Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

4 reviews

hannahpings's review

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dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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

4.0

idlewild makes for an exceptional debut, but for me there's an even higher ceiling that it could––but frustratingly, doesn't quite––hit. that it could is a marvel enough on its own, though
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jarku's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring lighthearted relaxing sad 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

4.5

Still trying to calibrate my ratings on the scale of "how did I feel about this book" rather than "should this book exist." It has no competition in constellating my adolescence into fiction. This is probably not useful to anyone else on this social network. Sometimes you just need a novel to remind you that, given any choice of adolescences, the one you'd fantasize about would have still seen you flounder. Unrelatably--for which I should remember to be grateful--Idlewild is also about
ruining your whole life instead of allowing yourself to transition
.

As far as trans stuff goes, I wouldn't have thought I had much in common with James Frankie Thomas. He has spoken of his moment of revelation coming to him as an "I'm like you," for instance; I had no such role models. But I did write slash and "queer theory" under an online identity meant to convince the one other man in the fandom--a cis gay graduate student--that I was one too. Idlewild showed me that these are kind of the same thing, two flavours of this soul-shredding mess I know innately and have never seen in writing before.

I don't get the sense that Thomas meant to write a YA novel (though I'm sure it would be very appreciated by a young reader with the kind of precocity shared by the characters), but if he were, I'd hold my breath for a sequel about Christopher. Off the cuff, I am immensely disappointed by Theo's flatness (-0.5 stars).
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an_a_list_alias's review

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dark tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Id like to first start off by saying that I did enjoy how the author used 2nd person to show how close the main character's friendships was. However, this book was frankly disappointing. It rambled on and on about nothing in particular while pretending to have some deep meaning behind everything. Adding 'queer' and 'gay' into almost every sentence not automatically make them say something profound about that community or even just about society in general. The 9/11 aspects seemed disjointed in the overall narrative. The big 'plot twist' (if you could even call it that) wasnt shocking at all and was quickly patched up unsatisfyingly. And while I love endings that leave the rest of the story up to the reader, this one felt sloppy and rushed. So overall painfully boring in some parts and boringly painful in others, would not recommend.
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leonidskies's review

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challenging emotional sad 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

5.0

This book has ruined me, I will never stop thinking about it and everyone should read it.
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