Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

10 reviews

my13s's review against another edition

medium-paced

1.0

I was deeply disappointed and disgusted to learn that a lot of this book was sensationalized and exaggerated for the sake of the author. I also found the author to be glib and incredibly vain. There was literally a reference to how attractive she was/people found her in every chapter (not to mention shallow and mean-spirited judgments on the appearance of others). 
I picked up this book because I thought it would be about important and inspiring AIDS activism. Instead it was an irritating and tedious screed written by someone who managed to make the death of multiple AIDS patients about herself. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical trauma, Abandonment, and Sexual harassment

This book focuses on the work of someone that helped AIDS patients while also being a memoir that includes some upsetting anecdotes from the author's past.

sapphic_alpaca's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Violence, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Infidelity, Racism, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Blood, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Drug use, Vomit, and Stalking

yaboywillyshakes's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

Minor: Death of parent

badbadwolf's review against another edition

challenging hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia and Terminal illness

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

_alias_ali's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Hate crime, Racism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Addiction, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Car accident, and Classism

mkfreckles's review against another edition

emotional informative sad fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Homophobia

Moderate: Child abuse

xashleyxvix's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Bullying, Child abuse, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Dementia

lily_west's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

4.0

I devoured this book in a day, mostly so I could get all of the crying over with. The story is so sad and so necessary. Ruth Coker Burks writes in a way that is intriguing, enveloping, desperately sad, lighthearted when it's needed, and even funny. You get a sense of the real people behind her stories. The insight of a straight person into gay clubs and drag culture in the eighties and nineties is well done, too.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Terminal illness, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Child abuse

Minor: Addiction and Drug use

unknight's review against another edition

challenging dark sad

5.0

Raw and emotional while being utterly unflinching in its descriptions, this book is a tearjerker. I could easily recommend this to anyone who wants to know more about the AIDS crisis in the US, and how it looked outside of the big cities. I think I started crying halfway through and couldn't really stop-- nothing puts life so well into perspective as a book about death. That's not to say that the book is all about Death: It's mostly a book about being human, and living, and trying really, really hard. I picked it up, thinking I'd read one chapter, and only put it down four hours later when I was done. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Terminal illness

Moderate: Homophobia, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Minor: Child abuse

the_literarylinguist's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Medical content, Grief, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Child abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Sexism, Blood, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Minor: Animal cruelty, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Infidelity, Racism, Sexual assault, and Car accident