Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror by Joe Vallese

16 reviews

overbooked207's review against another edition

fast-paced

3.75

📖 It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror edited by Joe Vallese Book Review 📖

6th book of January 2023 and 6th of the year:

I love the fact that I’m getting really into nonfiction books over the past few years! Being a queer person who loves the horror genre, this immediately caught my attention, with it being a nonfiction book by queer authors that talks about the queerness, whether seen explicitly in the text, in subtext, and/or through the audience’s interpretation, in horror media throughout the years and how the representation affects and is affected by the world around it! I enjoyed some of the stories a lot more than others, with some of my favorites being ‘The Girl, the Well, the Ring,’ ‘Three Men on a Boat,’ ‘Loving Annie Hayworth,’ ‘Centered and Seen,’ Sight Unseen,’ and ‘Black Body Snatchers,’ but I recommend it as a whole and want to read more things like it! I also love the cover and the title! TWs for ableism, abortion, abuse, bigotry, blood, body horror, death, drugs, gore, grief, homophobia, medical content/trauma, mental illness, miscarriage, murder, pedophilia, pregnancy, racism, rape, self-harm, sexual content, transphobia, violence, and vomit.📚🧟‍♂️🎃☠️🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍⚧️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Self harm, Drug use, Transphobia, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Drug abuse, Medical content, Violence, Ableism, Pregnancy, Murder, Abortion, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, and Sexual content

taleofabibliophile's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Bullying, Chronic illness, Ableism, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Dysphoria, Pregnancy, Cursing, Miscarriage, Grief, Hate crime, Medical trauma, Domestic abuse, Death, Medical content, Gore, Mental illness, Self harm, and Homophobia

Moderate: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Lesbophobia, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity and Cancer

og_tomatogirl's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence and Gore

Moderate: Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Ableism, Violence, and Transphobia

Minor: Biphobia, Mental illness, and Pedophilia

j_squaredd's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

3.25

As with all collections by multiple authors, some of these essays were great and some less so. I especially liked the ones over Jennifer’s Body, The Blob, Get Out, Grace, and Candy Man.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death of parent, Racism, Transphobia, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Child death, Homophobia, and Alcoholism

Moderate: Blood, Mental illness, Death, and Gore

bi_n_large's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Pregnancy, Body horror, and Ableism

Moderate: Medical trauma, Gore, Abandonment, Murder, Dysphoria, Domestic abuse, and Child abuse

Minor: Mental illness

aliciawhatsthestory's review against another edition

challenging dark reflective medium-paced

4.0

Book 37 of 2022: It Came From the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As someone who has always been fascinated by horror movies, the premise of this book appealed to me immediately. It is a collection of essays from 25 different authors that reflect on horror in a memoir style. Though film theory is certainly discussed, this book is an interesting and accessible hybrid between social theory, film theory, and self-reflection. 

That said, it comes with all the difficult content one might expect from a book written by a large group of marginalized people reflecting on how fictional horrors reflect their own lives experience. Some of these essays are hard to read.

However, I found them all to be insightful, interesting, and (for the majority) very well written and readable, even if you are not familiar with the films they address. Due to the wide array of experience represented in this anthology, it is highly likely that no reader will connect with every single essay, just as no horror fan loves every single horror movie. 

However, for any fan of horror, or any person interested in how queer people have been represented in horror movies, this is definitely a worthwhile read.

Please be aware that this book discusses at least 20 different horror movies, and the content/trigger warnings from each movie should apply, including but not limited to: body horror, vomit, blood, murder, harm by fire, abuse, and captivity. Other triggers may also be present in the authors’ commentary on their own lives, including homophobia, transphobia, racism, slurs, sexism, lesbophobia, divorce, and other potential triggers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Blood, Body horror, and Murder

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Cannibalism, Cursing, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Transphobia, Mental illness, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Ableism, Bullying, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Lesbophobia, Medical content, Medical trauma, Miscarriage, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Alcoholism, Forced institutionalization, Child abuse, Confinement, and Vomit

This book is about horror movies. Please be aware that I may not have remembered every single trigger mentioned. Due to its theme, the book is filled with references to violence and abuse in the context of the movies and in the context of the lives of the authors who relate to those movies. Know what you are going into before you read this book.