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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
funny
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Super fascinating. I appreciate how they clarified at the beginning that their focus is generally on white men but clearly the community is much larger than that. People in power sometimes use that power for awful ends, and sexuality doesn't stop that. I was looking for more of a narrative, but ultimately I think just telling people's stories in their time was a much more interesting and nuanced way to approach it.
I agree with other reviewers that the use of the term "bad" was never really qualified or explained, and the ways in which the subjects were bad differed. There are fair critiques of how this book was written, but personally, I'm new to queer history and I found the information to be engaging.
I agree with other reviewers that the use of the term "bad" was never really qualified or explained, and the ways in which the subjects were bad differed. There are fair critiques of how this book was written, but personally, I'm new to queer history and I found the information to be engaging.
informative
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Rep: all white gay/bisexual men, from the lens of a BIPOC ally
I really liked what the book was saying and it gave me a new perspective on how bigotry and fascist politics can shape a gay and make a gay assimilate negatively.
I really liked what the book was saying and it gave me a new perspective on how bigotry and fascist politics can shape a gay and make a gay assimilate negatively.
medium-paced
I was really excited about this book because it sounds like the *perfect* intersection of my interests, and it's modern, and it's a great length for historical nonfiction. Lots of aspects in its favor. Unfortunately, I found it to drag quite a bit, because the chapters all start off pretty strong and interesting, but about halfway or three-quarters of the way through, they all become very dense and almost... jargon-y? The book will go from talking about the actual base facts of whichever historical figure is the topic of conversation, to immediately discussing their modern-day implications and socio-political effects, with practically no transition. I also found the sheer number of characters mentioned in each chapter to just be... way too much, and the authors didn't smoothly transition between them at all, so I found it very hard to differentiate between most of them, even when I could tell that the characters were supposed to be distinct and obvious.
I ended up grabbing the audiobook around chapter 9 to help me finish this out, and that definitely helped (although I didn't particularly enjoy the narrator). All in all, I'm glad to have read it, but I'm equally as glad to be done with it.
I ended up grabbing the audiobook around chapter 9 to help me finish this out, and that definitely helped (although I didn't particularly enjoy the narrator). All in all, I'm glad to have read it, but I'm equally as glad to be done with it.
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
I read this a few mo ago but happy pride lol. Anyway I think if you’ve heard their podcast this book won’t be much of a surprise to you. I absolutely loved the biting and revolutionary introduction. I’ve heard some friends call this book flippant because the authors weren’t sufficiently antagonistic to the subjects but I think the cattiest thing they could do was say Mishima skipped leg day.
The book is didactic yet clear and easy to read. They refuse to sacrifice their radical views for readability yet somehow pull off their complex points beautifully. My only disappointment is that I’ve heard a lot of these entries before since they were done on their podcast. The old entries don’t stray far from the original podcast episodes but the new ones are amazing. (You didn’t ask but my favorite bad gays were Hadrian and Mishima.)
If you haven’t listened to the podcast i would consider giving it a read but if you’re a dedicated fan of the show you might feel like a lot of this is redundant. The new entries are fantastic and worth reading so you might as well read the entire thing.
The book is didactic yet clear and easy to read. They refuse to sacrifice their radical views for readability yet somehow pull off their complex points beautifully. My only disappointment is that I’ve heard a lot of these entries before since they were done on their podcast. The old entries don’t stray far from the original podcast episodes but the new ones are amazing. (You didn’t ask but my favorite bad gays were Hadrian and Mishima.)
If you haven’t listened to the podcast i would consider giving it a read but if you’re a dedicated fan of the show you might feel like a lot of this is redundant. The new entries are fantastic and worth reading so you might as well read the entire thing.