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3.91 AVERAGE
3.91 AVERAGE
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This novel is so clearly crafted with love and affection that I don’t even really have the vocabulary to do it justice. Torres writes with such obvious care for its characters that shines through every page.
The reconstruction of history is rendered so beautifully through the interplay of absence and presence, and drives home, to me, just how lucky I am to be queer and how important it is to understand that queerness through the lens of an heirloom or birthright to be protected and cherished in a world that seeks to disrupt both of those things. I loved this novel.
The reconstruction of history is rendered so beautifully through the interplay of absence and presence, and drives home, to me, just how lucky I am to be queer and how important it is to understand that queerness through the lens of an heirloom or birthright to be protected and cherished in a world that seeks to disrupt both of those things. I loved this novel.
The prose of this book was incredible and the story was intriguing to me, just the relationship between two men of a different time that were so similar. The way that they would tell their stories was more than just a chronological tale and was still a good way to understand their experiences. The addition of pictures and the blacked-out, poetry inside the book that they referenced the whole time was a great addition to the story itself.
Messy, warm, and fascinating. Immediately got Sebald vibes with the mixed media approach and the emphasis on memory and blurring fact and fiction.
I think this book is super on point with its selection of references and source material. The connective tissue, however, doesn’t always work for me. Some of the flashbacks told by the narrator and the fictionalization of Ms. Gay feels a little flat and heavy handed at points.
This book has some exquisite passages and examinations on queerness, otherness, sex, race, life, and death. Unfortunately most of my favorite passages are quotes pulled into the work, not the author’s original writing.
I think this book is super on point with its selection of references and source material. The connective tissue, however, doesn’t always work for me. Some of the flashbacks told by the narrator and the fictionalization of Ms. Gay feels a little flat and heavy handed at points.
This book has some exquisite passages and examinations on queerness, otherness, sex, race, life, and death. Unfortunately most of my favorite passages are quotes pulled into the work, not the author’s original writing.
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
Kind of hard to get into cause the book is so fragmented in it's storytelling. Especially in the beginning it really took me quite some time to understand what was going on.
I read the second half in the span of a day and really enjoyed the book a lot then. I also felt like I understood what I read and got a better grasp of the characters for the first time then
I think I want to read it again at some point and then I'll try to get through it quicker, I think I would get way more out of the book that way
If you don't mind very little plot and a lot of interwoven timelines and symbolicism this book is for you
A bit hard to grasp at times but always very queer.
I read the second half in the span of a day and really enjoyed the book a lot then. I also felt like I understood what I read and got a better grasp of the characters for the first time then
I think I want to read it again at some point and then I'll try to get through it quicker, I think I would get way more out of the book that way
If you don't mind very little plot and a lot of interwoven timelines and symbolicism this book is for you
A bit hard to grasp at times but always very queer.
reflective
slow-paced
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
RTF
On one hand, I think this book is important and I’m really glad it exists. On the other, I can’t honestly say that I enjoyed reading it. It actually feels more like an artifact than a book, and reading it felt like walking through an illuminating but devastating exhibit. I think the gripes I have with it are mostly just related to my personal tastes— this relied so heavily on format and very little on the characters, so in some ways, it felt like even at the end, their stories were still, in some way, buried.
this fragmented style of storytelling really hooked me. the book feels smarter than me, which was fun most of the time, but I don’t feel like I got as much out of it as I wanted to (or could if I were a more astute reader).
I appreciated the commentary on cultural historians whitewashing, co-opting, or flat out blacking out queer stories, and loved the idea of using fiction to fill in the gaps. super artful and thought-provoking, so it gets the benefit of the doubt from me.
excited to revisit this one in the future!
I appreciated the commentary on cultural historians whitewashing, co-opting, or flat out blacking out queer stories, and loved the idea of using fiction to fill in the gaps. super artful and thought-provoking, so it gets the benefit of the doubt from me.
excited to revisit this one in the future!