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casspro's review against another edition
4.0
Think of this as the darker, angrier, more heart wrenching, dysfunctional cousin to Janet Fitch's "White Oleander". A sad conglomeration of tales from a poor boy's maladjusted childhood. It's so brutally beautiful and shocking, it's not unusual to have to stop in between chapters to take a moment for reflection. This is not one of those stories that end happily or things seem to look up for the main character. But man does it have one hell of a ride.
jupen's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse and Drug use
moominmama_11's review against another edition
1.0
Well written but the stories are so twisted and disgusting, made me very uncomfortable.
cheekylaydee's review against another edition
3.0
Highly disturbing yet compelling, J.T LeRoy does not shy away from difficult subjects! Not for the faint hearted!
rapgamenancyreagan's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
maralyons's review against another edition
4.0
Overall, a fascinating set of interconnected short stories about Jeremiah’s youth and young adulthood. Jeremiah is presumably the same Jeremiah in LeRoy’s novel Sarah. The first third I found particularly difficult to get through as graphic sexual and verbal abuse is so vile. I’m not sure what to make of these. Is it torture porn and exploitative or are the incidents realistically portrayed? It’s hard to mention LeRoy’s writing without referencing the hoax that Laura Albert pretended to be JT LeRoy writing semi-autobiographically. This was taken much further by Albert’s sister-in-law portrayed LeRoy at events and hobnobbed with Gen X celebrities. Albert has said she wrote as JT LeRoy as a way to distance herself from and process the abuse she faced as a child.
Jeremiah, who is taken from his foster parents at a young age, reclaimed by his young, neglectful verbally and physically abusive mother. Reclaimed not because of her love for him, but to prove a point that no one else can take what’s hers. They travel a lot together, he grows up quickly, and has difficulty seeking out healthy relationships. Some of the stories are utterly heartbreaking. His emotions are rewired and associates love with the abusive attention he receives. Some of the stories seemed disjointed and the timeline skips, so it takes a few minutes to reacclimate to each new story. Some of the final stories are redemptive and even hopeful. These were my favorite stories. I listened to the audiobook version. It was an interesting choice to have a different narrator for each story. This didn’t always work for me as it took me out of Jeremiah’s life a little bit, but the narrators did a fantastic job on each story.
Thank you Blackstone Audiobooks and NetGalley for providing an audiobook ARC.
Jeremiah, who is taken from his foster parents at a young age, reclaimed by his young, neglectful verbally and physically abusive mother. Reclaimed not because of her love for him, but to prove a point that no one else can take what’s hers. They travel a lot together, he grows up quickly, and has difficulty seeking out healthy relationships. Some of the stories are utterly heartbreaking. His emotions are rewired and associates love with the abusive attention he receives. Some of the stories seemed disjointed and the timeline skips, so it takes a few minutes to reacclimate to each new story. Some of the final stories are redemptive and even hopeful. These were my favorite stories. I listened to the audiobook version. It was an interesting choice to have a different narrator for each story. This didn’t always work for me as it took me out of Jeremiah’s life a little bit, but the narrators did a fantastic job on each story.
Thank you Blackstone Audiobooks and NetGalley for providing an audiobook ARC.
bevin1279's review against another edition
2.0
I felt deceived by this book. Not so much by the LeRoy/Albert scandal - which I discovered existed as I neared the finish of this book - but rather by the sheer fact that I'd been led to believe that this was a book of stories. I.e., short stories. Is this not what the publisher meant when the word 'stories' was tacked artfully onto the visually striking cover art?
But alas! This is not a book of short stories! It is a novel that has lost its time delineation. It is a novel uncomplicated by setting beyond redneck America (with a few notable exceptions, I'll give you that). It is a novel, full stop.
However, being marketed as short stories (in contrast with the novel by the same author that is mentioned on the back cover), I read them as such. And came to one conclusion whilst halfway through: this author has only one story to tell. In a fit of anger - a book of short stories but it's only one story??!! - I saw that the novel published by LeRoy was called Sarah, a prominent character in several of the so-called short stories. Then I read the note about the author, who 'still enjoys playing wiffle ball' & thought, this guy has one story & it's his own? & he's some wunderkind who thanks Courtney Love & Suzanne Vega & all manner of trendy people in his acknowledgments and he only has one story to tell?
So then I put the book down for a while & ranted about douchebag pretentious arses who ride coat tails to get published. After rant phase, read about the 'scandal' & then finished the book just so I could be done with it.
So, the writing is at times beautiful & the general plot (because I gave up on the short story concept & just began thinking of this as a novel) is heartbreaking. And the thing of it is that it's heartbreaking even without it being possibly true. As a fictional novel, this is a heartbreaking ordeal.
(Yes, I do realize I harp on the genre a lot in this review. It's an important concept, not left to cover designers. The editors should've left it as a novel, an artsy-hipster-pretentious novel. Because let's face it, that's exactly what it is.)
But alas! This is not a book of short stories! It is a novel that has lost its time delineation. It is a novel uncomplicated by setting beyond redneck America (with a few notable exceptions, I'll give you that). It is a novel, full stop.
However, being marketed as short stories (in contrast with the novel by the same author that is mentioned on the back cover), I read them as such. And came to one conclusion whilst halfway through: this author has only one story to tell. In a fit of anger - a book of short stories but it's only one story??!! - I saw that the novel published by LeRoy was called Sarah, a prominent character in several of the so-called short stories. Then I read the note about the author, who 'still enjoys playing wiffle ball' & thought, this guy has one story & it's his own? & he's some wunderkind who thanks Courtney Love & Suzanne Vega & all manner of trendy people in his acknowledgments and he only has one story to tell?
So then I put the book down for a while & ranted about douchebag pretentious arses who ride coat tails to get published. After rant phase, read about the 'scandal' & then finished the book just so I could be done with it.
So, the writing is at times beautiful & the general plot (because I gave up on the short story concept & just began thinking of this as a novel) is heartbreaking. And the thing of it is that it's heartbreaking even without it being possibly true. As a fictional novel, this is a heartbreaking ordeal.
(Yes, I do realize I harp on the genre a lot in this review. It's an important concept, not left to cover designers. The editors should've left it as a novel, an artsy-hipster-pretentious novel. Because let's face it, that's exactly what it is.)
bookbenderwitch's review against another edition
5.0
Oh my heart!! How fantastic this book is! Thank you!
papsby's review against another edition
2.0
First thoughts: okay cool a little raw but shit what a life crazy right?
After two chapters and Googling author: fuck this book. What seemed like a somehow detached emotionality was actually tone deaf misery porn. Was "JT" making a point about modern obsession with trauma and voyeuristic abuse fetishism, or did she just want to sell some books and play out her own beautiful dark twisted fantasy on readers and glitzies alike? Honestly I don't give a shit because that might have played in the 90s but after years of irony and abuse sharing the twitter timeline with no monetary incentive I think I'll take the 280 over this waste of paper.
After two chapters and Googling author: fuck this book. What seemed like a somehow detached emotionality was actually tone deaf misery porn. Was "JT" making a point about modern obsession with trauma and voyeuristic abuse fetishism, or did she just want to sell some books and play out her own beautiful dark twisted fantasy on readers and glitzies alike? Honestly I don't give a shit because that might have played in the 90s but after years of irony and abuse sharing the twitter timeline with no monetary incentive I think I'll take the 280 over this waste of paper.