Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

8 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

krissymcgeehan's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny 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? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Vomit, Death, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Addiction, Dysphoria, Physical abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Drug use, Transphobia, Rape, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Violence, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

maurapartridge's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Hate crime, and Grief

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual violence, Racism, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Sexual harassment, Addiction, Outing, Murder, Rape, Physical abuse, Drug use, and Drug abuse

Minor: Dementia, Incest, Sexual assault, Vomit, and Physical abuse

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Dysphoria, Grief, Medical content, Rape, Transphobia, Cursing, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Vomit, Abandonment, Death, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Deadnaming, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Terminal illness

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

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

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

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