Reviews tagging 'Outing'

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore

12 reviews

cosmicconfluence's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Outing, Deadnaming, and Abandonment

Moderate: Xenophobia

Minor: Misogyny and Pregnancy

1_800_fuck_off's review against another edition

boringgg (imo ofc) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia

Moderate: Outing

the outing tag is not confirmed since it was just being heavily threatened up to the the point where i stopped so idk if it actually happened

ash_ton's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This book was... okay. I wasn't really invested in the story during any point in the book. I feel bad because it's so great that there's trans and queer rep in a teen book, but I can't rate it high just for that.

The plotline idea was cool, just maybe not the execution? I just felt like I needed more. Idk. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Outing, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Body horror, Deadnaming, Bullying, Grief, Homophobia, Death of parent, and Dysphoria

Minor: Sexual content, Racism, Religious bigotry, and Cursing

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Confinement, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Outing, and Deadnaming

Moderate: Grief, Lesbophobia, Child death, Death, Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Death of parent, Racism, Physical abuse, and Sexual content

Minor: Racial slurs, Misogyny, Animal death, Dysphoria, and Religious bigotry

julieyael's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Racism, Bullying, Confinement, and Physical abuse

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Body shaming, Death, Deadnaming, and Outing

jasmijn's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Deadnaming, and Transphobia

Moderate: Bullying, Outing, and Death of parent

Minor: Injury/Injury detail

rockyroadbutch's review against another edition

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Confinement, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Suicide attempt, Transphobia, Blood, Deadnaming, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Sexual content

Minor: Dysphoria, Pregnancy, and Classism

humanmosquito's review against another edition

inspiring lighthearted reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

When I first started writing out I didn’t really like the lack of plot, I’d somehow skipped over the prevalence of Literary within Magic Realism. That behind us, I did really enjoy this book in the end.

 I like the fuzzy line Sam walks where he’s not quite what is expected in a trans man. (I did end up reading him as a transmasc butch, but I’ll admit that interpretation is largely projection) And I like the way he’s carved out a place for himself to be comfortable in this small, bigoted town. This is true for most characters in the book, who are immigrants or 1st gen. 

Writing style wise, I enjoyed the prose, I found it evocative but I remember thinking it was too dense at one part of the book. (I think during the last act)

One thing I really liked about this book is that Sam and Miel are horny and sexually attracted to each other without it feeling voyeuristic. I’m used to other young adult authors really focusing on the characters’ atractions and intimate scenes for effect but McLemore shows these very sensual, sexually charged scenes with very little touching and skips over sex in a way that makes the characters feel very real—in the way that they’re granted privacy from the narrative. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping

Moderate: Racism

Minor: Homophobia, Transphobia, Outing, and Sexual content

solspringsreads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Beautiful, lyrical, and so, so magical. It’s hard to express everything this book makes you feel into words because, more than a novel or concrete story, it feels like a sensory overload as we journey through the lives of the story’s protagonists. There were a lot of tense moments where I found myself dreading what might happen to the characters, especially at the hands of the often cruel and misunderstanding townspeople they lived with, but it’s ultimately a story about love, self-reflection, and self-acceptance. It’s an experience that stays with you long after you finish reading.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Grief, and Body horror

Moderate: Outing, Ableism, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Child abuse, and Lesbophobia

littlebluenaiad's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.5

The prose was pretty. I’ll admit that. My problem with it, however, was that it distracted from whatever was happening at any given moment. The chapter titles make no sense. Sam and Miel are making out and I can’t even realize until a couple pages in when they start taking off their clothes.

Sam frees Miel from the glass coffin, and I don’t even know until they’ve run far from it. And when there were petals all over Sam’s face, I wasn’t sure who they were coming from.

And maybe that was the point. But I didn’t enjoy it. It felt like the text was so descriptive that it circled from show don’t tell back to show, because I can only realize what’s happening once the characters tell me. And it was also so, so repetitive. I can’t count how many times it was reiterated that the Bonner sisters had red hair, that they could have anything they wanted, that they wanted the magic of Miel’s roses no matter how many times she told them they wouldn’t do what they wanted from them.

Also, more distressingly, it was very uncomfortable whenever Miel would say that she thought of Sam as her dead brother. Every time, I wanted to shake her and scream, “Then WHY did you sleep with him on page 3? WHY can’t you stop of making out with him?” Needless to say it was. Very uncomfortable. And I wish that they were just friends, even without all the brother comparisons, because I felt like the fact that they both just thought of kissing whenever near one another distracted from their friendship.

Instead, the book ends with them about to have sex.

I almost wish that this were a children’s or middle grade book instead, because the concept would work so nicely for that.

One last problem I had with this book. They kept saying that people called Miel and Sam “Honey and Moon”, but they really only call her “Honey” as in “Miel”, not because she ate it off spoons and knives and was oh-so quirky, but because Miel is literally her name. And literally no one called Sam “Moon” in the entire book. Yet another example of telling instead of showing despite the rich, descriptive writing style. Thank you for reading, this concludes my rant.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse and Transphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Outing, and Violence

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content