Reviews tagging 'Excrement'

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

3 reviews

emily_mh's review

dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.75

This was such a great read! The MC Alter was so dynamic, because as well as having to deal with possession and finding a serial killer, he has a rich inner world as the narrator. He’s trying to earn the money to bring his family over to the US from Romania, he is haunted by internalised homophobia and he is living in poverty in an antisemitic world and responding to that situation in his own way. His perspective really exposed the facade of the American Dream. 

Alter’s romance with Frankie was great. I love when an author writes an romance where the MC is oblivious to how much the LI is into them but the reader can clearly see it, and the romantic subplot here is exactly that. Because Alter and Frankie had already been through so much together before the events of this book, their connection was believable and their chemistry was good. I like how balanced their relationship was, with Frankie helping Alter with his mission, and Alter helping Frankie through his grief and trauma. 

It’s hard to comment on the predictability of the mystery as I am older than the target audience, but I found it to be engaging. I also don’t believe that the point of the mystery here was to be elusive and hard to solve, but to compound the social themes Polydoros was exploring. And boy did he EXPLORE. The narrative looks at the intersection of classism and antisemitism in the experiences of Alter, showing how doubly vulnerable it makes poor Jewish people to exploitation and violence. It displays the dissonance between having a grand international exhibition while people are living in poverty; the ludicrousness of the existence of the mega-wealthy when there are those with nothing. What is truly sickening is that these same issues and oppressions characterise today’s society too, like Polydoros was holding up a mirror to the present. I appreciated him foregrounding these issues for that reason, and also because it gives a more realistic depiction of Chicago and the US in general in 1893. 

Another fantastic element in this book was the atmosphere the author created. He conveyed the darkness and grit of Victorian Chicago effortlessly: the senseless violence and exploitation and the constant presence of danger. It was completely immersive and, like the mystery, engaging, so that even in slower-paced moments the book didn’t feel like it dragged at all, despite its 450+ pages. 

Rep: gay Jewish MC, gay Jewish LI, Jewish SCs

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Antisemitism, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Cursing, Child abuse, Classism, Genocide, Excrement, Grief, Gun violence, Death of parent, Violence, Pedophilia, Rape, Animal death, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Bullying, Sexual content, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Torture, Vomit, Drug use, Sexism, Misogyny, Police brutality, Medical content, Abandonment, Suicide, Sexual assault, and Ableism

Major: five uses of the antisemitic k-slur Moderate: missing loved one, separation from family, illness, theft, internalised homophobia Minor: drowning, fainting, gambling, blackmail, divorce, police corruption, imprisonment, capital punishment, gentrification

spookily's review

adventurous dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Antisemitism, Blood, Death, Hate crime, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Religious bigotry, Violence, Homophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Alcohol, Vomit, Classism, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, and Terminal illness

Minor: Suicide, Bullying, Child death, Excrement, Misogyny, and Police brutality

eslsilver's review

adventurous challenging dark informative mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Excrement, Gore, Religious bigotry, Pedophilia, Genocide, Antisemitism, Murder, Violence, Child death, and Classism

Moderate: Suicide, Rape, and Animal death