Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

9 reviews

toopunkrockforshul's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Loved this book! Its definitely not "feel good" in the cozy and soft sense but it made me really happy to have so many Jewish and Yiddish references. The mystery was also very compelling, and I loved the development of

Frankie and Alter's relationship

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Torture, Hate crime, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Death, Fire/Fire injury, Murder, Body horror, Child death, Violence, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Genocide, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Self harm, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape

Minor: Homophobia

This book deals heavily with antisemitism and revolves around a serial killer who targets Jewish boys and men. There is also heavily implied pedophilia and assault/rape of minors. Lots of violence and murder and the main character often mildly self harms to ground himself. While possessed by the dybbuk of his murdered friend, he also experiences visions and flashbacks

leahkarge's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Police brutality, Religious bigotry, Antisemitism, Child death, Blood, Classism, Genocide, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Xenophobia, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

ezwolf's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious 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

The City Beautiful follows Alter, a young Jewish man working to try and bring his mother and sisters to America when his close friend is murdered and Alter is thrown into solving the mystery of who murdered Yakov as well as other Jewish young men. 

One of the things I think this book does so well is mix real historical settings along with Jewish mythology. It also delves into (one of) the ways death is treated in Jewish culture. The antisemitism that Alter experiences and danger of being visibly Jewish is something that can be related to even now.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for queer Jewish representation!

Also I greatly appreciate that Aden Polydoros posts content warnings on his website for each of his books. I've copied a link to the ones specifically for this book below. 

https://adenpolydoros.com/the-city-beautiful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Xenophobia, Classism, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Blood, Child death, Hate crime, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Pedophilia, and Rape

Minor: Animal death, Alcohol, and Death of parent

paracosim's review

dark mysterious 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? Yes

5.0

It’s very rare for me to find books like this where the main characters are Jewish, let alone queer Jewish men like myself. This was an absolutely delightful read with fantastic writing, great characters, and high-stakes. I read it half-and-half on audiobook and with a physical copy, and while the audiobook narrator wasn’t my favorite (he sounded a bit too anxious lol), hearing the Yiddish and Hebrew words aloud was really nice and he did some fabulous character voices. I’m looking forward to what Aden Polydoros has in store next! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Hate crime, Murder, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Xenophobia, Violence, Rape, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Gun violence, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Child abuse

Minor: Alcohol

leahjanespeare's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.0

This debut really surprised me! I expected to like it, but I didn’t expect to feel as fully immersed as I did. It is set in Chicago during the Chicago World Fair but not focused on the fair itself for the most part / also around the time of the Cold Storage Fire. Young boys are disappearing and their bodies are showing up around the city—clearly murder is afoot. Alter is a gay, Jewish immigrant from Romania working hard to raise money to bring his mother and sisters over to America. As Alter’s friends start disappearing he gets caught up in the treachery and becomes in danger himself. 

I’ll warn you this book deals with HEAVY topics with mentions of child molestation, rape, and antisemitism and homophobia. But because of this integration of some ‘lost’ topics for the time period (or intentionally buried), I am so glad this book exists. I had no idea of the intense antisemitism of the era especially around immigrants. It’s horrifying and needs to be examined more, acknowledged - especially in this setting. There are so many books on the Chicago World Fair and the city in general at that time that focus on famous murders but (in my reading experience) have failed to integrate a lot of what marginalized people had to deal with at the same time.

I’m neither gay nor Jewish but my impression, as an outsider reading about these identities, is that they have been portrayed very well, based on the author’s own identity/history/research.

Really looking forward to more from this author.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Violence, and Homophobia

Moderate: Gore and Xenophobia

Minor: Sexual violence

ashleycmms's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative lighthearted sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical content, Drug use, Child abuse, Racial slurs, Pedophilia, Antisemitism, Alcohol, Violence, Police brutality, Genocide, Hate crime, Child death, Death, Stalking, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Xenophobia, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, Homophobia, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Sexual violence, and Rape

anniereads221's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Body horror, Child death, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, and Xenophobia

Minor: Fire/Fire injury, Medical content, and Suicide

rey_therese07's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Murder, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Pedophilia, and Rape

Minor: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, Sexual assault, and Suicide

xoodlebooks's review

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Murder, Racial slurs, Religious bigotry, Violence, and Xenophobia

Moderate: Alcohol, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, and Stalking

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Medical content, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Torture