Reviews tagging 'Racism'

High-Risk Homosexual by Edgar Gomez

7 reviews

kgmittty's review

emotional funny hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.75

“… you can lose part of yourself to save the rest.”

Edgar Gomez’s writing is precise and beautiful and cuts straight to the heart of what so many of us have feared and loved growing up queer in a world that hates queerness.

Following him through snapshots of his life as he tries simultaneously to hide and embrace who he is so familiar and heartbreaking.

He reckons with the inherent contradictions of being effeminate and gay, how masculinity is covered by gay men while also being a standard they can never truly live up to in the eyes of others. His nature is something he tries to camouflage but is constantly met with the reality that it’s not enough — people can somehow see though it and hate him for it, this thing that he is and cannot control and still loves in so many ways.

“Everything I’d been taught about surviving was wrong. I wasn’t surviving before. I was existing.”

Hiding is not living. Surviving is one thing, but shoving down parts of yourself to appease others kills a part of you. Gomez spends this memoir recounting the steps he took to come to that realization in a way o could see parts of myself reflected in, even though there is so much that separates our experiences.

He speaks about his identity as a gay Latino in a way that tries to hold all the contradictions they carry. His passages about Pulse and the aftermath of the massacre there are especially gutting, but so so tender. They’re something I think everyone should read.

This book is about survival, about learning to face yourself in a broken mirror. Sometimes what you are given is not enough, but each step you take makes the path a little more clear for the ones behind you. And sometimes that’s all you can do and that is enough.

There’s a lot more I could say about this because I loved every page of it. But for now I’ll leave off with Gomez’s final words:

“What you do when you’re not afraid anymore is the same thing you do when you are: Keep Going.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, and Transphobia

augkali's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, and Mass/school shootings

lkyreads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

Well-written memoir about difficult subjects. It was easier to read than I expected, given the subject matter.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Drug use, Physical abuse, Racism, and Sexual content

ecn's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

3.75

I went into this not knowing much and it was a huge jumpscare to have almost half of the book be about the author’s experience/relation to the Pulse shooting. What a heavy book in general and that being added in took 
me OUT (I read this at work - definitely don’t do that)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Murder, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

huckleberryrk's review against another edition

Wasn’t grabbing me. I liked what I read, but it’s just not what I’m in the mood for right now.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Homophobia

Moderate: Racism and Sexual harassment

historicalmaterialgirl's review

emotional funny fast-paced

3.5

This was fun! The tone was so casual, it felt like I was just having a conversation with the author. The humor didn't always land though and sometimes it truly felt like I was back in a creative nonfiction class. Not to be shady! but some of the topics just felt forced or not genuine, like the random praising of trans women. Other times it really resonated with me what he was saying, like the doctors appointments, the disappointment that a gay place is just a place, or a family member being "not okay, then not okay less" with your queerness. Other times I learned about experiences so different from mine! Still would recommend if you like memoirs! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Violence

hubes's review against another edition

emotional hopeful medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, and Mass/school shootings