Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Monsters: A Fan's Dilemma by Claire Dederer

4 reviews

seeingplaid's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

3.5

Author puts a lot of her own experience in a book about famous artists who are monsters and has a few moments of pretentiousness I was not wild about. But this is an interesting meditation on how fans interact with media and art when the artist who makes those works has done something so outside our values it affects our relationship to the art. Feminism is an important lense the author uses.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Drug use, Rape, Pedophilia, and Suicide

jainabee's review against another edition

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I am so glad this book exists because I NEEDED it. It needed to exist in the world. The question of how to balance fandom of my favorite works of creativity with the toxic and destructive behaviors of the creators is an issue that torments me. Dederer directly addresses some of my own pet monsters; Woody Allen, David Bowie, JK Rowling, Miles Davis. This book makes me think a LOT. This book is very uncomfortable in a vitally important way. This book challenges me in ways I needed. The chapter comparing and contrasting Valerie Solanas and Sylvia Plath (!!!!!) flipped my wig with the brilliance of unexpected insights about how women respond to the violence of misogyny. The chapter about Lolita is a sparkling gem of brilliant insight and analysis that might be the best review of it I've ever read (spoiler alert: Nabokov is not a monster, though he is a genius). This book is FULL of triggering content, as it describes the crimes of the creators. No way around that. The point of the book seems to be to face the monsters directly and feel the extremely uncomfortable dilemma between loving something, even the monster, "even after everything." I got a lot to think about here.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, Rape, Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Child abuse, Drug use, Physical abuse, Infidelity, Abandonment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexism, Pedophilia, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Antisemitism, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, Racism, Mental illness, Medical content, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse

Moderate: Alcoholism, Classism, Drug abuse, Cursing, Grief, Murder, Racism, War, Xenophobia, Genocide, and Hate crime

Minor: Drug use, Death of parent, Dysphoria, and Fire/Fire injury

I need to read this book again. And probably again.

probablyshannon's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Chronic illness, Drug use, Infidelity, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Addiction, Drug abuse, Gun violence, Sexism, and Sexual assault

ktdakotareads's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Drug use, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Sexism, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Antisemitism, Bullying, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Suicide, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, and Racism