Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

21 reviews

remy_licked_my_book's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was so incredibly heartbreaking and beautiful. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I couldn't stop reading. These Queens were fierce until the end. Some fell sooner than others and I can't imagine what it would be like to have been a homosexual in the 80's-90's when AIDS was rampant and no one cared. This book gave me a glimpse. Some sections were heavy and hard to listen too but they are a reflection of real traumas that happen to people all over the world. Angel was my favourite character and she was flawless right to the very end. My heart broke for Daniel, Venus, and Juanito. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Homophobia, and Addiction

Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Sexual assault

Minor: Rape and Incest

editorbrenna's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Death, Drug use, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Transphobia

crichar9's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Violence, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Drug abuse, Transphobia, Hate crime, and Addiction

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Suicide, Dysphoria, and Dementia

chloecc15's review

emotional funny lighthearted sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Homophobia, Drug use, and Death

Moderate: Racism, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

scruffycat's review

challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

This novel is about the ball scene in New York in the 80s, and while it's an important story to tell, this wasn't the best resource for this. Many of the people in that scene suffered terribly, as do many trans people, from violence, discrimination, lack of economic opportunity, and the devastation of AIDS. 

Generally, that scene is lauded for the amazing resilience and creation of found families, the attitude that if the world wasn't going to give anything to the people, they'd create their own support systems.  That focus is only seen in brief glimpses here. Instead, the author chooses to go deep into the brutality.  It doesn't seem that the author has empathy for the characters, which makes the whole book comes across as suffer porn. It's difficult and, frankly, I'd recommend watching the TV series Pose instead. Pose contains some of the same exact stories, which I'm guessing is based on research on the real-life people in that scene, but treats the characters with love and honor while still acknowledging the tragedies.    

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

Moderate: Pedophilia

Minor: Violence

darkmattersoybean's review

emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Grief, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Transphobia

anjamichelle's review

dark emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse and Sexual assault

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Suicide, and Transphobia

ocean's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book is stunning, expertly written, and heartbreaking. It brings the characters to life so vividly that it's hard not to love them and want the best for them. This story is raw in its humanity. The humanity of its characters is constantly reduced by the world, its systems, and its people who have failed them in every way, but they remain human even when going on feels like the hardest thing imaginable. Please read the content warnings for this book as it is a very heavy read.

CW: homophobia, transphobia, racism, classism, sexism, sexual assault (children and adults), graphic depictions of sex, drug abuse, drug use, addiction, death/dying/mortality/funerals, graphic depictions of HIV/AIDs related complications, suicide, murder, blood, strangulation, cheating, use of homophobic slurs, use of sexual slurs, gun violence, nudity, trauma, sexual violence, eating disorders, dysphoria, child abuse, child abandonment, homelessness (children and adults), violence, depiction of pornography, incest, kidnapping, mention of prisons and prison labor, predatory police, sexual predators, sexually explicit language

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Dementia, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fatphobia, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, and Vomit

ilarian's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault

weelittlemouse's review

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is horrible. Not in a bad writing way, but in a this book deals with so much death and abuse that it's so hard to read. I would have never read this book if it was a required reading. And even then, I wanted to drop it. The beginning moved so slow and was so hard to read about all the struggles that the characters went through, but about 1/4 to 1/2 way through, it started to pick up a lot more. 
I've read a lot of reviews saying that this book was derivitive of Paris is Burning. I haven't seen that film so I can't actually say whether that's true or not. But I did talk to my sister who has seen Paris is Burning, she says that a lot of people, because LGBTQ media has been so oppressed that people often compare many works to Paris is Burning. Again, I can't speak to the subject. But I can say that as an English Lit major, that every book has 6 degrees of seperation of either other books or some other form of media or history. I've also read that people think that there wasn't enough mention of drag life. I don't think that this book was supposed to be about drag life during the 80s. I think that it was supposed to be about life as a gay/trans person in New York during the 80s. I would also argue that it had a lot to do with class and race as much as it did with gender and sexuality. 
If you are a person who are easily triggered, don't read this book. I don't think that there's enough time in the world to write all the trigger warnings that would be need for this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia, Terminal illness, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Grief, and Chronic illness

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Minor: Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Incest, Alcoholism, Excrement, and Dementia