Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Ziggy, Stardust and Me by James Brandon

10 reviews

mercurial_rosie's review

dark emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual violence

miloblue's review

challenging dark emotional sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

This book was super hard. There’s a lot of violence and self-harm and racism and internalized homophobia. That said, it is set at a super interesting and important time in queer history… and by extension American history.  Though fictional, it’s a part of history that we didn’t really study in school, and that certainly adds some context. 

There is also a lot of music and pop-culture woven through the book, with the main characters listening to a lot of records and finding affinity with David Bowie’s The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars and Aladdin Sane, among other albums.

As of this writing I’m giving it 3.75 stars, and I’m really not sad that I read it, but it’s a heavy one, to be sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism and Self harm

Minor: Sexual violence, Police brutality, and Murder

the_true_monroe's review against another edition

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? No

4.25

This book was intense, sad (yet funny), and beautiful. I think despite how much was accomplished and complete/ resolved (and by complete/ resolved, I don’t mean ‘all is well and good’ but ‘okay, that answers that’) I felt there were many other characters I wanted to hear from again. I just feel like there were abrupt ‘tie-offs’ to a few side characters.  

I think the variety of reactions to Jonathan and Web’s stories allows most queer people to relate on some level but it is really interesting to view with the historical and cultural lenses which are more specific to the characters, location and time period. 

I have recently come to love queer historical fiction and books like this are why.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Self harm, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Drug use, Genocide, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Stalking, Outing, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Cultural appropriation

moony__3's review

adventurous challenging hopeful sad medium-paced

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

3.0

i like the concept but i cringed a lot. didn't like the writing style, you can definitely tell it's the authors first novel.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual violence, and Outing

Moderate: Racial slurs

starfish422's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I’d give this book 10* if I could. Perhaps one of the best, most emotional books I’ve read in the last five years. I wish I could read it again for the first time, over and over. The narration was wonderful as well. PLEASE READ IT. 

See content warnings. Also, there is on-page

conversion therapy, in the form of electroshock aversion therapy

.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, and Violence

megcoho's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted 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? It's complicated

4.5

An exploration of queer identity in 1973 middle America. Gorgeous writing, developed characters. Finished in 2 days Made me cry at 3am. Absolute legend of a book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Internalized homophobia, electroshock aversion Therapy,

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad tense 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

3.5

This came recommended to me by a coworker. I really liked the historical setting which lent itself to a lot of the issues and topics covered by the author.
The main character was likeable and I loved the addition of pop culture and music references. 
I'm not Indigenous or Two-Spirit so I can't speak to whether the representation will ring true and authentic to folks who are, but I think the author tried to be inclusive and respectful of their experiences without stepping on toes and depicting it too intimately.
It's a sweet love story with lots of dark content but a hopeful ending. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual violence, Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Moderate: Alcoholism, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and Colonisation

Minor: Police brutality and War

conversion "therapy"

ivan_levitt's review against another edition

emotional inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism and Death of parent

ace_b's review

emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense

• 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Pedophilia

sarahcherie's review

emotional medium-paced

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

2.0

I feel like one of the few who do not like this book. On the one hand, we have representation for Indigenous people, Black people, and gay people, which is always nice to see.

However, this book does fall victim to the "the bad guy is also secretly gay" trope TWICE, with Scott and Hal, and I think that trope can be very damaging.

And even though dealing with racism and homophobia was a major theme in this book, I couldn't help but feel like slurs and ignorance were thrown around TOO much, to the point where reading it no longer left a bad taste in my mouth, but just made me roll my eyes and skip ahead. I also was not particularly fond of the writing style or the pacing, as it took me forever to get into the book, and then it seemed that things started happening too quickly, especially at the end.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Alcoholism, Bullying, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Outing

Minor: Cursing, Religious bigotry, and Death of parent