Reviews with content warning for Transphobia - Dead Collections

Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

79 reviews

eegekay's review

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emotional 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

4.5

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imrereads's review

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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

4.5

I absolutely loved this very queer, very trans story about Sol, a vampire archivist, and Elsie, a larger-than-life widow, who donated her late wife's paper. Full of great conversations on queerness, gender identity and expression, vampirism as a chronic illness, fandom, and archivism, this was just all over a great time for me. Often it also felt like a love letter of sorts to bigger bodies, queer bodies, trans bodies. I was sold from page one!

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mjwhitlock18's review

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

I’m not sure that I knew what I was getting into with this book, and I’m still not entirely sure where I stand on it. It is ultimately a vampire story that explores gender, sexuality, identity, fandom, and the archiving of lives and ephemera. It feels more like a true autobiography than fiction. It’s raw, tangled, and at times disjointed. This queer Jewish trans male vampire meets and has a fast burning relationships with a bisexual widow, as he is archiving her dead wife’s belongings. I’m not sure that I support the romance, as it feels not entirely healthy, but I’m also not sure if I’m supposed to as a reader. This book is light on plot, heavy on dialogue and metaphors, and mostly about relationships and people figuring their shit out. Overall, it’s spooky, queer, and weird, and if that’s your vibe, give it a shot.

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audreyxine's review

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dark funny medium-paced

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

2.0

I could never really get into this one. I liked the characters, but they seemed to lack chemistry to me. I would have liked to delve more into the themes of grief for some of the other characters. My biggest criticism is the Feet of Clay bits were very boring to me and distracted me from the plot. They seemed unnecessary and disrupted the flow of the story. I enjoyed the dark, mundane, dusty world that Fellman created but I would have liked to see more unfold.

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siriface's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.25

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scarroll178's review

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reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

It’s a really interesting story, but some of the writing just didn’t jive with me tbh. Like there were sentences I squinted my eyes at or audibly said “what are you talking about??”

Some people might think this review says more for my ability as a reader than Fellman’s ability as a storyteller, but I’d agree to disagree 🤷‍♂️

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indigoriverboat's review

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emotional reflective sad medium-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

This book is about deeply flawed queer folks and their fuck-ups. The main character is a vampire and a transgender man and is in a slum in life. This book is about middle age and coming to terms with who you are underneath your bullshit. There is a lot of exploration of being a queer person in the the 90s/early 00s and today and how people find different paths to their true selves, in this case through fandom.

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aiyam's review

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challenging emotional reflective slow-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

5.0

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hobbithopeful's review

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slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.0

Transgender Vampire. What a fantastic concept, and what a TERRIBLE execution.
In hindsight I should have DNF this book, and I regret not doing that. Truly the only redeeming factor is the excellent cover. (Which this book does not deserve!)
I have three main problems with this book.

Dry Writing Style
Harmful Rhetoric
Plot? What Plot?

I read the first chapter and thought "Hmmm, some books have a rough beginning, I'm sure it will pick up." I was broken out of reading so many times while trying to slog my way through this drivel. I had to push myself to keep reading, hoping at some point the writing style would improve, the characters would suck me in, or there would be some kind of engaging writing. (I was wrong.) The closest example I could give you to what the reading style is like, is this. Imagine you are in school and you get assigned reading of your History textbook, and that textbook was written a million years ago and is incredibly outdated, dull, and overall seems to be a lesson in how long the author can drone on about a hallway. (Yes it was that bad.)
Next issue I have.
The author seems to have a personal hang up regarding Lesbians, specifically "Butch Lesbians." I don't even know to how to begin approaching this issue other then stating that Isaac Fellman (the author), has some clear personal hang-ups regarding people of that sexuality and presentation. The misogyny shines through in the writing, and in simpler terms: it gave me the ick. I could go more in depth on this and how it was represented in the book, but really it's not worth my time.
Finally
The plot? Where is it? After successfully slugging my way through this book, I couldn't even tell you what it is about. Other then of course, vampires. I'd say romance, but the utter lack of chemistry didn't even feel close to that word for me. Narratively speaking Fellman often transitioned to a show that Sol really enjoyed, and truly it was not a needed addition.
Overall, save your time, read a different book. (For searchers of Transgender/Monster symbolism I recommend Hell Followed With Us, an excellent read)

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dananana's review

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emotional hopeful reflective

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

4.5

i absolutely loved loved loved this 💙🤍💖

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