Take a photo of a barcode or cover
mxbenjaminrose 's review for:
The Porcupine of Truth
by Bill Konigsberg
How and why did this win a Stonewall Award?
I really liked the last 80 pages or so; there's an interesting and endearing twist and there's some good resolution with the protagonist's family dynamics.
Until then? There are so many times I was just cringing. It's not that the writing is bad (unless you don't care for the stream-of-conciousness, unlikeable protagonist trope, in which case you definitely won't like the writing), but the lens through which Carson, the narrator, sees the world is... cringey.
Carson is a 17-year old straight guy from New York. He thinks about girls and sex and trying to fit in. Okay, sure. But the way he treats his best friend (a black queer woman, for whom I guess the book won a queer award?) feels really gross.
Other reviewers have gone into greater detail about why this is problematic, but yeah. It was cringey.
The elements around spirituality and family and grief were compelling and would have made a great story if not for the issues with the Carson and how the author seemed to give implicit approval of his attitudes.
I really liked the last 80 pages or so; there's an interesting and endearing twist and there's some good resolution with the protagonist's family dynamics.
Until then? There are so many times I was just cringing. It's not that the writing is bad (unless you don't care for the stream-of-conciousness, unlikeable protagonist trope, in which case you definitely won't like the writing), but the lens through which Carson, the narrator, sees the world is... cringey.
Carson is a 17-year old straight guy from New York. He thinks about girls and sex and trying to fit in. Okay, sure. But the way he treats his best friend (a black queer woman, for whom I guess the book won a queer award?) feels really gross.
Other reviewers have gone into greater detail about why this is problematic, but yeah. It was cringey.
The elements around spirituality and family and grief were compelling and would have made a great story if not for the issues with the Carson and how the author seemed to give implicit approval of his attitudes.