A review by dosymedia
100 Boyfriends by Brontez Purnell

dark funny medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Raunchy short stories of messy queer love as told from the perspective of characters of color that don't have their shit together. Purnell is most evocative in first person; there were only a smattering of third person stories and they were marked downshifts when the rest of the collection relished in mischievousness. Cannot quite describe the missing factor, I suspect the strength, the feeling of passing through many lives for a single moment, is also the weakness; stories rarely have a satisfying resolution which left me suspended between stories.

Michelle Tea is a connector between this and another February 2021 release, Gay Bar: Why We Went Out by Jeremy Atherton Lin, where she appears in San Francisco as well as his acknowledgements. While of much different voice and nature, these two books may pair well because of their quick oscillation between the theoretical and sensual as it pertains to gay subculture.
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