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4.16 AVERAGE
4.16 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
ahahahh my heart hurt and i had to stay away from reading fiction for a while after this
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I was excited to read this as I find myself rather tough with triggering topics such as these, and really just love literary fiction with a focus on characters. I also heard such great things about the movie and expected the same of the book, and i would say i enjoyed many parts of it, but best part of the entire book was the time when Brian and Neil finally came together, which was the end.
I felt as though most of the book was build-up and was an introspection into Brian and Neil and their ways of living from unrecognized trauma. However, i do feel like there was a lot of Neil’s continuous sex with older men till the point where that was all we saw of him. I know that was to show his trauma in the form of hyper sexuality, and he was still struggling with the effects of his childhood, but it felt as though his character was reduced to just that and did not show other facets of his character besides the effect of his SA.
The writing and treatment of child molestation was written in a fairly empathetic way, but, however, it was not very gentle. The descriptions of the sexual abuse of Neil as a child and especially his rape in NYC felt weirdly similar to a smutty, rough gay sex fanfic or book. The description was pretty lewd and felt unnecessary. I can see what the author was aiming for, whether it was a different portrayal and the mindset of Neil as a child and an adult viewing the experience, but it felt almost illegal to read, especially his rape as a child. So if you can handle very graphic sexual relations and terms about sex positions and just everything above, go for this book, but if you can’t, i would recommend to stay away from this.
I felt as though most of the book was build-up and was an introspection into Brian and Neil and their ways of living from unrecognized trauma. However, i do feel like there was a lot of Neil’s continuous sex with older men till the point where that was all we saw of him. I know that was to show his trauma in the form of hyper sexuality, and he was still struggling with the effects of his childhood, but it felt as though his character was reduced to just that and did not show other facets of his character besides the effect of his SA.
The writing and treatment of child molestation was written in a fairly empathetic way, but, however, it was not very gentle. The descriptions of the sexual abuse of Neil as a child and especially his rape in NYC felt weirdly similar to a smutty, rough gay sex fanfic or book. The description was pretty lewd and felt unnecessary. I can see what the author was aiming for, whether it was a different portrayal and the mindset of Neil as a child and an adult viewing the experience, but it felt almost illegal to read, especially his rape as a child. So if you can handle very graphic sexual relations and terms about sex positions and just everything above, go for this book, but if you can’t, i would recommend to stay away from this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Beautiful and awful
dark
sad
tense
the movie was so depressing it made me want to vomit so i said why not read the book because i enjoy traumatizing myself
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
Very very tough and heavy subject matter. Writing is beautiful. Please look up trigger warnings before reading.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Rape
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When I first watched the film adaptation of Mysterious Skin about a year ago, I fell into a fugue state. I had made the unwise decision of doing so just before my other gay roommate hosted pres with a handful of his heterosexual friends. I crawled out into the common space with puffy eyes and a snot-wiped sweater, and struggled through small talk with a bunch of people who I felt could never understand why a movie did so much to me.
It took me a while to square together my feelings about it. I had tried watching it three times before I finally stomached the whole thing, regularly covering my face with my hands and peeking through my fingers. It was so viscerally unfiltered in its depiction of rape, of pedophilia, of the ways in which we grow accustomed to our trauma— was it ethical to show just how easy one can glamourize those experiences? Was that, in itself, glamourizing them?
Eventually, I sat with it, and felt that it was one of my favorite movies I've ever seen. Now, having read the book, which goes even more in-depth of those unsavory scenes, explaining the rape in gratuitous details, I feel like I'm reckoning over where the lines are in this type of story all over again. Maybe it's morality OCD, or maybe there's something more tangible there, but I do think I'll eventually land in the same place.
At a more structural level, I did find that Neil's story interested me far more than Brian's, and the scenes from his point of view near the middle began to drag. Wendy felt surprisingly absent and Eric felt surprisingly present, but I think he circled around to being my favorite character, and probably the one I related to the most.
Going to listen to the film soundtrack and stay up too late thinking about what could've been. Ugh. I could never recommend this book to anyone, but I don't think I'll ever be able to forget it, either.
It took me a while to square together my feelings about it. I had tried watching it three times before I finally stomached the whole thing, regularly covering my face with my hands and peeking through my fingers. It was so viscerally unfiltered in its depiction of rape, of pedophilia, of the ways in which we grow accustomed to our trauma— was it ethical to show just how easy one can glamourize those experiences? Was that, in itself, glamourizing them?
Eventually, I sat with it, and felt that it was one of my favorite movies I've ever seen. Now, having read the book, which goes even more in-depth of those unsavory scenes, explaining the rape in gratuitous details, I feel like I'm reckoning over where the lines are in this type of story all over again. Maybe it's morality OCD, or maybe there's something more tangible there, but I do think I'll eventually land in the same place.
At a more structural level, I did find that Neil's story interested me far more than Brian's, and the scenes from his point of view near the middle began to drag. Wendy felt surprisingly absent and Eric felt surprisingly present, but I think he circled around to being my favorite character, and probably the one I related to the most.
Going to listen to the film soundtrack and stay up too late thinking about what could've been. Ugh. I could never recommend this book to anyone, but I don't think I'll ever be able to forget it, either.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship
Moderate: Homophobia
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
"Before he even opened his wounded mouth I knew what he would say. I knew it as conclusively as I knew my family, my self, and as he spoke it seemed as though his story had already ended."
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated