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jsncnrd's review against another edition
3.0
I wanted to like this more. For a while, it was promising, and a solid 4-star rating. The writing is incredible, that is a fact. However, I was left wanting more out of the third act / end of the book, and felt the plot begin to disintegrate when there was an entire scene focused on a boy on a train that felt out of place to the narrative and derailed the story. And when the end comes, it's not satisfying. It's abrupt. There were some fantastic elements here, but they didn't come together the way I wished they had.
jcdamian's review against another edition
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
proteincookies's review against another edition
5.0
I tried to read this book a few years ago and I didn’t finish. I picked it up again and finished it this time. I’m glad I gave it a second chance.
viridiantre's review against another edition
4.0
beautifully written with a good structure and sequence
looneytunes's review against another edition
dark
reflective
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? N/A
3.25
thisameliagirl's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Toxic relationship, Addiction, Homophobia, and Alcoholism
matthewkeating's review against another edition
5.0
One day when I have better words for it I will revisit this and try to write some kind of review to do it justice, but suffice it to say this is a book that I have an immense gratitude for, something sad and beautiful and wondrous, a book that for me is nothing short of perfect.
travisclau's review against another edition
5.0
A book I loved for its sincerity, its honesty about some of the most minute aspects of queer identity that isn't spectacularized but made simply a part of every day living. I thought a lot about how the opening of this novel echoed but deviated significantly from Golding's Abomination, which also is about cruising culture and queer space. In so many ways, Greenwell's novel is about similar traumas that have led to particular queer ways of being, but it does not dwell on that kind of hypersexuality. Greenwell meditates on loss and ambivalence that is bound up with unexpected forms of intimacy that are possible because of displacement, circumstance, and barriers to communication. It is sparse in that it describes accurately rather than effusively. This was also one of the first novels I had read in a long time, aside from Yanagihara's A Little Life, that grappled with the queer experience of illness and disability. This is timely -- a reminder in a generation that knows so little about the HIV/AIDS crisis in the 80s and its enduring effects on queer identity and queer relations.