Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

21 reviews

jcinf's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

I have a tough time rating this one. 

First, I appreciated the portrayal of tokenism and racism in LGBTQ+ spaces. 

Two things I had mixed feelings toward (I promise no spoilers):

1. Wallace’s friend group felt “meh” at best. I get that the author probably wanted to portray Wallace as being an outcast in his group. I know that’s the core part of the narrative here. ** BUT, I couldn’t tell… was Wallace having a hard time reconciling his friends’ problematic qualities against their redeemable traits? Or were they just shitty people that he became “friends” with solely out of proximity? It was well written, but I would have appreciated more clarity on this. 
2. Wallace’s dynamic with another character in the book. I won’t say who so I don’t spoil it. It’s hard for authors to walk the line between glorifying abuse and simply portraying it. I think in large pet he just portrayed in, but in certain parts I felt like it was getting perhaps a little close to romanticizing it. The second to last chapter brought those feelings up for me. 

Overall, though, I felt largely positively about this book. A handful of the things I liked:

1. The descriptiveness was stunning.  
2. The dialogue was realistic and appropriately emotional. 
3. The depiction of nuanced grief and the way some people try to simplify it.
4. This one is a loose spoiler as far as character growth, but doesn’t reveal any specific plot points.
   The acknowledgment that Wallace can be self-absorbed. Butttt also giving him wiggle room to be that way because of his intersecting struggles due to his sexuality, race, economic class, and generally feeling behind in his academics.
   . 

As a whole, this book was wonderfully written. But it wasn’t really an enjoyable read because it was so damn sad lol. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Bullying, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Body horror, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Eating disorder, Infidelity, and Racism

cadystanton's review against another edition

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Outing, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

jennaclarek's review against another edition

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

okay so either i am bad at reading summaries (likely) or nobody had the foresight to tell me this is apart of the "toxic friendgroups who are all a little in love with each other but also hate each other" universe (less likely)...because holy cow i wasn't expecting this powerhouse. immediately from the get go i was compelled by the writing, the characters, and the overall tone of this book. it's so well written, the prose is just breathtaking, and i really will need to pick it up again to underline all the fantastic passages in here. it touches on so many of my favorite things - academia, the complexities of queer friendship, grief...

this is a very dark book - it touches on some heavy topics, and overall there aren't a lot of positive scenes. it has flickers of light throughout, but a lot of it is unfair and a little hopeless and incredibly frustrating. but i think it's such a fantastic book because brandon taylor does not shy away from the darkness. the whole point of the book IS the darkness. that real life is like this. it's messy and chaotic and white people do ruin everything and sometimes "i'm sorry" isn't good enough, it's never good enough, but we all just walk around lying to each other saying we're fine and that's fine.

i don't have anything innovative to say! it's just a damn good book! and i will be revisiting in the future because it has so much incredible prose and the Point is Poignant. i could not put it down. i will be thinking about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, Blood, Gaslighting, Cursing, Death of parent, and Vomit

snoodle_poodle's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Rape, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, and Blood

megelizabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

This was a book that really crept up on me. It's dense, heavy, slow, and incredibly brutal, and it was only towards the end that I properly started to realise just how brilliant it is. It's overwhelmingly about loneliness, and explores that - as well as other themes - so, so well. The characters are incredibly well-developed for a story set mostly over one weekend, and by the end my heart was just completely aching. I just know that this is a book I will not forget. I do wish that there had been some nuance to the way that animal exploitation is portrayed, but otherwise I loved this so much that I don't feel I can give it less than the full five stars.

I always encourage checking trigger warnings, but with this one I would do so even more heavily than usual - there is a LOT of really heavy content in this one and it's definitely one to only go into if you really feel you're in a good place to handle it. If you do feel able to cope, though, I truly cannot recommend this enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Racism, Child abuse, Death, Animal death, Rape, Blood, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Vomit and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer and Ableism

mourtarymaggots's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

freppy's review against another edition

dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

A flawed but compelling narrative of harm, marginalization, intersectionalality and pain. Beautifully written, but incomplete, therefore dissatisfying.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Blood, Classism, Death of parent, and Violence

kiahsbooks's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Racism

Minor: Death of parent, Vomit, Homophobia, and Blood

ejanephillips's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, and Racism

Moderate: Sexual content, Homophobia, Death of parent, Eating disorder, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Sexual violence, Mental illness, and Blood

Minor: Violence and Vomit

ecn's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

This book was very triggering and emotionally exhausting but the overall premise was interesting. Maybe not my thing? But I wanted more of an exploration than explicit trauma

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual content, Rape, Racism, Sexual assault, Violence, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Hate crime, Abandonment, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Homophobia, Death of parent, Classism, and Blood