Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel

83 reviews

seventhswan's review against another edition

emotional funny informative reflective sad fast-paced

4.5

May's read for book group, 4.5 stars. I haven't read a graphic novel since I was about eleven and I'm not entirely sure the pictures added much to this for me, other than that I do love a map and the jokes were fun to spot. Regardless, I thought this book managed to be both entertaining and moving - I can't imagine it's easy to write something funny about

your father's suicide and sexual interest in teenage boys,

but I never felt Bechdel was being overly self-pitying or morose. The quality of the writing was also really excellent and I enjoyed the references to various books and plays. Some I'd read and some I hadn't but I didn't find that, for example, not having read Ulysses myself harmed my understanding of the book. I found it easy to connect with Bechdel, I think we'd get on, we seem to have a lot in common.

I thought it was a bit rogue that the narrative was almost entirely

"and my dad killed himself because he felt so much SHAME about being GAY" as if he was only struggling with attraction to other men and not, by the sounds of it, grooming teenagers.

I can understand not wanting to reckon with that too deeply, I just kept waiting for it to be addressed and it never really was. 

I was probably predisposed to like this, as I love a memoir in any form, but I still enjoyed it more than I expected. A creative and at-times relatable read that I'm excited to discuss with others.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Death of parent, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia, Death, Sexual content, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Alcohol

airsax's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful fast-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

jmarob's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Death of parent, Mental illness, Sexual content, Infidelity, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, and Grief

Minor: Mental illness, Suicide, Car accident, Panic attacks/disorders, and Toxic relationship

jamiee_f's review against another edition

dark emotional funny medium-paced

5.0

I had heard of Alison Bechdel and Fun Home but had never read this. It was a shocking delight. It's beautifully written and constructed, and I wish there was more. The way she moves through time and reveals the story and the truth of her life and family piece by piece is incredible and compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Lesbophobia, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Sexual assault, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Minor: Sexual content

lillypad827's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

2.5

Well I’m definitely in the minority of readers here who did not enjoy this book. It was certainly well written, but sometimes difficult to follow with all the interjections of literary books that I know nothing about. I did not find this funny at all, did not laugh once. Unsure why it’s even called “Fun Home” as the funeral home is only mentioned a few times. Memoirs are tricky for me - I like them to be in some sort of chronological order - and this one did not do that in the slightest. It jumped all over and I didn’t know where we were sometimes. Also, sure let’s just gloss over the fact that the Dad preyed on minors and also physically abused his children. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pedophilia, Sexual content, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Suicide, and Child abuse

blissrubin's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Enjoyable and emotional. Hit closer to home than expected. Lots of literary references that can be a bit hard to follow if you haven't read the referenced works, but not impossible. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse

Moderate: Homophobia and Sexual content

Minor: Child abuse

grem_ler's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Infidelity, Child abuse, Homophobia, Blood, Dysphoria, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Car accident, Death of parent, and Sexual content

meg_thebrave's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective slow-paced

4.5

I’ve always wanted to read Alison Bechdel, and I’m so glad I finally did. What a poignant reflection on her father and on sexuality. I love Bechdel’s illustration style. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual content, Suicide, Homophobia, and Death of parent

courn's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Death, and Death of parent

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

gussurireads's review

challenging emotional funny medium-paced

5.0

I was drawn to this because Bechdel is famous for, well, the Bechdel test, and as a queer woman who loves stories centered on women and their relationships with other women, that test is very important to me.

So I went in completely blind. Mind you, I am fan of graphic novels. I don't read a lot of memoirs, though. But Alison Bechdel writes and draws a compelling, honest and yes, at times pretentious, story of her bizarre family, drawing parallels between herself, an out and proud lesbian, to her closeted, deeply repressed father.

It's not the kind of graphic novel that you breeze through in a couple of hours. It took me a few days of carefully going through this and still there's so many references that eluded me, what with me not being an English major or a very cultured reader (I enjoy my fantasy, ok?)

Still, so much of Allison's story resonated with me, as most queer stories do. The act of discovering a new part of ourselves, coming to terms with it, rejoicing in this newfound identity, is quite possible the most universal queer experience of them all, and Bechdel is a master at embellishing her own experience. Like father, like daughter, indeed. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual content, Grief, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, and Car accident

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Homophobia