Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

15 reviews

_alias_ali's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Pandemic/Epidemic, Death, Grief, Vomit, and Homophobia

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, Lesbophobia, Sexual assault, Religious bigotry, Racism, and Hate crime

Minor: Classism, Alcoholism, Blood, Child abuse, Cancer, Biphobia, Car accident, Body shaming, Bullying, Addiction, and Child death

stabilesero's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.0

I really wanted to love this book, especially with all the high ratings and praise everywhere but this just fell so short from the mark.
This has potential; if Burks left out the unnecessary snippets of her life (i.e. relationship with Mitch) and the grating repetitive nature of "I'm short of money" to "oh I know a guy, boom, I have $250". 
It had me with mixed feelings because I really felt for the young men she cared for and helped, their stories really hit hard how cruel others were and how discriminated against they were. The desperate need for medical help and the appalling treatment they received. 
This book also heavily knelt on religion and church which again, I found boring and tiresome as although I appreciate Burks' involvement with religion; it was another part that was unnecessarily dragged out and could have shortened the novel by qt least 100 pages.
I'm sure there are better novels out there about individuals who helped with the movement towards fairer treatment of HIV and AIDS patients and that's not to dismiss Burks' work, that's just to say I'm hoping there's other stories out there with more focus on the work and less on the religious uproar.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Grief, Homophobia, Chronic illness, and Hate crime

karac15's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Transphobia, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Car accident, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Cancer, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Suicide attempt

helloits_jen's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This was a pick for my book club and I’m so glad it was as I never would have picked it up otherwise! As someone who was born in the late 90s, the AIDS epidemic is something that is so foreign to me that I struggle to picture what it was actually like to live through. My heart broke over and over again for these men and it’s scary to think how recent this was happening. More than anything, that’s what I took away from the book - an eye opening story of what it was actually like. I really liked the way it was written - it seemed more fast paced than some non-fiction books - and I’m glad I took this opportunity to read about Ruth’s work and how heartbreakingly sad the lives of men were at that time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Hate crime, Outing, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic, Medical trauma, Medical content, Xenophobia, Vomit, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Grief, Excrement, Death, Chronic illness, Transphobia, Suicide attempt, and Religious bigotry

lily_west's review

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

I devoured this book in a day, mostly so I could get all of the crying over with. The story is so sad and so necessary. Ruth Coker Burks writes in a way that is intriguing, enveloping, desperately sad, lighthearted when it's needed, and even funny. You get a sense of the real people behind her stories. The insight of a straight person into gay clubs and drag culture in the eighties and nineties is well done, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Hate crime, Terminal illness, Chronic illness, Dementia, Death, Homophobia, and Medical content

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Drug use and Addiction

louise010's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Suicide, and Homophobia

lydiahope98's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Homophobia, and Death

ellianderjoy's review

emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Sexism, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Drug use

maet's review

emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

This book reads like you sat down with a friend for a catch up, but will break your heart over and over and over again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Death, and Chronic illness

Minor: Car accident

bexh's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Excrement, Grief, Hate crime, Homophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Violence