Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - All Boys Aren't Blue

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

All Boys Aren't Blue by George M. Johnson

38 reviews

ladyleigh's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

4.0

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autismandniamh's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

Heart-wrenching, searingly honest and shocking. There was occasional “finding my journey” speak which came across a little cringe; plus the SA chapter was incredibly difficult to read and felt overly sympathetic to the abuser, even with the disclaimer at the end of the chapter. In addition, the fraternity parts read like self-immolation rather than self-realisation and finding family, but what do I know? I’ve never been in one. You can’t fault George for his honesty though.

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bookwormcat's review

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challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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kteliza28's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

4.0

Really enjoyed this memoir about growing up black and queer. The first 2/3 of this book were the best: the childhood upbringing, growing into oneself and trying to understand identity, family dynamics and dealing with hate in all its forms (especially the emphasis on micro aggressions). It was actually the most informative part for me, especially the un-learning of what we’ve been taught in our history classes. This story was different to me because not everything was a struggle. At first I was so surprised that the authors family was pretty much fully supportive from the get go (some members more than others but mostly supportive). You read books like this and think everything has to be a downhill battle the whole time and how the author preserved and came out of it heroic, but it was a really nice change of pace to hear the story of someone who didn’t have it all bad but still dealt with very negative things and also still hasn’t figured everything out yet. As someone not black and not gay, reading someone’s story of sexuality and their feelings around sex in general was actually something I could connect with. I do think this book kinda loses me a little around the time the author goes to college. There were some elements of the story that played into the theme of the book but at times felt like I was just hearing a day to day recall of a pretty mundane college life. But maybe that’s the point. Again, you don’t need to struggle 100% of the time or have a drama filled life 100% of the time to write about it. This is not to detract from what the author went through. There are MANY times throughout this memoir where I was shaking my head in sadness and disgust for what he went through. But there was hope and happiness here too.

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p_ttyb_tch's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

3.0

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thewordsdevourer's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

3.0

all boys aren't blue is def an important read, esp for bringing more awareness and visibility to queer ppl own their own terms, in their own voice, here thru the words of george m. johnson.

despite being for younger readers, the memoir deals w/ some heavy themes and subject matter - albeit realistic and necessary ones - and it's unsurprising why many scared and prejudiced adults are averse to the book and have been trying to ban it.

while there are certain impactful and memorable lines thruout, i find the writing juvenile at times, perhaps bc of its younger target audience. the overall book also seems a lil scattered, not as cohesive as it could be, and the ending too abrupt imo. nevertheless johnson's memoir is an important one that sheds light on the plight of a group of marginalized voices.

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emquartz15's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective fast-paced

5.0

A beautiful, intersectional story of teen and young adult life told by a beautiful soul. I listened to the audiobook on Libby which was fantastic. A queer must-read. Read banned books!

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