charlisangle 's review for:

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

4.0

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This was an incredible intimate read. A story set over the course of three days, which in my view is an immense feat to accomplish, Taylor managed to capture that lonely feeling of being inside yourself, wanting to get out but being unable to and having to contend with that knowledge; feeling the discrepancies between your internal lived world and those around you. Not only that, but he gave voice to the weight and difficulties of being a Black queer man in a white world. How white comfort is always placed above the safety and well being of Black people. How frustrating that is, yet how common it is. This is not a book to make you feel good. It’s a book that lets you sit in discomfort. And though we often want to race past those feelings, they are what real life is too.