Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

4 reviews

waytoomanybooks's review

I was assigned this book in my Contemporary Queer Literature class, and I and several of my classmates told our professor that we couldn't and wouldn't finish reading it. The book steps out of "gritty realism" and veers into "tragedy, trauma, and grief porn" a la A Little Life. Every character in the novel is graphically raped multiple times. Every underage character at one point or another enters into a "relationship" with an adult. Every character at one point or another becomes a prostitute. There is even a character that had a mummified corpse in their closet. This is not an exaggeration. I'm not putting this behind spoiler tags because I think everyone should know about this before reading it. I wish I had known! Upon realizing that we weren't going to finish the book, our professor said that if we found the first third to be horrific, then we certainly shouldn't finish the book because it "gets worse."

Grief, loss, trauma, death, rape, etc. are unfortunate parts of life, but the author seems to take almost ghoulish delight in hurting characters who are based on real people. Don't read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Terminal illness, Addiction, Alcoholism, Blood, Chronic illness, Classism, Death of parent, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Drug use, Dysphoria, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Gore, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Lesbophobia, Misogyny, Murder, Outing, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Abandonment, Ableism, Alcohol, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Excrement, Grief, Homophobia, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Pandemic/Epidemic, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Vomit

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

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

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