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jennaclarek's review against another edition
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.
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.
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
lexkoi's review against another edition
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia and Rape
Moderate: Toxic friendship, Racism, Mental illness, Homophobia, and Alcohol
mourtarymaggots's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Pedophilia, Racism, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault
stierwood's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
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? Yes
5.0
Everything about this book made sense. It had me thinking about whiteness in communication and friendships, and Wallace was a character exploration i had never read anything like. At first i was like ok, enough with the birds, but by the end i feel like i got it. Just really freaking astute, gutting, challenging, everything.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Racism, Mental illness, Homophobia, Death, Child abuse, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Rape, Pedophilia, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Hate crime, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Toxic friendship, Suicidal thoughts, and Physical abuse
yaelm's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
יש לי בעיה קשה עם הספר הזה, כי הוא כתוב -נהדר- ממש, וחלקים גדולים ממנו מופלאים ברמת חמישה כוכבים, אבל החלקים שלא כ״כ מעצבנים שאני לא יכולה, פשוט לא יכולה, לדרג ביותר משלושה.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Rape, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Racism, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Violence, Toxic relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Racial slurs, Mental illness, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Classism, and Alcohol
nialiversuch's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Classism, Cursing, Addiction, Alcoholism, Racial slurs, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Body shaming, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Alcohol, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Racism, and Rape
rinku's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I still struggle with writing reviews for books I love, and it’s the same with Real Life. Something about this book resonated deeply with me and while I often find contemporary literature kinda boring, I was here eager to read every page of this book.
Real Life only takes place at one weekend but shows how significant such a short period can have in one’s life. The greatest strength of this book is that everything just feels so real: the university setting, the characters, their constellations, and emotions.
The university environment was so interesting to see, and I liked the focus on biochemistry – one of those research fields that always intrigued me. The dynamic of this place was interesting to see as well and shocking/sad when looking at the unfair way Wallace was treated. He is everyone’s punching bag there and has to suffer all those microaggressions.
Coming to the characters, they were described so vividly that they also felt like real people, especially Wallace’s friends. Everyone had their own struggles and the relationships they had to each other felt realistic as well.
Wallace as the main character is obviously the best written character of this novel. He as well felt like a real person with his own interests and an amazing depiction of this emotions. His life is so depressing, and it truly feels that he has no one in this world. I probably couldn’t have read this book at a better point in time, because many things Wallace was reflecting on – his job and if he’s even enjoying it, what it means to have friends and what it means when you try to please everybody – were things I was thinking about as well.
Of course, this book dominantly reflects on other aspects, like what it means to be queer or how it feels to be black when everyone around you is white. Again, it’s so well described that you can feel every little emotion Wallace feels as well. My only critique are probably the long chapters that seem to be common in contemporary books, but I never like them. Nevertheless, Real Life is an amazing character study.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Cancer, Child abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Sexual assault, Racial slurs, Rape, and Sexual content
Moderate: Death of parent, Vomit, Body shaming, and Alcohol
nickoliver's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
After reading "Slay" by Brittney Morris, I was still extremely in the mood for a book written by a Black author. I wasn't quite picky about the genre or the age group, so I just picked the one I had the most interest in. Which happened to be this one.
I am not entirely sure what to think of it. I had no idea what to expect from it, because going into it, the only thing I knew was that the main character was a queer Black guy. I did read the synopsis before starting it, but even then, it didn’t tell me all too much, except that the main character had a friend group were some guys were straight, some guys were gay, and some guys were presumably straight but not really. And not knowing what exactly was coming my way definitely made me a bit nervous.
The entire book was only set over a weekend. It didn't let you forget that, but it still sometimes didn’t feel like that, because so much stuff happened (while at the same time, nothing at all). It started out on Friday, when Wallace, the main character, met his friends in a park (I think?), and ended on Sunday, or possibly Monday. At the beginning of the book, Wallace started hooking up with one of his presumably straight friends, Miller. Their relationship wasn’t the main plot, but it was pretty central.
What I didn’t expect was how relatable everything was going to be. A lot of the things Wallace said or thought were things that could’ve come from my mind, which made the book a lot more personal than I had anticipated. The book made me emotional and also kind of uncomfortable, because it made me confront certain things I wasn’t ready to confront (a lot of things about my life, especially my line of work).
The funny thing about the relatability was that it made me kind of give Wallace my own personality, so every time he acted in a way I didn’t expect, I was the Pikachu meme. It did made it a bit hard sometimes because I got infuriated with Wallace - for example, when he was a bit of a jerk, or when he didn’t defend himself -, but the latter made sense if I switched my privilege off for a second, and the former was probably my own fault for assuming I knew his entire personality after a short amount of pages.
I was reminded again that sometimes, looking up trigger warnings beforehand would do me good. Because just like in "Ninth House" by Leigh Bardugo last year, I got blindsided again by a child being sexually abused. And it was pretty fucked up. It went into detail and also insinuated that the parents were kind of okay with that or at least expected it? There was also religious trauma, because his parents were the religious, bigoted type (and overall abusive as all hell). And Taylor showed how it messed Wallace up; how he seemed to have gotten used to sex hurting and being used for pleasure. It hurt to read that.
I really liked the way Taylor talked about Wallace’s Blackness and the way it made people treat him differently at work (and generally). For example, the way he had to work twice as hard to get even half the recognition his white colleagues got, and the way he had to deal with slurs and mistreatment without anyone sticking up for him. That’s what got to me the most: that no one ever defended him. For example, at certain times, one of his friends would be really mad at him for something and chew him out over it, even if it was completely inappropriate and they were in the wrong, and no one would stand up for him? Sometimes, they’d come up to him later and apologise for not saying anything earlier, but honestly, that just made them shittier people. If you don’t speak up when something hateful is being said or done, you’re part of the problem. Reading this story made me feel angry a lot, especially in a numb, powerless kind of way, but that felt deliberate.
While I was sometimes angry at Wallace for not defending himself, I did understand why he didn’t. It was easy for me to be frustrated, because I was never in that situation. I never had someone see me as inferior solely because of my skin colour, so I had to acknowledge my privilege there. In any way, it made sense that Wallace was too tired to keep defending himself, because it either never led anywhere anyways, or it made things even worse for him. So he just let people treat him like shit, because he couldn’t imagine an alternative where he could’ve successfully stood up for himself. I got infuriated a lot, and honestly, all I wanted to do was give Wallace a hug and take a piece of the burden off his shoulders.
I was a huge fan of the Taylor’s writing. I have no idea why, exactly - I can’t pinpoint it -, but it scratched an itch for me in a way that was extremely satisfying. I’d definitely read something else by Taylor for that alone.
The only thing I didn’t particularly like was the ending. It was very open-ended and didn’t really wrap up any of the plot points. In a way it made sense, because the story read more like a “slice of life” story than anything else, and again, it was only set over a weekend. But I still would’ve liked to see at least some of the threads wrapped up. This way, it was a bit too unsatisfying to me.
I am not entirely sure what to think of it. I had no idea what to expect from it, because going into it, the only thing I knew was that the main character was a queer Black guy. I did read the synopsis before starting it, but even then, it didn’t tell me all too much, except that the main character had a friend group were some guys were straight, some guys were gay, and some guys were presumably straight but not really. And not knowing what exactly was coming my way definitely made me a bit nervous.
The entire book was only set over a weekend. It didn't let you forget that, but it still sometimes didn’t feel like that, because so much stuff happened (while at the same time, nothing at all). It started out on Friday, when Wallace, the main character, met his friends in a park (I think?), and ended on Sunday, or possibly Monday. At the beginning of the book, Wallace started hooking up with one of his presumably straight friends, Miller. Their relationship wasn’t the main plot, but it was pretty central.
What I didn’t expect was how relatable everything was going to be. A lot of the things Wallace said or thought were things that could’ve come from my mind, which made the book a lot more personal than I had anticipated. The book made me emotional and also kind of uncomfortable, because it made me confront certain things I wasn’t ready to confront (a lot of things about my life, especially my line of work).
The funny thing about the relatability was that it made me kind of give Wallace my own personality, so every time he acted in a way I didn’t expect, I was the Pikachu meme. It did made it a bit hard sometimes because I got infuriated with Wallace - for example, when he was a bit of a jerk, or when he didn’t defend himself -, but the latter made sense if I switched my privilege off for a second, and the former was probably my own fault for assuming I knew his entire personality after a short amount of pages.
I was reminded again that sometimes, looking up trigger warnings beforehand would do me good. Because just like in "Ninth House" by Leigh Bardugo last year, I got blindsided again by a child being sexually abused. And it was pretty fucked up. It went into detail and also insinuated that the parents were kind of okay with that or at least expected it? There was also religious trauma, because his parents were the religious, bigoted type (and overall abusive as all hell). And Taylor showed how it messed Wallace up; how he seemed to have gotten used to sex hurting and being used for pleasure. It hurt to read that.
I really liked the way Taylor talked about Wallace’s Blackness and the way it made people treat him differently at work (and generally). For example, the way he had to work twice as hard to get even half the recognition his white colleagues got, and the way he had to deal with slurs and mistreatment without anyone sticking up for him. That’s what got to me the most: that no one ever defended him. For example, at certain times, one of his friends would be really mad at him for something and chew him out over it, even if it was completely inappropriate and they were in the wrong, and no one would stand up for him? Sometimes, they’d come up to him later and apologise for not saying anything earlier, but honestly, that just made them shittier people. If you don’t speak up when something hateful is being said or done, you’re part of the problem. Reading this story made me feel angry a lot, especially in a numb, powerless kind of way, but that felt deliberate.
While I was sometimes angry at Wallace for not defending himself, I did understand why he didn’t. It was easy for me to be frustrated, because I was never in that situation. I never had someone see me as inferior solely because of my skin colour, so I had to acknowledge my privilege there. In any way, it made sense that Wallace was too tired to keep defending himself, because it either never led anywhere anyways, or it made things even worse for him. So he just let people treat him like shit, because he couldn’t imagine an alternative where he could’ve successfully stood up for himself. I got infuriated a lot, and honestly, all I wanted to do was give Wallace a hug and take a piece of the burden off his shoulders.
I was a huge fan of the Taylor’s writing. I have no idea why, exactly - I can’t pinpoint it -, but it scratched an itch for me in a way that was extremely satisfying. I’d definitely read something else by Taylor for that alone.
The only thing I didn’t particularly like was the ending. It was very open-ended and didn’t really wrap up any of the plot points. In a way it made sense, because the story read more like a “slice of life” story than anything else, and again, it was only set over a weekend. But I still would’ve liked to see at least some of the threads wrapped up. This way, it was a bit too unsatisfying to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic friendship, Violence, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Vomit
Moderate: Eating disorder, Blood, Death of parent, Alcohol, Grief, Pedophilia, Racism, and Suicidal thoughts
Minor: Fatphobia and Racial slurs
seawarrior'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? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Real Life is a heavy, honest coming of age story that focuses on graduate student Wallace, as he realizes the depths of his discontent over the course of a weekend. Wallace is the only Black graduate student in his program, an alienating experience which is made worse by acts of sabotage, statements of thinly veiled racism, and silence from his white peers. Taylor pulls no punches while describing how Wallace feels, and unravels why he is compelled to either placate or push away those he calls his friends as the story goes on. This book contains effective but visceral descriptions of trauma and how it pecks its way into people and slumbers within them, poisoning them quietly for a spell before squawking loudly for attention. If you are triggered by descriptions of sexual assault, especially against minors, this is not a book I would ever recommend to you. Yet I never felt like Taylor exploited Wallace's history of surviving assault to elicit shock or pity from the reader. Instead we are led to understand, similarly to Wallace, that his history cannot be escaped, and that his flee to academia has piled on new violations hidden under politeness and guilty apologies while exacerbating his poor self-esteem. Taylor makes it impossible not to empathize with Wallace, and I desperately wished for him to find safety and happiness somewhere in his world. The ending of the book was disappointing to me because Wallace's life did not improve, but I don't regret having read it. Taylor's prose is striking and glittering with insight, so I would still highly recommend this book to those who can stomach the subject matter.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Racism, Sexual content, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body shaming, Eating disorder, Alcohol, Homophobia, Animal death, Classism, and Death of parent
orireading's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Sexual harassment, Homophobia, Vomit, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, Death, and Alcohol