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steeno's review
2.0
Good choice of stories, written in fairly slapdash style, and possibly no editing. Dear Seren: I'll sub-edit for free books and I know the difference between whose and who's
shanaqui's review
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Unfortunate thing to note first: Forbidden Lives was badly in need of an editor (or a better editor). Duplicated words, bad grammar, misspellings, etc; I try not to be too prescriptive or demanding about it, but when it's an error per chapter it really starts to stick out to me.
In any case, the book tries to take a number of Welsh lives and pick out the threads of queerness in them. As the author notes, in some (many) cases we don't have any direct evidence of sexuality, only of affection or circumstance, and that means we may misread the evidence. Shopland is careful to qualify that it can't be certain whether certain people were having sex or not, but nonetheless confidently states that these people are queer because they stepped over certain boundaries in how they showed affection to members of the same sex. I'm not sure about this one, and think maybe it could've used more hedging than ever: asexuality and aromanticism are possibilities, too, and they're not explicitly included here as options (Shopland writes about LGBT people, rather than "queer" people, or LGBT+).
Later in the book it all gets more specific and certain, of course, and a narrative starts to emerge: the march of history, from incomprehension to condemnation to tacit acceptance... and omits, for the most part, celebration (though there's a little about Pride parades in the final chapter). It's a stark reminder that progress has been slow -- and I'm not as sanguine as the author is that no one will ever try to put the genie back in the bottle, either.
It was interesting to read about queer Welsh people I didn't know about, at least.
In any case, the book tries to take a number of Welsh lives and pick out the threads of queerness in them. As the author notes, in some (many) cases we don't have any direct evidence of sexuality, only of affection or circumstance, and that means we may misread the evidence. Shopland is careful to qualify that it can't be certain whether certain people were having sex or not, but nonetheless confidently states that these people are queer because they stepped over certain boundaries in how they showed affection to members of the same sex. I'm not sure about this one, and think maybe it could've used more hedging than ever: asexuality and aromanticism are possibilities, too, and they're not explicitly included here as options (Shopland writes about LGBT people, rather than "queer" people, or LGBT+).
Later in the book it all gets more specific and certain, of course, and a narrative starts to emerge: the march of history, from incomprehension to condemnation to tacit acceptance... and omits, for the most part, celebration (though there's a little about Pride parades in the final chapter). It's a stark reminder that progress has been slow -- and I'm not as sanguine as the author is that no one will ever try to put the genie back in the bottle, either.
It was interesting to read about queer Welsh people I didn't know about, at least.
westerdrumlins's review
challenging
emotional
informative
reflective
slow-paced
While it took me from the end of March to the end of Semptember to finally finish this, it was definitely an interesting read and involved lots of people I'd never heard of which I like to find in queer non-fiction. However, the lack of editing really took me out of the flow of each account, and most likely contributed to the reason it took me so long to read (though I do understand that independent publishers simply don't have the same resources, be it time or money, for the same level of editing as the biggest publishing houses). I'd still recommend this, especially as a starting point for further reading/research, but would keep my previous point in mind. I am, however, very intrigued to read Norena Shopland's new book.
Content warnings include:
Homophobia, transphobia, legal discrimination, outing, suicide (and suggested murder)
Content warnings include:
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Transphobia
Moderate: Outing and Suicide
jhnd's review against another edition
5.0
Important stories. From a range of eras. Some are based on first hand accounts, some rely more on speculation. That in itself speaks volumes of the fear and prejudice with which too many have had to live.
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