Reviews with content warning for Dysphoria - Idlewild

Reviews tagging 'Dysphoria'

Idlewild by James Frankie Thomas

13 reviews

hannahpings's review

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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joannalouise's review

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challenging dark emotional funny 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

4.25

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archiveofrasa's review

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reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.75

when I started reading this, I genuinely didn't think I would reread it right after I finished it just to tab and annotate the shit out of it, but look at me now

this book really holds some of the most complex explorations of queerness I've ever read. what I went into this knowing was that Idlewild explores queerness within friendships and how both the main characters' experiences of queerness affect that friendship. it was sooo interesting to read, seeing these characters unravel and try to reach for queerness that ends up destroying themselves and each other in the end. it's also Very Millennial and Thomas does an excellent job portraying both the sympathetic experiences of Millenials but also the criticism and cringe that naturally comes along with it.

Nell and Fay are both such fantastically crafted characters and it actually pains me that I can't find out anything more about them than what I have already annotated. I'm so certain there is, I just won't see it at the moment 😔 I love seeing friends care for each other and miss each other and you get so much of that here, even though there is a lot of resentment between the two of them which hurt me in so many ways, it was just so good. the miscommunication was also so realistic to the characters and their circumstances, every single line they said made me just tragically wail "of course she would fucking say that!" instead of "why did she say that?". rarely has a book made me do that and I admire Idlewild for it so much.

the side plots were also very intriguing – I did not expect to see a commentary on how Millennials were taught to see race and racism, so I was a bit jarred by it, especially because it was written by a white author and you can tell in some areas 😭 but! that being said, there is still a lot of nuance with specifically the character affected and while the racism he experienced was incredibly yikes(!!!), I adored him and how he reacted to it was very well written. on the other hand, we have Theo, which gets a bit spoilery 😭

while this is just a theory, from what I gathered, I feel as if he has a personality disorder as a result of being directly affected by 9/11? especially with his thing of derealisation and outbursts. I'm not too sure how to feel about this given his portrayal in the book, but I feel like that's what the author was getting at.

I don't know what is exactly holding me back from a 5 star rating other than how I felt about the latter two points (and also, after reading so many books by POC, maybe this story felt a biiit too white for me 😭) but I still think this is a really well-crafted novel. I may or may not change the rating depending on how I feel as I sit on it, but this book will definitely stay with me for a long time

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bella_cavicchi's review

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emotional funny reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

There is something beautifully tragic about IDLEWILD, so apt is its portrayal of nostalgia, particularly the nostalgia of being a teenager, being a teenager who is queer, but maybe doesn't yet know how, being a teenager who is desperate to escape, to be invisible, but who, REALLY, at their core, just wants to be seen and loved. I'm glad this book exists.

(I also have a soft spot for novels that are set between 2000-2010, feature theatre kids, and involve life at private schools, so IDLEWILD was already destined to win points in my book, let's be honest.)

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everesto's review

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emotional funny reflective slow-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

4.25

This book was hard to put down, it was written in a way that made me need to know what happened to the characters. Here are some miscellaneous thoughts I have:
- I love the way the author utilized the different perspectives of Fay, Nell, the F&N unit, and the invert society. I really enjoyed how the chapters that were the F&N unit and the invert society were in first person and used the 'we' pronoun whereas the Fay and Nell chapters were in third person and were reflective on the events in high school.
- knowing how close Fay and Nell were in highschool and that they did not talk at all after highschool really made me curious about what could have happened to separate them.
- The faunfic was weird (don't write fanfic about real people, ESPECIALLY don't write smut. It's just weird)

and though it ended up being and important plot point

it still made me feel weird.
-

the ending was pretty unsatisfying to me. I don't know what could have been different but I don't think the story was concluded really. I think that makes sense given the way their relationship ended but still.

I think Fay's plot point of being a gay trans man was NOT resolved in the slightest, though I think that Fay wouldn't end up resolving it at all and would stay living as a woman. Despite this, I wish that something went different with it due to the miscommunication about gay stuff between Fay and Nell being a big point of tension in their friendship (at least for Nell).

-I want to know more about Theo.

Overall I really enjoyed the book and thought that the characters and their relationships were written really well!

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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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eacrunden's review

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emotional slow-paced

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

4.0

Really well written and an absolute trauma flashback if you’ve been in the trenches of AFAB friendship

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jojothefool's review against another edition

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emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was an absolute JOY to read. It takes a minute to get used to the writing style and the format, but I ended up LOVING it. The main duo is so intertwined, entire chapters are told from their joint perspective known as “we the F&N Unit.” It’s a fun twist, very unique and personal to the story and adds a lot to the relationships and story-telling.

The ending made me saaaaad, I wanted them to reunite so badly, for Fay to come out and hopefully they’d be friends again, but I understand the reality. There’s also that feeling all the time of accidentally seeing your lesbian teenage intensely homoerotic situationship and freaking out and wondering what if and also gay has a history so maybe they will reunite one day and it kinda left it open and slightly hopeful so I Understand the ending ultimately and kinda love it for those reasons too

god tier absolutely

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sarahgehrke's review

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challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.0

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raisinreads's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Bonkers

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