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A review by aimiller
Last Call: A True Story of Love, Lust, and Murder in Queer New York by Elon Green
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Okay right off the bat: I discovered through reading this book that true crime that involves murder is Not for Me. Green is fairly explicit in his description of the violence involved in these murders, which I assume is par for the course in the genre, and while I wouldn't call it disrespectful, I certainly didn't like it and it gave me nightmares for days.
Genre conventions aside, I thought this was a fairly careful examination of the lives especially of the victims, and of a specific bar scene in New York. The brief portion about queer Youngstown, in exploring the lives of the victims, was actually fascinating (I say as a queer person from Ohio...) and Green notes that he tried his hardest to have the voices of actual queer people as central to this at large. The story of queer organizing against violence seemed a little like a sidetrack in the middle of the story, and as a person who is opposed to hate crime legislation as a solution to violence based in bias, it seemed a fairly uncritical representation of queer people being involved with police (which, in a world where NYC Pride just banned cops in the parade, seems a little weird.) But again, I think genre conventions mean there's less room for a critical examination of policing.
So: not a bad book, and I think people interested in the genre will find this a very careful and well-done story. I just am Not the Audience.
Genre conventions aside, I thought this was a fairly careful examination of the lives especially of the victims, and of a specific bar scene in New York. The brief portion about queer Youngstown, in exploring the lives of the victims, was actually fascinating (I say as a queer person from Ohio...) and Green notes that he tried his hardest to have the voices of actual queer people as central to this at large. The story of queer organizing against violence seemed a little like a sidetrack in the middle of the story, and as a person who is opposed to hate crime legislation as a solution to violence based in bias, it seemed a fairly uncritical representation of queer people being involved with police (which, in a world where NYC Pride just banned cops in the parade, seems a little weird.) But again, I think genre conventions mean there's less room for a critical examination of policing.
So: not a bad book, and I think people interested in the genre will find this a very careful and well-done story. I just am Not the Audience.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Murder