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3.45 AVERAGE
3.45 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
tense
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use
Highly disturbing yet compelling, J.T LeRoy does not shy away from difficult subjects! Not for the faint hearted!
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Overall, a fascinating set of interconnected short stories about Jeremiah’s youth and young adulthood. Jeremiah is presumably the same Jeremiah in LeRoy’s novel Sarah. The first third I found particularly difficult to get through as graphic sexual and verbal abuse is so vile. I’m not sure what to make of these. Is it torture porn and exploitative or are the incidents realistically portrayed? It’s hard to mention LeRoy’s writing without referencing the hoax that Laura Albert pretended to be JT LeRoy writing semi-autobiographically. This was taken much further by Albert’s sister-in-law portrayed LeRoy at events and hobnobbed with Gen X celebrities. Albert has said she wrote as JT LeRoy as a way to distance herself from and process the abuse she faced as a child.
Jeremiah, who is taken from his foster parents at a young age, reclaimed by his young, neglectful verbally and physically abusive mother. Reclaimed not because of her love for him, but to prove a point that no one else can take what’s hers. They travel a lot together, he grows up quickly, and has difficulty seeking out healthy relationships. Some of the stories are utterly heartbreaking. His emotions are rewired and associates love with the abusive attention he receives. Some of the stories seemed disjointed and the timeline skips, so it takes a few minutes to reacclimate to each new story. Some of the final stories are redemptive and even hopeful. These were my favorite stories. I listened to the audiobook version. It was an interesting choice to have a different narrator for each story. This didn’t always work for me as it took me out of Jeremiah’s life a little bit, but the narrators did a fantastic job on each story.
Thank you Blackstone Audiobooks and NetGalley for providing an audiobook ARC.
Jeremiah, who is taken from his foster parents at a young age, reclaimed by his young, neglectful verbally and physically abusive mother. Reclaimed not because of her love for him, but to prove a point that no one else can take what’s hers. They travel a lot together, he grows up quickly, and has difficulty seeking out healthy relationships. Some of the stories are utterly heartbreaking. His emotions are rewired and associates love with the abusive attention he receives. Some of the stories seemed disjointed and the timeline skips, so it takes a few minutes to reacclimate to each new story. Some of the final stories are redemptive and even hopeful. These were my favorite stories. I listened to the audiobook version. It was an interesting choice to have a different narrator for each story. This didn’t always work for me as it took me out of Jeremiah’s life a little bit, but the narrators did a fantastic job on each story.
Thank you Blackstone Audiobooks and NetGalley for providing an audiobook ARC.
I felt deceived by this book. Not so much by the LeRoy/Albert scandal - which I discovered existed as I neared the finish of this book - but rather by the sheer fact that I'd been led to believe that this was a book of stories. I.e., short stories. Is this not what the publisher meant when the word 'stories' was tacked artfully onto the visually striking cover art?
But alas! This is not a book of short stories! It is a novel that has lost its time delineation. It is a novel uncomplicated by setting beyond redneck America (with a few notable exceptions, I'll give you that). It is a novel, full stop.
However, being marketed as short stories (in contrast with the novel by the same author that is mentioned on the back cover), I read them as such. And came to one conclusion whilst halfway through: this author has only one story to tell. In a fit of anger - a book of short stories but it's only one story??!! - I saw that the novel published by LeRoy was called Sarah, a prominent character in several of the so-called short stories. Then I read the note about the author, who 'still enjoys playing wiffle ball' & thought, this guy has one story & it's his own? & he's some wunderkind who thanks Courtney Love & Suzanne Vega & all manner of trendy people in his acknowledgments and he only has one story to tell?
So then I put the book down for a while & ranted about douchebag pretentious arses who ride coat tails to get published. After rant phase, read about the 'scandal' & then finished the book just so I could be done with it.
So, the writing is at times beautiful & the general plot (because I gave up on the short story concept & just began thinking of this as a novel) is heartbreaking. And the thing of it is that it's heartbreaking even without it being possibly true. As a fictional novel, this is a heartbreaking ordeal.
(Yes, I do realize I harp on the genre a lot in this review. It's an important concept, not left to cover designers. The editors should've left it as a novel, an artsy-hipster-pretentious novel. Because let's face it, that's exactly what it is.)
But alas! This is not a book of short stories! It is a novel that has lost its time delineation. It is a novel uncomplicated by setting beyond redneck America (with a few notable exceptions, I'll give you that). It is a novel, full stop.
However, being marketed as short stories (in contrast with the novel by the same author that is mentioned on the back cover), I read them as such. And came to one conclusion whilst halfway through: this author has only one story to tell. In a fit of anger - a book of short stories but it's only one story??!! - I saw that the novel published by LeRoy was called Sarah, a prominent character in several of the so-called short stories. Then I read the note about the author, who 'still enjoys playing wiffle ball' & thought, this guy has one story & it's his own? & he's some wunderkind who thanks Courtney Love & Suzanne Vega & all manner of trendy people in his acknowledgments and he only has one story to tell?
So then I put the book down for a while & ranted about douchebag pretentious arses who ride coat tails to get published. After rant phase, read about the 'scandal' & then finished the book just so I could be done with it.
So, the writing is at times beautiful & the general plot (because I gave up on the short story concept & just began thinking of this as a novel) is heartbreaking. And the thing of it is that it's heartbreaking even without it being possibly true. As a fictional novel, this is a heartbreaking ordeal.
(Yes, I do realize I harp on the genre a lot in this review. It's an important concept, not left to cover designers. The editors should've left it as a novel, an artsy-hipster-pretentious novel. Because let's face it, that's exactly what it is.)
Oh my heart!! How fantastic this book is! Thank you!
First thoughts: okay cool a little raw but shit what a life crazy right?
After two chapters and Googling author: fuck this book. What seemed like a somehow detached emotionality was actually tone deaf misery porn. Was "JT" making a point about modern obsession with trauma and voyeuristic abuse fetishism, or did she just want to sell some books and play out her own beautiful dark twisted fantasy on readers and glitzies alike? Honestly I don't give a shit because that might have played in the 90s but after years of irony and abuse sharing the twitter timeline with no monetary incentive I think I'll take the 280 over this waste of paper.
After two chapters and Googling author: fuck this book. What seemed like a somehow detached emotionality was actually tone deaf misery porn. Was "JT" making a point about modern obsession with trauma and voyeuristic abuse fetishism, or did she just want to sell some books and play out her own beautiful dark twisted fantasy on readers and glitzies alike? Honestly I don't give a shit because that might have played in the 90s but after years of irony and abuse sharing the twitter timeline with no monetary incentive I think I'll take the 280 over this waste of paper.
I didn't really care about the whole drama surrounding JT Leroy when I read this, about whether he really existed or was a made up character (which it now turns out "he" was) in turn writing works of fiction based on a life which is also a work of fiction... I still don't care that JT didn't actually exist - it doesn't take away from the writing or the story in my eyes. Perhaps it displays even more storytelling talent on the author's part?
I found "The Heart..." to be more realistic than "Sarah" was, there was no away-with-the-fairies stuff, apart from incidents which you are made aware are the delusions of the characters rather than something the reader has to suspend belief in. I liked the way it kind of jumped about in places, and you had to keep reading for it all to make sense. I do enjoy stories like that, which reward you for reading on and putting some thought into the words as you take them in. And again, as in "Sarah", its written perfectly from the point-of-view of the child narrator, with wonderful child-like interpretations of the adult world, especially the crystal meth part. Its a dark and dirty book too, one that makes you feel unease and real emotion as you read it. LeRoy has a voice that weaves intriguing stories, but stories which still leave room for your own diagnosis.
I found "The Heart..." to be more realistic than "Sarah" was, there was no away-with-the-fairies stuff, apart from incidents which you are made aware are the delusions of the characters rather than something the reader has to suspend belief in. I liked the way it kind of jumped about in places, and you had to keep reading for it all to make sense. I do enjoy stories like that, which reward you for reading on and putting some thought into the words as you take them in. And again, as in "Sarah", its written perfectly from the point-of-view of the child narrator, with wonderful child-like interpretations of the adult world, especially the crystal meth part. Its a dark and dirty book too, one that makes you feel unease and real emotion as you read it. LeRoy has a voice that weaves intriguing stories, but stories which still leave room for your own diagnosis.
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
hanya yanagihara wishes she could write this
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment