Reviews tagging 'Pandemic/Epidemic'

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

9 reviews

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

weihnachtsfee2007's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative sad medium-paced

5.0

Please inform yourself about the history behind the book...the author basically is a b!t€h

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Homophobia, Violence, and Pandemic/Epidemic

_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

bumblemee's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative sad medium-paced

5.0

[I hope this review is readable, I'm writing it way past my bedtime, but had to write it down before I can go to sleep.]

This book will stay with me forever, I think. And with it the names and stories of many men it tells you about, as well as Ruth herself. 

I don't even know how to find the right words for this book. I'll start by saying that Ruth is a very impressive person. She just keeps going and going and going, she just does not stop, no matter the obstacles she's presented with. She's really good at reading people and finding out how to approach them - no matter if it's someone whose help she needs or people she wants to inform about safer sex practices when she knows they won't to listen if she doesn't do it right. Her resourcefulness had me stunned more than once.

As someone who wasn't alive during the events of this book, it feels like it's very good at transporting the reader to that time period. - I watched an interview with Ruth on YouTube and she said she thinks people are thankful that she's sort of a vessel for the stories of people that would've been forgotton without her. This is very true for me. I am thankful she let Kevin Carr O'Leary into her life/memories and write them down, because this was an important read for me and I think it is for others, too.

There's a lot of pain within these pages, it hurt a lot to read this book. The way Ruth and especially her guys (as she calls them) were treated was brutal. I know this was the reality then and it therefore didn't shock me, but that didn't take away any of the anger and rage it made me feel. Or any of the sadness. This book made me cry within the first 15 pages and a few times after that. - Because of the contens, of course, but also because the words that transported said contents.
The writing style feels just so appropriate, the voice is so clear. It has beautiful words, but it doesn't sugarcoat anything. Sometimes tragic things are delivered within a short sentence, somewhere among all the other sentences, which makes so much sense, because this new tragic thing was normality for Ruth, it happened all of the time. But this kind of writing does not take away any of the impact, instead adding to it in my opinion.
It isn't all sad though. There's also wholesome moments, drag shows and people with a lot of love for one another. Also, Ruth has a lot of wit and her voice can be very entertaining.

I liked how you get to know different individuals better and how all of them were treated with a lot of love. You get to know them through Ruth's eyes and can tell how special each of them was, which is why I said in the beginning of this review that some of the names will stay with me. 

All in all I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn something about these years of the epidemic in the USA and how it impacted the queer community. In my opinion this book is written with a lot of care. I must say though that it isn't an easy read, at least to me it really wasn't. I would recommend to read this when you're in a good headspace.

Oh, one last thing: This book centers on Ruth and her work and while it does deal with political issues, it doesn't go beyond Ruth's life and perspective. So if you want there to be a broader context and reflection on "the bigger picture", this isn't really the book for you as it stays very personal. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Drug abuse, Hate crime, Misogyny, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Car accident

shamelesslyash's review against another edition

challenging emotional

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Homophobia, Religious bigotry, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Blood, Car accident, Death of parent, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, and Alcohol

bemysea's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Pandemic/Epidemic

paniquemecanique's review against another edition

dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

Pfew. Obviously from the pitch you can expect it to be a lot to challenge emotionally, and it really really is. It was so hard to put it down, because I felt like Ruth took me with her every step of the way, and to stop reading would have been to let the guys down.
It was a really good memoir, focused on a very specific period of time, telling stories in a factual way while still being heart wrenching. I guess we could reproach her to write in a way that is not full of emotions, but considering it is her real life and it would be to go through so much pain again, it is understandable. Also the events are so tragic that even without a sappy writing style, you will be completely upset.
I am again putting people on pedestals and won't do it here, but i still felt very very inspired by her dedication and how much of a calling this was for her. My favorite chapter is the number 14, where she describes her first experience at a drag show.  You could feel her falling I love without meaning to, and I could feel it from where I was. It was magical and horrendous at the same time to feel so close to the gay community at the time.
So, it is a must read, but always to read with a bit of a step back remembering the perspective of the person and the political aspects. But I would definitely always recommend it to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Bullying

karac15's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Grief, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Cancer, Hate crime, Misogyny, Sexism, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

helloits_jen's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad fast-paced

5.0

This was a pick for my book club and I’m so glad it was as I never would have picked it up otherwise! As someone who was born in the late 90s, the AIDS epidemic is something that is so foreign to me that I struggle to picture what it was actually like to live through. My heart broke over and over again for these men and it’s scary to think how recent this was happening. More than anything, that’s what I took away from the book - an eye opening story of what it was actually like. I really liked the way it was written - it seemed more fast paced than some non-fiction books - and I’m glad I took this opportunity to read about Ruth’s work and how heartbreakingly sad the lives of men were at that time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Outing, Sexual harassment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic