Scan barcode
mmccombs's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
This was like reading a dream, experimental and surreal and blurry. I leave this feeling like I didn’t quite get it but I do appreciate what it was doing. Blending different types of art and fiction/nonfiction, it’s a book that explores gaps in memory and in history. I’m glad I read this but also know it might take a while to really wrap my mind around it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Suicide, Death, Racism, and Mental illness
badmom's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
The structure of this novel can be confusing as it often moves between past & present, through different voices & states of consciousness, referencing literary quotes & research data & history & art. However, it is a fascinating look at memory + perspection as well as a glimpse at how society at large perceives homosexuality. The voices are poetic and rich and endearing; the imagery is entrancing.
I’m left wanting to reread it, and also read more.
I’m left wanting to reread it, and also read more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Death
Moderate: Homophobia, Abandonment, Colonisation, Lesbophobia, and Confinement
Minor: Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Mental illness, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, and Infidelity
caseythereader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Confinement, Cursing, Medical content, Mental illness, Suicide attempt, Death, Forced institutionalization, Sexual content, and Infidelity
jayisreading's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
Blackouts was a quiet and introspective book, as well as a complex one. I'm not quite sure how to describe this novel, other than that it's very experimental and gets increasingly ethereal in the way Torres traces queer history and searches for queer hope. Most interesting about this novel was incorporation of a real-life text, Sex Variants: A Study in Homosexual Patterns, to help guide the story and its themes along.
It was fascinating to see how the story unfolded primarily through tender, intimate conversations between two queer men: an unnamed narrator who is in his twenties, and a dying, elderly man named Juan. Torres is also tracing queer history through these conversations mixed with multimedia. It's also clear that queer history is more than "just" queerness, as Torres relates it to race, masculinity, and more.
I have no doubt that a number of things flew over my head as I was reading this, and Blackouts certainly is a book that asks to be reread for further contemplation. This is a book that asks the reader to take their time with every image/illustration, every line, and every utterance.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Medical content and Homophobia
Minor: Death and Drug use
mixedreader's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Aligned with a recurring metaphor in the text of behind below the surface of water, I felt submerged, willingly, just a reach away from gasping the full air of the story. And that feels purposeful and necessary for this book that is queer storytelling personified.
A young man befriends a man close to his last days, living in an institution called the Palace. Juan tells the young man stories, particularly of a woman named Jan Gay, who studied homosexuals and behavior; the research of which is collected in a book called Sex Variants. Juan describes how her work/history was attempted to be erased, and he passes the torch of this work to the young man. Between this history, they trade stories, recounting relationships and transgressions, becoming closer.
Blackouts includes art and snippets from Gay’s text, huge chunks blacked out that create mystery. Torres plays with genre/narrative is a fascinating way, as a few nuggets of historical truth anchor this underlying story. However, Torres is most concerned with emotional truth, with connection and sense of responsibility. His allegiance in this novel is to the non-linear, survivalist, fragmented reality queer folks live. He writes in the spirit of not being forgotten.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Medical trauma and Homophobia
Minor: Death
More...