „All this could be different“ feels like being inside a complex, reflective, stubborn, colorful, hurt, loving, sad mind. While I could relate so some experiences, I could also grasp other experiences I had bo personal relation to. The characters in this book are multi-faceted and refreshingly human. This book captures life so far in the twenty-first century from an intensely realistic lense and touches on many important societal issues. It is painful and soothing at the same time. It is real, and I would recommend it to every human out there. Thank you Sarah Thankam Mathews, I am so looking forward to your future work!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Mental illness, Lesbophobia, Abandonment, Suicide, Self harm, Police brutality, Drug abuse, and Addiction

Minor: Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Transphobia

moniipeters's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Racism, Violence, Transphobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Child abuse, Classism, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic friendship, Addiction, Deadnaming, Deportation, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Lesbophobia, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Chronic illness, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, and Rape

isareader's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

As many others voiced in the reviews, the beginning of this book was the most difficult for me  to enjoy — I found the protagonist a little immature and her views and irrational outbursts hard to understand… but maybe this is just a reflection of what it is like to be young… 

The most impressive and heart-warming part of the book to me is the importance of platonic love and close friendship. The love the friends have for the protagonist is so dearly touching, and to me, more enjoyable than the romance aspect in the book. 

My biggest critique and issue with the book was how many serious topics (see content warnings) are attempted to be covered in the book and seem too glossed over to me, especially the struggle with mental health and political struggles. Though perhaps this is also just a hard-hitting reality.

Overall, an impressive & quite beautifully-written first novel of Matthews with an overall theme of longing and a representation of so many characters that we don’t often read about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness and Sexual assault

Minor: Transphobia, Hate crime, and Homophobia

lifewithjoce's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

in search of a Tig to help me start a commune

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia and Transphobia

Moderate: Racism, Alcoholism, Cultural appropriation, Deportation, and Homophobia

Minor: Toxic relationship

rachaelwho's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Pacing was off for me. It took me a long time to get invested, and even once I had, the first act felt so long that I was surprised to find more acts beyond it. But the author had a lot to say. It's not 5 stars bc it's perfect, but because there's nothing worth faulting it for, if that makes sense. A very caring, thoughtful book. Excellent voice acting from the narrator.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Drug use, Incest, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Outing, Homophobia, Mental illness, Police brutality, Toxic relationship, Misogyny, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexism, Lesbophobia, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Deportation, Fatphobia, and Sexual violence

mjwhitlock18's review

challenging emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

A coming-of-age style story about a millennial queer South Asian immigrant to America, just trying to find her way and not disappoint her parents and friends. It is a mix of feelings, sweet but sharp, sad but hopeful. These characters are real, vivid, complex, and honestly messy and sometimes unlikeable. The main character, Sneha, is blunt, stubborn, independent, scared, uncertain, but also worthy of love (which she has to figure out). Mathews’ writing is impeccable with poignant social commentary and witty prose. I loved the explorations of these relationships, and while the ending didn’t feel perfectly tied up, that’s just life. Honestly, my biggest gripe is that this writer doesn’t use quotation marks for diologue, and that truly confused me sometimes. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Racism, Mental illness, Alcoholism, and Transphobia

Moderate: Sexual assault, Police brutality, and Homophobia

Minor: Drug abuse and Fatphobia

lindsayerin's review

challenging reflective tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Deportation, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Mental illness, Incest, Pedophilia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Fatphobia

kc_onmybookshelf's review

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Alcoholism, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Drug abuse, and Eating disorder

cleo_reads's review

5.0

Wow, this is a remarkable debut and also a remarkable book. Also remarkably hopeful and generous for lit fic. 

I found parts of it heavy, both because of all of the content warnings I put below and because it's such an emotionally accurate portrayal of being in your early 20s and wow, can that be hard to read about. But it's ultimately hopeful and uplifting. 

Here's Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya's review, the review that convinced me to give it a try, even though I don't usually like lit fic - https://www.autostraddle.com/all-this-could-be-different-review/

A note for my fellow genre romance readers - this is absolutely not a genre romance - the MC does have a messy, on again, off again relationship but there's no hfn or hea and that felt like the absolutely right choice to me. This is a brilliantly written lit fic, coming of age story and that's what it should be read as.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Deportation, Mental illness, Xenophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Homophobia, Child abuse, Police brutality, Addiction, Alcoholism, and Classism

Minor: Chronic illness and Transphobia

Other warnings: internalized racism, internalized homophobia, maybe some internalized transphobia (it depends on how you interpret one character), depression / anxiety, housing insecurity

anapthine's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

 Thank you Net Galley, W&N and Orion Publishing Group for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

I loved this book. The writing was just brilliant and I felt so emotionally attached to this book. The characters had so much depth and complexity that you really got to know them and easily saw character development. 

Additionally, the diversity within this book and the stories it told was just beautiful. A South Asian Lesbian protagonist and a gender fluid Black character, with both amazingly written stories which clearly had so much love and care put into the characters to reflect their communities. 

The writing flowed so smoothly, making it very easy to read and keep up with what was going on. The only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars was because I tend to read books with a bit more action and events happening, but this is such a great book.

I would recommend this book to anyone - I really enjoyed reading this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Alcoholism, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Xenophobia, Homophobia, and Racism

Moderate: Suicide