Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

3 reviews

infinite_harness9030's review

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challenging reflective tense slow-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? It's complicated

3.0


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jameslyons's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is not a fun historical romp and those approaching this book with any expectation of a Nice Time will be disappointed/horrified. It's visceral, confronting, disgusting, and uncomfortable; romantic, riotous, hilarious, and very fucking trans.

Ambitious and almost overwhelming at times. It took a lot of faith in the author for me to get through the wilder parts that didn't make sense until everything Did. Thank god it all pulled together in the end. I remain annoyed at the heavy academic bent, but that's a personal pet peeve, and scholarly sycophants will likely adore that aspect. Everyone else, my advice is to just ignore and skim at will. The rest of the story contains So Much aside from that.

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bookstolivewith's review

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adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Okay so I keep trying (and failing) to write a coherent review but here’s the long and short of it: I found Confessions of the Fox endlessly interesting and fascinating and I am definitely not smart enough to understand everything happening here. And that’s okay, because a) I am not the intended audience as a cis-straight woman and b) that leaves me even more room to read it again and again until I figure it out.

I wish this was a book that had been taught in a college course — and I would urge professors, especially those who teach classes that involve discussions of gender and sexuality, to teach it. There is an unbelievable amount to discuss here.

On one hand, it’s a “found” novel that explores the concept of communal writing and memory. It also unpacks sexuality and gender, both in the 18th century and in the 2010s. The footnotes not only include real-life and modern references, but jointly tell the story of the “transcriber” and their struggles alongside the struggles of the fictional characters they’ve found. The manuscript explores the rise of capitalism in England and how it insidiously twists inside every single aspect of life, even death itself. No stone is left unturned here, and all of it is done through beautiful written prose that is as emotional as it is intellectual.

I would highly recommend reading this one, although I will warn you that the manuscript itself can be tricky to read, full of English cant and old words. I’m still trying to figure out the right words to express how I feel about Confessions of the Fox, and in some way, I suspect that it’s the author intention to have the book defy labels and summaries and something so simply said as a single word. However, I do feel that it will probably be one of the most important books I’ve read in a while.

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