Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The City Beautiful by Aden Polydoros

6 reviews

inkwellimps's review

adventurous mysterious 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

Read this book after Sacha Lamb suggested it in a podcast, and it filled the hole in my heart left from finishing When the Angels Left the Old Country. A lot of similarities with that book, quite a few differences, but just as good with a similar feel.

The characters are standout and very engaging. Alter, the man haunted by his past and the death that follows him trying to make an honest living. Frankie, the smug and confident leader of a Robin Hood-style lovable thieves gang. Raizel, the staunch anarchist (historical anarchists yay!) and investigative journalist.

Very much a book about labor rights and the competing ideologies between the three characters. Alter trying to work with the status quo, Raizel looking for labor reform, and Frankie gaming the system. Very queer book from beginning to end. A lot can also be said about how we hold on to grief.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Panic attacks/disorders, Antisemitism, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Vomit

Minor: Terminal illness

Possession is a major theme of this book. The lead character prepares bodies for burials and that process is described several times. The "panic attacks" I tagged include detailed hallucinations. The adult/minor relationship is in a character's backstory and not portrayed as an okay thing by the text (thankfully).

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, Gore, Blood, Antisemitism, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

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

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

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

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

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

novella42's review

challenging dark mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Antisemitism, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail

rowanbg's review

dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

I read this book pretty much in one sitting, and I'm so glad I did. It is always interesting to see historical fiction that focuses of times, places, and people who have been overlooked, and Polydoros sets the scene in such a rich and detailed way. Not to mention the inclusion of the dybbuk, which I have never seen in a novel before, and which brings this beyond a regular ghost story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Vomit, Antisemitism, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia

kirani's review

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I don’t even know where to start on this review because this book is EVERYTHING! It’s beautifully written, it kept me on the edge of my seat, it made me laugh, it made me cry. It’s queer, it’s Jewish, it’s fantasy, it’s historical, and it’s in Chicago! I really don’t know how to explain it but I *saw* myself in the characters and I love when I can connect to characters, so I was immediately hooked. Also I will think about

“I love you!” “I love you, too, that’s why I have to let you go.”

for the rest of my life. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Gun violence, Hate crime, Racial slurs, Blood, Antisemitism, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, and Vomit

Minor: Pedophilia

The racial slurs tag is for antisemitic slurs. There is also a fair bit of internalized homophobia.