Reviews tagging 'Deadnaming'

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

31 reviews

dustycedar's review

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I had high hopes for this book ): This book is clearly semi-autobiographical if you read about the author.. but the main character isn’t one that I enjoyed reading about. It does a good job of actually representing how depression greatly impacts your life/ability to do basic things. But, overall I don’t think it was a great book. An attempt at banter & queer sex scenes that I think just came off as cringe. This is basically a self inserted fan fic of a fandom that doesn’t exist. 
The format makes no sense— a lot of extra unnecessary information, some of which ruins potential for some scenes to have any suspense. 
He used similes in like every other sentence.  
This author is trans, and lets us down by describing the romantic interest the way any cis guy would. Really focused on “her tits” (literally his wording, “tits”). 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Outing, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Grief, and Transphobia

lunacurlypaws's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

A beautiful book! I'm very glad I read it, even if it made me cry for many reasons. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria

Moderate: Blood, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Grief, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Addiction, and Medical content

lipstickitotheman's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Genuine addition to the vampire canon. I really really liked reading this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Chronic illness, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Sexual content, Medical trauma, Dysphoria, Hate crime, Suicidal thoughts, and Transphobia

Moderate: Deadnaming, Homophobia, Outing, Car accident, Blood, and Infidelity

toopunkrockforshul's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

As a vampire fan I loved it, the lore was really interesting, and as an archivist I loved it, it was like a love letter to the job. And as a transmasc Jew in fandom I loved it because it felt like being seen.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Outing, Deadnaming, Car accident, Body horror, Blood, Death, Transphobia, Medical content, Chronic illness, Terminal illness, Sexual content, and Confinement

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Incest

metalmakubex's review against another edition

There is absolutely nothing wrong with this book. In fact, it is a book that I'm grateful exists. However, the subject matter was hitting to close to home and was actively harming me. It has very honest scenes of the painful parts of the transmasc experience.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Transphobia, Lesbophobia, and Deadnaming

prynne31's review

emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Well-written and interesting, just not my particular cuppa.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Transphobia, Outing, and Deadnaming

katiewhocanread's review

emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Dysphoria, Outing, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, and Deadnaming

yavin_iv's review

emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Grief, Transphobia, Dysphoria, Blood, Death, Sexual content, and Outing

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Car accident, Deadnaming, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infertility

elliotvanz's review

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Wow. This cut close to the quick for me.

If you're looking for slick supernatural vampires doing slick supernatural vampire things that's not what this book is interested in. This one is more literary and interested in considering what vampirism might look like if it was more like an illness. I for one found it fascinating, and I was glad I went into it with very little foreknowledge nor expectations. This is a meditative and broody book, not an adventure yarn.

This story reads a bit like a noir, especially with the snappy dialogue, but there isn't really a mystery to solve in any traditional sense. It's much more of a romance than anything else, though the style and structure are not what I would call romantic. It's peppered with alternate styles of writing, like message board posts, articles, emails, and text threads, just like the archives that are so central to the story and the main character. The writing is crisp and evocative, descriptive without ever becoming flowery. The pace clips along. The real focus, though, is on character and how it feels to walk through life when you're different and the world isn't made for you, especially when you feel hollowed out and stuck. You could replace vampirism with any host of disabilities and the story remains intact. 

So much of this book is about trans identity (especially trans masculine and genderfluid), disability, discrimination, being nocturnal, being in love, watching an old life and the things you cared about decay, and trying to build something new when you're scared and don't know if you can. It's about taking chances, some you should and some you shouldn't. It's about figuring out who you are and who you want to be. It's also about archives and what we leave behind. And yeah, I guess it's also about vampires.

I'm glad I took a chance on this one when the author's debut was so lukewarm for me. I look forward to future offerings.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Transphobia, Chronic illness, Ableism, and Blood

Moderate: Medical content, Outing, Terminal illness, Grief, Body horror, Car accident, Confinement, and Dysphoria

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Deadnaming, and Infertility

oiabluenoon's review

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Homophobia, Outing, Death, Dysphoria, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Blood, and Sexual content