Reviews tagging 'Outing'

Dead Collections by Isaac Fellman

29 reviews

solspringsreads's review against another edition

emotional mysterious reflective slow-paced

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

3.25

I have really complicated feelings about this book. I spent a large portion of my time reading this book just sending my friend live texts trying to figure out how I felt and why I felt it—there’s a lot of gender discussion that made me feel not great, though it was clearly reflective of the author’s own relationship with gender and sexuality and didn’t seem to come from a place of intentionally triggering intense dysphoria in potential readers (AKA it’s not necessarily the book, it’s me)—and very little time just… enjoying the book.
Even so, the actual plot of this book is pretty interesting. It somehow manages to be exactly as advertised (vampire archivist!) and not at all what is advertised and then also more than what is advertised. The relationship between the main characters burns incredibly fast and is very intense, and like many other readers, I’m not sure I really… liked the main relationship. Not that I’m even sure that I’m supposed to? It’s complicated.
This is a book about very messy, flawed people trying to work through their chaos together. It’s not trying to be healthy or idealized, and that’s pretty great! We deserve to have messy queer characters figuring out who they are. I really appreciated what this book was doing thematically, even if the execution wasn’t my favorite. This book can also be very emotionally taxing if you, too, are a messy, flawed person trying to work through your chaos. Please check the trigger warnings before picking this one up.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Lesbophobia, Sexism, Outing, Medical content, Grief, Car accident, Biphobia, Hate crime, Transphobia, Misogyny, Dysphoria, Homophobia, Deadnaming, Infidelity, Blood, and Toxic relationship

bookishvicky's review

emotional mysterious reflective tense 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

I went into this expecting a campy vampire romance in an archival setting and instead got a beautiful metaphor about bodies and memory and connection and otherness. While I’m certainly not one to say I understand Sol’s plight (as a cis bi woman who is unfortunately not a vampire), I feel as though I was reading someone’s memoir instead of fiction, and felt connected to the inclusion of early slasher fics and what they meant in the grand scheme of fandom and author identity, how we use these stories to better understand our own. It made me feel very human, and more aware of myself. Truly an amazing read—one of those rare books that’ll make you feel just so, so deeply.  Beautiful prose, wonderful experimental formatting, and a gorgeous cover to boot. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Homophobia, Transphobia, Sexual content, and Blood

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Deadnaming

Minor: Car accident, Death, and Outing

indeed_distract's review

funny mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Medical content, Sexual content, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Transphobia, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Grief, Suicidal thoughts, Outing, and Deadnaming

woweewhoa's review

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Grief, Transphobia, Sexual content, Deadnaming, Dysphoria, Medical content, Outing, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Pregnancy, Alcohol, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship

coyodie's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective slow-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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Chronic illness, Cursing, Dysphoria, Sexual content, Outing, Transphobia, Mental illness, and Medical content

Moderate: Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, and Confinement

Minor: Infertility, Addiction, Deadnaming, Misogyny, and Violence

anxiousnachos's review

mysterious slow-paced

3.0

I have mixed feelings on this one. There were moments that took my breath away; there is such a gentle, tender but unflinching portrayal of a trans masc vampire and nonbinary love interest and some of the moments these two considered their gender and identity just took my breath away in how deeply I felt: same. This novel feels like a deeply personal experience, like looking into someone’s mind, it feels like you are glimpsing the author’s trans experience, from the way they explore butchness, to the way lesbian and trans masc identities can be so entwined, to the workplace discrimination. It feels very intimate.

I thought it raised some very interesting ideas around vampirism, death and archiving. But this is unfortunately where it began to let me down because it was all just rather…shall we say it, boring? Trying to be philosophical but just losing the engagement along the way? 

So I have mixed thoughts and ultimately I am settling somewhere on a mixed rating. Because whilst there are some moments of real, deep familiarity and connection, there is also a lot to swim through to reach those moments. 

Content warnings: transphobia, blood, needles and other medical content, dysphoria, disability discrimination in the workplace, graphic sex, deadnaming, outing (in the workplace), vampirism as chronic illness, car accident, suicidal ideation 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Blood, and Dysphoria

Moderate: Outing, Car accident, Chronic illness, Ableism, Medical content, and Suicidal thoughts

uranaishi's review

dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Chronic illness, Confinement, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Medical content, Outing, and Sexual content

Moderate: Body horror, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Body shaming, Bullying, Deadnaming, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Hate crime, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Alcohol and Car accident

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

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