Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

161 reviews

bruhbruh's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

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

2.0

An incredibly boring protagonist that is really unloveable. 
A terrible choice of the autor was to describe THREE rapes in detail which is never necessary and shows a lack of writing capacity. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Fatphobia, Rape, and Homophobia

xenamollie's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

this was really not my fav, but i also kind of couldn’t put it down (in a not so enjoyable can’t-look-away way). i can’t decide if the characters felt well developed or not — the absolutely excessive over thinking sort of tricked me into thinking yes, but on reflection i don’t feel like i have a grasp on the characters at all — but even that feels intentional, like the main character expends so so so much energy on overthinking himself and others and yet all he has to show for it in the end is these bits and pieces of understanding. 

it was a really tragic story but not without a tinge of optimism (or maybe i just imposed that on it so i could finish the book without feeling like absolute shit?). i wasn’t sure what to make of the interpersonal violence or what the intention was or what i was supposed to think of it. i guess all i can say was it made me wildly uncomfortable, which clearly was part of the point but definitely not the whole point. definitely feel like i was missing something. 

biggest pet peeve with this book was it’s very important to me to be able to track where people/things are in space, and it was so difficult for me to do that throughout. i just felt like the descriptions of scene/setting/movement were extremely confusing and i very often could not follow, and it didn’t particularly strike me as intentional, so that really didn’t work for me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Sexual content, Vomit, Racism, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Child abuse, and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm

cadystanton's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Hate crime, Outing, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Grief, Child abuse, Death, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Toxic relationship

jennaclarek's review

challenging dark mysterious sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

okay so either i am bad at reading summaries (likely) or nobody had the foresight to tell me this is apart of the "toxic friendgroups who are all a little in love with each other but also hate each other" universe (less likely)...because holy cow i wasn't expecting this powerhouse. immediately from the get go i was compelled by the writing, the characters, and the overall tone of this book. it's so well written, the prose is just breathtaking, and i really will need to pick it up again to underline all the fantastic passages in here. it touches on so many of my favorite things - academia, the complexities of queer friendship, grief...

this is a very dark book - it touches on some heavy topics, and overall there aren't a lot of positive scenes. it has flickers of light throughout, but a lot of it is unfair and a little hopeless and incredibly frustrating. but i think it's such a fantastic book because brandon taylor does not shy away from the darkness. the whole point of the book IS the darkness. that real life is like this. it's messy and chaotic and white people do ruin everything and sometimes "i'm sorry" isn't good enough, it's never good enough, but we all just walk around lying to each other saying we're fine and that's fine.

i don't have anything innovative to say! it's just a damn good book! and i will be revisiting in the future because it has so much incredible prose and the Point is Poignant. i could not put it down. i will be thinking about it for a long time.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Racial slurs, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual assault, Racism, Rape, Blood, Gaslighting, Cursing, Death of parent, and Vomit

looneytunes's review

dark reflective sad slow-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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racism, Violence, Vomit, Sexual assault, Rape, and Homophobia

Moderate: Eating disorder

lexkoi's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia and Rape

Moderate: Toxic friendship, Racism, Mental illness, Homophobia, and Alcohol

_fallinglight_'s review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Racism, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Death of parent, Panic attacks/disorders, Grief, Rape, and Vomit

Moderate: Racial slurs, Eating disorder, and Homophobia

Minor: Infidelity

snoodle_poodle's review against another edition

dark emotional sad

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

1.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Racial slurs, Racism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Violence, Child abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Hate crime, Rape, Fatphobia, Gaslighting, Physical abuse, Alcoholism, and Blood

megelizabeth's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

5.0

This was a book that really crept up on me. It's dense, heavy, slow, and incredibly brutal, and it was only towards the end that I properly started to realise just how brilliant it is. It's overwhelmingly about loneliness, and explores that - as well as other themes - so, so well. The characters are incredibly well-developed for a story set mostly over one weekend, and by the end my heart was just completely aching. I just know that this is a book I will not forget. I do wish that there had been some nuance to the way that animal exploitation is portrayed, but otherwise I loved this so much that I don't feel I can give it less than the full five stars.

I always encourage checking trigger warnings, but with this one I would do so even more heavily than usual - there is a LOT of really heavy content in this one and it's definitely one to only go into if you really feel you're in a good place to handle it. If you do feel able to cope, though, I truly cannot recommend this enough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Religious bigotry, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Racism, Child abuse, Death, Animal death, Rape, Blood, and Racial slurs

Moderate: Vomit and Death of parent

Minor: Cancer and Ableism

laserdaddy's review

emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

It would have been just as good and twice as poignant without the

two graphic rape scenes

in my humble opinion 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Racism, and Homophobia