Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

5 reviews

librarymouse's review against another edition

emotional funny mysterious slow-paced

4.0

I was 43% of the way into the book before the murder promised to be the central focus of the book took place. After readings the author's note and understanding his desire to introduce all the players bed the murder, I understood the point of it. It also somew at mimicked the slower pace of life in Savannah, as opposed to a place like New York, where the author hails from. There's some exploration of bigotry and biases in tradition and among the players in the book that lack self awareness and the murder isn't really the most important part of the story being told. It's what times the players together, at a lot of points, but it seems to be one wild and weird Savannah thing in a sea of wild and weird Savannah things. Chablis is referred to with the correct pronouns for the entirety of her time on the page and after reading this, I want to know more about the planning for Savannah's squares. So many crimes were committed by the people in this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Alcohol, Classism, Abortion, Cursing, Racism, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Death, Drug abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Murder, Outing, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Antisemitism, Infidelity, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Incest

trashbinfluencer's review against another edition

challenging dark funny mysterious medium-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Antisemitism, Cultural appropriation, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Transphobia, Alcoholism, Gun violence, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Misogyny, Outing, Abortion, Addiction, Classism, Death, Violence, Suicide attempt, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Dysphoria, Murder, Sexism, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sjduncan's review against another edition

dark mysterious medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Sexism, Classism, Death, Transphobia, Murder, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Racism, Religious bigotry, Xenophobia, Alcoholism, Cursing, and Homophobia

Minor: Addiction, Drug abuse, Racial slurs, Sexism, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racism, Alcohol, Classism, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Antisemitism, Colonisation, Sexual content, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Murder, and Outing

savvylit's review against another edition

informative mysterious medium-paced

1.5

The voyeur in me loved that most of the content in this book is gossip. I absolutely ate that up and it kept me riveted! However, this book is so problematic on multiple levels.

First things first is the rampant homophobia and transphobia. Early on in the narrative, the author befriends Chablis, a trans woman, but is kind of afraid of her because he finds her attractive. He also never takes anything Chablis says or does seriously, seemingly maintaining friendship with her just to scandalize everyone he knows and have someone "unusual" to write about. As for the homophobia - it is continuous throughout the book, waxing and waning in its severity, with hate crimes being casually discussed and the f-slur being used repeatedly by the characters.

The second problem is the treatment of all Black people featured in this book. Berendt describes Black people that he meets as curiosities, taking a creepy anthropological approach. It's incredibly dehumanizing. Outside of Berendt himself, the people that he gets to know best over the course of his time in Savannah are very bigoted. For instance, the heavily-featured character Joe Odom loves to drop the n-word. Odom's racism is the most overt but there is quite a lot more covert racism throughout. Often, the high society of Savannah seems to be surprised that Black people who don't serve them even exist!

The third problem with this book is its entire elitist approach. Berendt is cashing in on people's very real lives in a way that ultimately paints him as above it all. Everyone is two-dimensional. Clearly, Berendt enjoys merely collecting folks in his life for their writability. As the story progresses, it begins to feel more and more like a mocking story told over drinks at a bougie New York party. (Berendt is from NY). I can see him saying "You wouldn't believe all these wealthy Southerners and their odd habits. Or the crazy gay people I met! Isn't the South so quirky and bizarre? Isn't bigoted behavior & conversation just so quirky and fun?"

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Transphobia, Racism, and Murder

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Outing, Violence, Religious bigotry, and Hate crime

jodean's review against another edition

mysterious tense slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Outing

Moderate: Alcohol, Antisemitism, Confinement, Cursing, Drug use, Gun violence, and Injury/Injury detail