Reviews tagging 'Murder'

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

9 reviews

uhhlexiconic's review against another edition

dark funny reflective medium-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

4.0

Perhaps losing track of the house at the center and focusing much more on individual struggle, House of Impossible Beauties was hard to put down.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Grief, Incest, Transphobia, and Homophobia

Moderate: Murder

sshabein's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Transphobia

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Deadnaming and Murder

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.

---

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

ploganiv's review

challenging dark emotional funny informative sad tense medium-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

4.75

If you like Paris is Burning or Pose, this is the perfect blend of the two works. It really felt like fan fiction of these stories. Cassara did an amazing job making you root for this found family of Xtravaganzas. The ending was very Tarantino-esk and it was brutal. The HIV/AIDS epidemic killed so many of our queer siblings, but Cassara really leaned into every possible way HIV/AIDS could affect a person besides dying. The bond this family had was beautifully contrasted with their own varied relationships with their families. Some were very refreshing, but most were as you would imagine. I really enjoyed the Puerto Rican slang and culture sprinkled throughout. It made me crave Mofongo and want to visit my New York family. It is also incredible that this is Cassara's debut novel. It felt very mature and like he has really worked on his craft. Super excited to see what he does next. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Child abuse, Homophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse

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

---

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

---

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

briannad4's review against another edition

dark emotional funny reflective medium-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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Transphobia, Terminal illness, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Murder

dizzymissliz's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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

3.75

What an incredibly depressing book. Even though gay culture has so many highs and a beautiful, rich, history, it's easy to forget how dark and lonely it was for our community in the 1980's. This book describes this period in explicit detail. Even though it was hard to read and extremely sad, I think it's important to reflect on this time period. This book focused more on the relationships between trans/gay entertainers and their found family rather than ball culture, but I think that that's what made it special. There really is a familial love between these characters, heavily influenced by and named after the people in Paris is Burning. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Hate crime, Drug use, Racism, Transphobia, Homophobia, Rape, Murder, Suicide, and Child abuse

Minor: Incest

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

---

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