Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green

14 reviews

bfrederick's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious sad slow-paced

3.0

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phoebemurtagh's review against another edition

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4.25

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annemaries_shelves's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious sad tense fast-paced

4.0

Last Call is a super well-researched book and despite the relatively short length, I got a really good sense of who everyone was, the context in which they lived, and just how outrageously violent and homophobic and apathetic NYC and the world was to gay people during the height of the AIDS crisis. 

I think it's easy to forget (or at least I do) that NYC was extremely violent towards LGBTQIA+ people (and still is in many ways) despite also serving as a haven for many who moved there from other areas of the USA. I did appreciate the chapters on NYC queer/gay social scenes and the gay bars that many frequented - it's a piece of queer history that I didn't know much about. 

To me, Green did a good job capturing the closeted 20th century queer experience and showing just how difficult it was to be visibly whole and yourself. Pretty much all the known or suspected victims of the serial killer were deeply closeted/scared men - and even with all their relative privileges (middle/upper class, white, presumed straight, family men, etc.) were largely forgotten about and ignored by authorities. Despite the hard work by law enforcement to identify, prosecute, and imprison Rogers, it was largely due to luck and activist support from the Anti-Violence Project, in my opinion, that they were successful given the apathy and/or homophobia of politicians and senior law enforcement (and I'm sure some of the detectives, technicians, etc.).

The writing was good but not outstanding, which I find a feature of many journalists who tackle longer narrative/investigative journalism for the first time (and apparently parts of it were line edited by David Grann, which I found a fun coincidence given I just finished one of his books).

What I find truly upsetting is just how many people Rogers's may have murdered in the decades of freedom he had. I'm glad he's behind bars now. 

CW: murder, dismemberment, homophobia, violence/beatings/attacks as hate crimes, needles/injections, AIDS, and anything else you can think of to associate with serial murder of gay people in the early 90s. 
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alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious sad tense medium-paced

4.0

i’m can’t believe that i’ve never heard anything about this. 
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jhbandcats's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative mysterious sad medium-paced

4.5

This is a sorrowful book about a time and a place where gay men were in the closet and being felled by AIDS. They weren’t important enough for police to take them seriously or for non-gay newspapers to mention anything about assaults or murders. It just wasn’t done. 

The focus on New York City gives a feel for what it was like, living in an ostensibly liberal city while never able to be safe. The author’s compassionate focus on the victims and the friends who loved them shows how wrong it was that police departments did nothing about gay bashing for decades. Only when it was politically expedient did the politicians encourage the police to be at least somewhat sympathetic. When enough people started protesting the inaction, the city authorities finally created a liaison position between gays and cops. 

Even then, cases were dropped and then forgotten when new homicides came along. It was almost fifteen years between the first known homicide and the court case. Other homicides weren’t investigated because some police departments didn’t think they were connected. The Rockland County Medical Examiner and the FBI mishandled evidence so badly that it couldn’t be used. The initial lack of interest and the difficulty of working in multiple jurisdictions overshadow the success of finding and jailing the killer. 

Overall, a fascinating social history and a look back at how poorly gays were - and still are - treated. 
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thisiscourt's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad medium-paced

5.0

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danimacuk's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.5

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ckbarnard_0317's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious tense fast-paced

4.25

True crime+ respectful reporting+ queer history= yes please. I was surprised that this was a debut book because it was so well-structured, with a good balance between the true crime aspects and historical context.
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amandas_bookshelf's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

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book_enjoyer's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious tense fast-paced

4.0

I’m not usually one for true crime, or even fictional murder mysteries, but I enjoyed this one. Green lays out the details of the Last Call Killer’s murders in unflinching, brutal detail, but he takes equal care with the victims’ lives and the gay bar culture that forms the setting of the book. As a queer reader, I appreciated that the book didn’t feel like it was written for a straight audience—Green doesn’t pause to explain what a bear or a leather daddy is, for example—and didn’t shy away from detailing the level of casual homophobia present at the time. In the epilogue, Green expresses some hesitancy as to whether he, a straight man, should be telling this story: “Could I do right by the queer community and its history? That’s not for me to say. What I tried to do in this book was let my sources tell the story.” In my opinion, he has risen to this challenge. Last Call is compelling, atmospheric, and thoroughly-researched, and it sheds light on a brutal serial killer whose actions were ignored for too long because of his victims’ sexuality. 
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