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A review by sonni89
Stray City by Chelsey Johnson
4.0
This one really surprised me. I didn't think I'd love this book as much as I did, but I really, really loved it.
The description in the book was so vivid that I had no problem at all picturing the queer scene of Portland in the late 90s, even though I've never been there and knew absolutely nothing about it prior to reading this. I really, really loved the story. I loved the format of it, with prose, epistolary elements, and a bunch of cool other things (an interview with real and fake answers next to one another in columns, for example) and multiple points of view mixed together, and I loved how fleshed out all the characters were.
This would've been a five-star read, if it wasn't for the completely unchallenged biphobia in one part of the book (which I'm guessing was typical for the time period and setting, but still made me physically recoil by how vicious it was; doesn't matter that the protagonist wasn't actually bi in the first place, it was still gross to read) and the fact that I felt the story ended very abruptly. An extra 10 pages or so would've made it felt a lot more complete.
But yeah, overall, this was a really good read.
The description in the book was so vivid that I had no problem at all picturing the queer scene of Portland in the late 90s, even though I've never been there and knew absolutely nothing about it prior to reading this. I really, really loved the story. I loved the format of it, with prose, epistolary elements, and a bunch of cool other things (an interview with real and fake answers next to one another in columns, for example) and multiple points of view mixed together, and I loved how fleshed out all the characters were.
This would've been a five-star read, if it wasn't for the completely unchallenged biphobia in one part of the book (which I'm guessing was typical for the time period and setting, but still made me physically recoil by how vicious it was; doesn't matter that the protagonist wasn't actually bi in the first place, it was still gross to read) and the fact that I felt the story ended very abruptly. An extra 10 pages or so would've made it felt a lot more complete.
But yeah, overall, this was a really good read.