Reviews tagging 'Terminal illness'

All the Young Men by Ruth Coker Burks

32 reviews

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

pickashelf's review against another edition

emotional medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

Moderate: Medical content and Abandonment

bookishpip's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

5.0

What a stunning book.

I’ve read quite a few memoirs - it’s one of my favourite genres - but although I generally enjoy memoirs, very few are so impactful that I experience strong emotional responses throughout. This is one.

Dubbed as the modern day Florence Nightingale, this is the account of a woman who, visiting a friend in hospital, comes across a door with a red x on it and someone inside crying for help, to deaf ears. She goes inside and meets a young man in his final moments, succumbing to AIDS. This was the catalyst for an enormous shift in her life as she begins to work to fight for the rights and fair treatment of those with HIV and AIDS, providing essential and human help to sufferers along the way.

I really experienced such a rollercoaster of emotions with this one. Although the content is largely heavy and sad (yet incredibly important), there are moments of humour and sass that just make me desperate to be friends with this lady. The selflessness of her actions and the way in which she navigates the world is truly such an inspiration. 

Honestly, this was such a remarkable read. Highly, highly recommended.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Medical content, and Medical trauma

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

author2223's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring sad medium-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Medical content

lily_west's review

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

emilyeehaw's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad

4.25

this was such a lovely book! we get to follow ruth who takes on the mantel of doing AIDS activism work in arkansas during the height of the epidemic and the moral panic and bigotry that went alongside it during the 80s. there were several moments in this book that made me go "there's just no fucking way this actually happened" somehow ruth was always able to stretch her last dollar, get the anti-gay doctor to give her one more prescription, or find exactly what she needed in the knick of time. if all of this is true, she really is a force to be reckoned with. (the fact she allegedly knew bill clinton when he was a teenager and she was just a toddler.......and then continued correspondence with him as he became president...WILD)

and beyond all of the material things she was able to provide to the gay community, she really was a strong ally in a DARK time where not enough people were acknowledging the harm that was being done, and if they did acknowledge it, it was in the same breath they were condemning gay men. she offered compassion, love, and most importantly hope when those things seemed hard to come by in hot springs, arkansas for the people fighting AIDS. i liked that as much as this was a book about her, many of the men she helped were spotlighted as well. the book was full of stories of how they helped her and cared for her just as much as she did for them. i loved the inclusion of some pictures from this time during her work (billy <3), it added so much more life to the story and helped me put faces to the names. 

the ending seemed a bit rushed to me but i also understand why the story was cut off where it was and how the authors had to wrap things up. overall, a very beautiful memoir about a deeply interesting person ! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Suicide and Grief

questingnotcoasting's review

emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

4.0

This is a fascinating and heart-breaking memoir. It's written in a conversational way which is very readable and really pulled me into the narrative. There were a few moments which felt like they'd been heightened for dramatic effect, like Ruth having a perfect comeback before leaving a room. However generally I thought the writing style worked well and the inclusion of so many personal anecdotes helped give a real sense of the people she knew. The subject matter makes it a tough read at times but her sense of humour also comes through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Car accident, and Suicide attempt

Moderate: Addiction, Sexism, and Sexual harassment

julesandjude's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Cancer and Grief

Minor: Bullying and Death of parent