Reviews

The Beautiful Room Is Empty by Edmund White

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lindzh2000's review

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challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective 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

5.0

Content Warnings

anpu325's review

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3.0

cw: racism, pedophilia
This book really gave me similar feelings to the first book in the trilogy. His prose is so beautiful and reading about someone's queer experiences in a place that I had inhabited, my college this time, was moving. However, it was really hard to sympathize with the protagonist since he was kind of a jerk. Also, the same issue as in the first book with using racist tropes and a seeming acceptance of pedophilia. The queer love and the uplifting ending were moving, but were ultimately not enough in my mind to redeem a book that turned my stomach at times.

perrieraddict's review

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funny hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

tmiles's review

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emotional informative inspiring reflective fast-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? No

5.0

tani's review

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3.0

I wanted to like this so much more than I did. The writing was still beautiful, and it was a lot more coherent than the first book, but I just wasn't thrilled. I think a lot of the problem is that I didn't like him, didn't really empathize with him, and then just got bored with him. I'm sad that I didn't get more out of it.