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A review by mockingjayreads
Crystal's House of Queers by Brooke Skipstone
2.0
2.5 stars. I DNFed this at 33% percent.
This book had a really great premise, and I was very interested going in. I love a small town with atmosphere, I like queer-centric stories. This is labelled as New Adult so I expected it to cover some hard-hitting topics.
And it does. There's some graphic scenes in this, some violent, some sweet, but it's all very strong. Some of it feels left of reality, some of it is so painfully searing that I want to commend the author. However these emotional moments were ruined for me. The tone flip-flops often, and I feel like I'm reading a younger YA with adult topics. It's quite strange in tone, and it made me feel uncomfortable in a way that I don't think was intended. These girls are teens, and they're very sexualised. Then they talk about how they're sick of men sexualising them. It made me as a reader feel icky. It's a very strange lense to look through at these topics, but I don't think the author ever intends for me to feel that way. There's a missing element of awareness.
The story also contains a lot emotionally, and I was already exhausted at 30%. It tries to shove all of these topics into the story, and doesn't do a great job at handling these topics. It touches on class, female friendship, sexual awakening, coming if age, feminism and male domination, current/recent social and health issues including Trump and COVID (this is the first book I've read where covid is featured, and wow, did that make my head spin), disability, possible death of a family member queerness, trauma, abandonment... And the list goes on. All that, in only the first third! My head is reeling and it makes the story feel like it's fighting itself. I'm getting whiplash, and these topics aren't being given enough time to breathe and to be given care and attention.
I really liked the idea and the writing is clean, the atmosphere is nice. The characters outside of the three girls fall a little flat for me, and even Crystal, the main girl, seems to only have a few personality traits. I think this community and area could've been a really strong setting for a interesting story to blossom, but the tone was just really weird and the story felt unfocused. Ultimately it putters out and left me wanting, and I'm too uncomfortable to finish.
thanks to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this audiobook.
This book had a really great premise, and I was very interested going in. I love a small town with atmosphere, I like queer-centric stories. This is labelled as New Adult so I expected it to cover some hard-hitting topics.
And it does. There's some graphic scenes in this, some violent, some sweet, but it's all very strong. Some of it feels left of reality, some of it is so painfully searing that I want to commend the author. However these emotional moments were ruined for me. The tone flip-flops often, and I feel like I'm reading a younger YA with adult topics. It's quite strange in tone, and it made me feel uncomfortable in a way that I don't think was intended. These girls are teens, and they're very sexualised. Then they talk about how they're sick of men sexualising them. It made me as a reader feel icky. It's a very strange lense to look through at these topics, but I don't think the author ever intends for me to feel that way. There's a missing element of awareness.
The story also contains a lot emotionally, and I was already exhausted at 30%. It tries to shove all of these topics into the story, and doesn't do a great job at handling these topics. It touches on class, female friendship, sexual awakening, coming if age, feminism and male domination, current/recent social and health issues including Trump and COVID (this is the first book I've read where covid is featured, and wow, did that make my head spin), disability, possible death of a family member queerness, trauma, abandonment... And the list goes on. All that, in only the first third! My head is reeling and it makes the story feel like it's fighting itself. I'm getting whiplash, and these topics aren't being given enough time to breathe and to be given care and attention.
I really liked the idea and the writing is clean, the atmosphere is nice. The characters outside of the three girls fall a little flat for me, and even Crystal, the main girl, seems to only have a few personality traits. I think this community and area could've been a really strong setting for a interesting story to blossom, but the tone was just really weird and the story felt unfocused. Ultimately it putters out and left me wanting, and I'm too uncomfortable to finish.
thanks to netgalley for providing me with a copy of this audiobook.