Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey

3 reviews

daniellekat's review against another edition

I really don't want to DNF this but I'm only half way and my attention has dried up. 
This is so well written and I can easily see how this topic would make for a hilarious podcast, but there is SO MUCH information packed into each chapter. While each chapter focused on a particular "Bad Gay", this book was actually more about the history of homosexuality and each Bad Gay was mainly used to provide a time frame in that history. I was expecting more of a brief biography for each chapter with a side serving of history, but the abundance of names and dates and places ultimately did me in. I really enjoyed the narrative writing style, especially coupled with the authors side remarks, but after 7 chapters this had me glazing over. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Colonisation

Minor: Death, Torture, Murder, and War

vagaybond's review against another edition

informative reflective

4.25

I love when books exist about queer culture, people, theory, sociology etc that use the word f

aggot

and refer to people as racist with the knowledge and fair assumption that I would not first need to be convinced racism exists. It's like a friend and comrade is infodumping to me in the alley outside a drag show while they're having a cigarette. It's writing that talks to me like a peer and a queer.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

This book profiles several different historical figures who have done a variety of different things which are by and large, horrifying. Some of these figures have died by suicide or assassination. There is a fair bit in the book which talks about older gay men being into young boys, but it doesn't outright state what exactly that means or what the age gap is, or how young these boys are. It's unclear if they merely mean adult twinks or actual minors. (I may be misremembering details, but this is my best recollection after listening to the audiobook.)

queerloras's review against another edition

funny informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

3.75

I thought this was a really interesting look at queer history, focusing not on the familiar heroes - Marsha P. Johnson, Harvey Milk, Oscar Wilde, etc. - but the messy types who we are less keen to claim as "one of us". The section on Magnus Hirschfeld was particularly interesting, and I liked how global the history was  admittedly generally the Global North, but the people covered were from everywhere between the USA and Japan.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Bullying, Cancer, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Lesbophobia, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Colonisation, and Classism