Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Late Americans by Brandon Taylor

35 reviews

marjoleinvanderspoel's review

challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

4.5

Brandon Taylor is possibly the best writer of our generation. And yet, this is not his strongest work. These are some of my jumbled, incoherent thoughts upon finishing it. The writing is so so good, most of the characters are really interesting, but the chapters about women were such a disappointment and the connections between the chapters is tenuous at best. Caught somewhere between short stories and a novel, it felt like this book wanted to express many things but in the end it didn't really... go anywhere. I could identify an overarching theme of how your predetermined living conditions affect your life choices or lack thereof (there was a lot of focus on class but also for instance adoption, traumas and injuries which alter your perception of and course in life). I think Taylor does a great job of writing characters caught in between big decisions and that definitely shines here, and his characters also feel very real in that they make shitty choices sometimes, but I just wished there was something more to tie the stories together somehow. No wonder Seamus felt like the strongest character when he was the only one who got more than one chapter, and yet his story still felt unfinished. But so is life, a story as of yet unfinished. Excited to see what Taylor does next!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexism, Vomit, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Racism

Minor: Kidnapping, Infidelity, and Abortion

aileron's review against another edition

reflective sad 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Classism, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Abortion, Bullying, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Kidnapping, Racial slurs, Terminal illness, Violence, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Child abuse, Mass/school shootings, and Racism

alyssaakdefusco's review

challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

The prose of this book is gorgeous, which is fitting because it starts out from the perspective of creative writing grad students! As a current grad student, I related to the struggles of the characters in figuring out their place in the world and always having to prove themselves to each other (and...to themselves!) it was fairly slow moving and definitely a character study/moment-in-time type of book which isn't always my favorite. I liked the shifting narrators.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Abortion

simplyamysue's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content

Moderate: Death and Drug use

Minor: Abortion

rach_reads_books's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault and Violence

lay_kone's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Injury/Injury detail, and Fire/Fire injury

kleinekita's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Abortion

Minor: Animal death and Kidnapping

ani_raven's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief

Minor: Abortion, Drug use, Death of parent, Child death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

bootsmom3's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Classism, Death, Misogyny, and Grief

Moderate: Racism, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Sexism, and Abortion

emma_ekb's review against another edition

emotional funny 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

4.5

this might go up .25 stars? not sure yet. 

brandon taylor has such a way with words. the way he captures emotion and friendship and love and lust and anguish and grief, and the way all of those feelings interact, is tangible. what’s interesting about this book is i didn’t necessarily LIKE the characters, but they felt real to me, and i couldn’t help but empathize with their struggles. even characters i thought i didn’t like at all at first, like Timo, i eventually came around to seeing them as these super three dimensional beings - like real people! not sure this is making sense but it’s what i feel. my favorite characters were definitely fyodor, timo and fatima… though i liked seamus’ arc as well. 

as someone who grew up in iowa city, i also LOVED all the iowa city references. the bread garden, the ped mall, the quad, the hawkeyes banners…. definitely made my little heart happy 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug use, Abortion, Homophobia, and Racism