Scan barcode
thebakersbooks's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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
4.0
This was a skillfully crafted book, but while I enjoyed the prose, I suspect a lot of the philosophical elements of the story went over my head. Like the two main characters, These Violent Delights is gleeful in its erudition and delights in making audiences work to keep up. Put plainly, it was intentionally a bit full of itself, which may appeal to some readers but did not especially appeal to me. I know the off-putting nature of the work at many levels (tone, characterization, etc.) was a device, but I had trouble getting past my surface-level read to appreciate it.
I did enjoy how the author leaned into the main character's marginalizations, allowing his Jewishness and gayness to influence and guide the path of the plot through his actions. (The MC is likely also autistic, although I don't think this is ever spelled out in-text despite being heavily implied, and his internalized ableism also plays into his toxicity as a person.) Like the MC and (I think) the author, I'm Jewish, queer, and autistic; I saw a lot of myself in the MC's thought processes, sense of distance from society, and somewhat rabid commitment to justice. As such, it was fascinating and somewhat alarming to see these played out to their most extreme conclusion through a series of internally logical steps.
It's important to allow characters who aren't straight, cis, white, Christian (culturally if not religiously), and abled/allistic to be flawed, even dangerously and unnervingly so. That's something These Violent Delights did with singular panache. The word 'unhinged' is seriously overused these days, particularly for a term with such madphobic connotations, but I'm tempted to allow it as a descriptor of this book. The development of the MCs' relationship is a particular example, starting off as something to root for and descending over the narrative's course into a corrupt and painful thing to witness. It's horrifying and glorious.
I absolutely recommend this book! However, I'm wary to recommend it too widely outside the Jewish, queer, and autistic communities because it would be easy to remove the nuances of it being fiction and paint it as problematic. From there, it's all too easy to move to a generalization that X bad thing happened in-story because the characters were of Y identity (gay, autistic, etc.) if readers don't go in with enough empathy and/or critical thinking. Basically, DO read the book, but go in knowing it's going to get weird and violent and that those things don't reflect on anything except the fictional characters as individuals.
content warnings: emotional abuse by parents, homophobia, murder, emotionally and physically abusive relationship between main characters, mentions of antisemitism, intense internalized ableism, classism
I did enjoy how the author leaned into the main character's marginalizations, allowing his Jewishness and gayness to influence and guide the path of the plot through his actions. (The MC is likely also autistic, although I don't think this is ever spelled out in-text despite being heavily implied, and his internalized ableism also plays into his toxicity as a person.) Like the MC and (I think) the author, I'm Jewish, queer, and autistic; I saw a lot of myself in the MC's thought processes, sense of distance from society, and somewhat rabid commitment to justice. As such, it was fascinating and somewhat alarming to see these played out to their most extreme conclusion through a series of internally logical steps.
It's important to allow characters who aren't straight, cis, white, Christian (culturally if not religiously), and abled/allistic to be flawed, even dangerously and unnervingly so. That's something These Violent Delights did with singular panache. The word 'unhinged' is seriously overused these days, particularly for a term with such madphobic connotations, but I'm tempted to allow it as a descriptor of this book. The development of the MCs' relationship is a particular example, starting off as something to root for and descending over the narrative's course into a corrupt and painful thing to witness. It's horrifying and glorious.
I absolutely recommend this book! However, I'm wary to recommend it too widely outside the Jewish, queer, and autistic communities because it would be easy to remove the nuances of it being fiction and paint it as problematic. From there, it's all too easy to move to a generalization that X bad thing happened in-story because the characters were of Y identity (gay, autistic, etc.) if readers don't go in with enough empathy and/or critical thinking. Basically, DO read the book, but go in knowing it's going to get weird and violent and that those things don't reflect on anything except the fictional characters as individuals.
content warnings: emotional abuse by parents, homophobia, murder, emotionally and physically abusive relationship between main characters, mentions of antisemitism, intense internalized ableism, classism
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Self harm, Murder, Emotional abuse, and Homophobia
Minor: Classism and Suicide
More...