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remimicha's review
I’m incredibly concerned at the lack of content warnings on past reviews. The ones I saw when I started to get an ick feeling during the first chapter are entirely insufficient. For those of you going into this expecting a beautiful piece of literary fiction: Don’t.
I’m alarmed at the number of reviews that refer to a rape scene as a sex scene. If you are a survivor of trauma please tread with extreme caution. The content warnings I placed under explicit/graphic were entered intentionally. As I only made it to the end of the second chapter this is not an exhaustive list. I’ve included more information as a spoiler using specific lines from the book. 0/10 absolutely did not finish.
Content warnings not included in the options:
Homophobic slurs, degradation, urine, victim blaming
The entirety of the second chapter is a rape scene. The way this author chose to go about handling it is abhorrent. It reads like trauma porn, described in unnecessarily vivid detail that is voyeuristic in nature. To begin with, we already know the harms of spreading misinformation about BDSM in literature (see sexual assault cases following the release of the 50 shades series), and this is a HARMFUL depiction of BDSM. The narrator and his intended partner for the scene are not fluent in the same languages which shows the complete disregard for how necessary communication is for consent. If the author was attempting to show the importance of consent they did an extremely poor job and there are much better ways to go about it. It is clear from certain pieces of the narrators internal dialogue that there is very little communication defining the limits and expectations of the scene which would be normative in any consensual interaction. Some of the narrators internal dialogue shows he and rapist were not privy to each others expectations and limits and misconstrue how a healthy dynamic would work. For example: “ I know there are men who like it, who go to great lengths to find others who will hurt them in exactly this way, though I’ve never been able to fathom the pleasure they take from it. But then there’s no fathoming pleasure, the forms it takes or their sources, nothing we can imagine is beyond it; however far beyond the pale of our own desires, for someone it is the intensest desire, the key to the latch of the self, or the promised key, a key that perhaps never turns “—this feels like a way to excuse a blatant disregard for boundaries and abuse. The way the author chose to approach the narrators experience feels like a violation itself. While a great deal of trauma survivors experience guilt and shame, which we see with the narrator, the way the author chose to depict this feeds into victim blaming narratives. There is no need to subject readers to potential retraumatization to show the audience the horrors of surviving trauma. If the authors goal is to show the complex nature of being closeted and the violence so many are subjected to they could have done so in a way that was supportive of the people who have actually experienced said violence and trauma. As a queer person who has survived trauma, this was tasteless and callous.
I’m alarmed at the number of reviews that refer to a rape scene as a sex scene. If you are a survivor of trauma please tread with extreme caution. The content warnings I placed under explicit/graphic were entered intentionally. As I only made it to the end of the second chapter this is not an exhaustive list. I’ve included more information as a spoiler using specific lines from the book. 0/10 absolutely did not finish.
Content warnings not included in the options:
Homophobic slurs, degradation, urine, victim blaming
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Rape, Torture, Sexual content, Physical abuse, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Body shaming, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
orireading's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
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
Quite beautiful, very intense. Check content warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Rape
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
Minor: Homophobia, Body shaming, and Fatphobia
savvylit's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.5
Cleanness is a beautifully written book about love, sex, desire, and power in an overwhelmingly homophobic culture. Our narrator continuously grapples with the inherently furtive nature of sexual expression in Bulgaria. The necessity of these clandestine encounters allows the narrator to reflect upon his own past shame and acceptance of his sexuality.
The most powerful aspect of this story is the skillful writing. Greenwell's prose is evocative, haunting, and artful. The atmosphere of melancholia and loneliness that he has created in the pages of Cleanness is so palpable.
Another strength of this book was how readers learn the most about the narrator through his encounters with lovers, students, and colleagues. Cleanness reminded me of Rachel Cusk's Outline in that way. Oftentimes, more detail is given about the secondary characters than our narrator.
It is also worth noting that Cleanness is incredibly sexually explicit and often erotic. Greenwell frankly details every moment of the narrator's intimate encounters down to every move made and every word said. I'm not sure I've ever experienced that same level of candor anywhere else in literature.
Where this book did not work for me, though, was in the disjointed structure of the narrative. I am all for nonlinear narratives, but in this case, I found my interest waning between standalone vignettes. That's what ultimately influenced me to put this book at 3.5 stars instead of 4.
As a final note, please check the content warnings before reading Cleanness. I made the mistake of not doing that myself and was completely thrown and jarred by a very brutal scene early on in the book.
The most powerful aspect of this story is the skillful writing. Greenwell's prose is evocative, haunting, and artful. The atmosphere of melancholia and loneliness that he has created in the pages of Cleanness is so palpable.
Another strength of this book was how readers learn the most about the narrator through his encounters with lovers, students, and colleagues. Cleanness reminded me of Rachel Cusk's Outline in that way. Oftentimes, more detail is given about the secondary characters than our narrator.
It is also worth noting that Cleanness is incredibly sexually explicit and often erotic. Greenwell frankly details every moment of the narrator's intimate encounters down to every move made and every word said. I'm not sure I've ever experienced that same level of candor anywhere else in literature.
Where this book did not work for me, though, was in the disjointed structure of the narrative. I am all for nonlinear narratives, but in this case, I found my interest waning between standalone vignettes. That's what ultimately influenced me to put this book at 3.5 stars instead of 4.
As a final note, please check the content warnings before reading Cleanness. I made the mistake of not doing that myself and was completely thrown and jarred by a very brutal scene early on in the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Rape, and Homophobia
Moderate: Hate crime
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
bombus's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, and Rape
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