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nosferatofu's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
No words. No notes. This is a MUST-read for queer folks. For ANYONE. I am so deeply and implausibly upset that it’s over. I am truly inconsolable after this one. Mientus tackles plenty of heavy and important topics that are still prevalent today in the pages of this book, while also managing to keep your attention and make the reading experience charming and fun following the cult-like, dark academia setting and storyline. Immaculate. Moving. Eldritch-esque. Easily earns a place in my top 5 favourite books of all time.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Death, Hate crime, Homophobia, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Murder, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic
Moderate: Child abuse, Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Violence, Forced institutionalization, and Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, and Deadnaming
smack_books's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Death, Homophobia, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Forced institutionalization, and Alcohol
pkc's review
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
I thought this might be a spooky witchy occult book, which it was in lots of ways, but it was also a gorgeous found family queer story set at a time when such found families were looked up derisively. The book is set in 1991, while America and the world still reels from the impact of AIDS at Blackfriars School for boys in the fictional town of Adders Lair in Massachusetts. It was a book that was shocking, scary, joyful, funny, sexy. Any superlative you can think of probably applies here.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Cancer, Deadnaming, Death, Drug use, Gore, Hate crime, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Alcohol
elizabeth_delozier's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
A YA, paranormal, gay, dark academia story that takes place amid the AIDS crisis, told from multiple POVs (Zooey, Daniel, and Leo).
Please mind the trigger warnings (listed below) and take care of your mental health while reading this story and review.
Zooey is a gay teen who transfers to an elite all-boys boarding school following bullying and abuse at his previous school. He finds himself experiencing similar bullying at the new school. He also finds himself making new friends who share in his queer identity and have a secret society of for queer students. Daniel is a Black, gay teen who is living a bit of a double life: the popular jock and the romantic gay kid, secretly in love, and wrapped up in dark magic. Leo is an openly gay, effeminate, and quirky, also wrapped up in dark magic and doesn't initially want to disentangle himself from the dark magic that has previously helped him get by in the rather hostile environment of the boarding school. The boys find themselves in over their heads both with dark magic and in managing their emotions and finding acceptance in their identities.
I felt conflicted while reading this story and had to give myself some time to process my thoughts on the story afterwards. The author depicted difficulties of living during the AIDS crisis well, really pulling those awful emotions from the reader. It was clear that the author was able to pull some of the content regarding the difficulties of being queer in the 90s from his own experience.
However, what I had to reflect on was the authors writing of a Black main character and this character's experience of racism. Daniel experiences near constant overt racism, racial slurs, and harmful racial stereotypes by his peers throughout the story. The author's portrayal of this racism was not necessary for the story or development and, in my opinion, was poorly handled.
The author does say the following in his author's note at the beginning of the book where he also listed TWs regarding racism and homophobia: "To not include these details would be to white wash history and deny the characters the reality of their intersectional experiences as they would have lived them."
While, I understand the idea of not wanting to "white wash history," I also want authors to understand that if they cannot depict these experiences in a respectful manner, they are doing more harm than good. It is clear that this author did not have enough sensitivity readers for this book or simply didn't care. What purpose did those slurs serve? What purpose did those harmful stereotypes serve? They surely didn't add to character or story development. The author also uses his unique writing style to not include other difficult to discuss details (e.g., the death of a parent) by having the narrator state "I'm not going to go into detail here" or "You'll understand why I don't want to repeat XX." So, why couldn't the author have done the same by referencing that the character experienced slurs without writing such harmful words into the story...onto the page for readers to experience. The author should reflect on this.
Overall, I did enjoy this paranormal dark academia story and I enjoyed seeing the characters grow to accept their queerness. However, for the poorly handled inclusion of racist experiences noted above, I will not be recommending this story to anyone.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Andy Mientus, Kyle Beltran, and Daniel K. Isaac, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by RB Media in exchange for an honest review.
TWs: racism, racial slurs, homophobia, internalized biphobia, homophobic slurs, a conversion camp, discrimination on the bases of races and sexual orientation, bullying and assault, death, death of a parent, grief, child abuse, references to a sexual relationship between an adult and a minor, medical content, suicidal thoughts
Please mind the trigger warnings (listed below) and take care of your mental health while reading this story and review.
Zooey is a gay teen who transfers to an elite all-boys boarding school following bullying and abuse at his previous school. He finds himself experiencing similar bullying at the new school. He also finds himself making new friends who share in his queer identity and have a secret society of for queer students. Daniel is a Black, gay teen who is living a bit of a double life: the popular jock and the romantic gay kid, secretly in love, and wrapped up in dark magic. Leo is an openly gay, effeminate, and quirky, also wrapped up in dark magic and doesn't initially want to disentangle himself from the dark magic that has previously helped him get by in the rather hostile environment of the boarding school. The boys find themselves in over their heads both with dark magic and in managing their emotions and finding acceptance in their identities.
I felt conflicted while reading this story and had to give myself some time to process my thoughts on the story afterwards. The author depicted difficulties of living during the AIDS crisis well, really pulling those awful emotions from the reader. It was clear that the author was able to pull some of the content regarding the difficulties of being queer in the 90s from his own experience.
However, what I had to reflect on was the authors writing of a Black main character and this character's experience of racism. Daniel experiences near constant overt racism, racial slurs, and harmful racial stereotypes by his peers throughout the story. The author's portrayal of this racism was not necessary for the story or development and, in my opinion, was poorly handled.
The author does say the following in his author's note at the beginning of the book where he also listed TWs regarding racism and homophobia: "To not include these details would be to white wash history and deny the characters the reality of their intersectional experiences as they would have lived them."
While, I understand the idea of not wanting to "white wash history," I also want authors to understand that if they cannot depict these experiences in a respectful manner, they are doing more harm than good. It is clear that this author did not have enough sensitivity readers for this book or simply didn't care. What purpose did those slurs serve? What purpose did those harmful stereotypes serve? They surely didn't add to character or story development. The author also uses his unique writing style to not include other difficult to discuss details (e.g., the death of a parent) by having the narrator state "I'm not going to go into detail here" or "You'll understand why I don't want to repeat XX." So, why couldn't the author have done the same by referencing that the character experienced slurs without writing such harmful words into the story...onto the page for readers to experience. The author should reflect on this.
Overall, I did enjoy this paranormal dark academia story and I enjoyed seeing the characters grow to accept their queerness. However, for the poorly handled inclusion of racist experiences noted above, I will not be recommending this story to anyone.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by Andy Mientus, Kyle Beltran, and Daniel K. Isaac, via NetGalley. An advanced reader's copy of this audiobook was provided to me via NetGalley by RB Media in exchange for an honest review.
TWs: racism, racial slurs, homophobia, internalized biphobia, homophobic slurs, a conversion camp, discrimination on the bases of races and sexual orientation, bullying and assault, death, death of a parent, grief, child abuse, references to a sexual relationship between an adult and a minor, medical content, suicidal thoughts
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Grief, Lesbophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, and Death of parent
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
childoftheninth's review
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
“Being a freak alone is tough, but being arm in arm with your fellow freaks can feel pretty punk.”
Fall 1991: Zooey Orson transfers to Blackfriars School for Boys and is quickly inducted into a historic secret club for queer students called the Vicious Circle. As he befriends Leo, Daniel, and Steven he is swept up in the unfamiliar world of boys who have accepted this part of themselves that he cannot even bring himself to name.
Fraternity is a difficult but important book that weaves dark occult magic with queer culture and history. It’s a story draped in darkness that doesn’t let up through most of the book, but as it’s YA I was expecting a hopeful ending if not an overly happy one (I wasn’t disappointed). The ending was satisfying and left me in tears both of queer joy and of the deep kind of sorrow that comes with reading about the tragedies and trauma experienced by queer people who came before me (and still experienced by many today).
Facing down a lifetime of having to hide themselves or be outed and face the consequences, the members of the Vicious Circle cling to one another for safety, for love, for sex, and for a space they can always be themselves in. Sometimes home is not a place you rest your head but the people who see you for who you are.
The author tackled many very difficult topics in only a few hundred pages and wove a story of occult magic and rituals into it as well, and I felt it was successful. At times the narration can be a bit cringey and some of the story felt clumsily put together but the writing was overall very good. At the beginning of the book I felt unsure about the representation of gay men and the thoughts that some of the characters had about being gay, but it was also probably an accurate representation of being a gay boy in the early 90s. I don’t need to agree fully with a character in order to see the truth and importance in them. The one character I wish we had been able to learn more about was Steven, as he was mostly a proxy for what happens when you abuse power.
I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook which featured a unique voice for each narrator (including the author himself). There's something powerful about audiobooks to me, especially when done well. I feel like I've gotten to the know the characters on a more personal level and they reside in my mind as unique voices. The deep lines cut even deeper when I hear them spoken.
The characters are not always lovable but they are real and I loved them for that. They do horrible things, they face terrible odds, they lose and are lost again and again. Not everyone makes it out alive.
This isn’t any easy book by any means. Homophobic slurs and brutality, death by magic, death by AIDS, violence, on-page conversion therapy, off-page statutory rape, and racism are all things to look out for when entering the world of the Blackfriars boys. Unfortunately, these are all things that occur in our own world still. The story of Zooey, Leo, Daniel and Steven may be fiction, but it is all too real (barring the occult magic and demonic possession, as far as I’m aware).
“history lets us carry the work of those who came before us forward, so that we might finish it.”
Not everyone makes it out, but we don’t forget those who are left behind. We keep fighting: for us, for them, and for everyone who comes after.
Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books for an advance audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Fraternity is out 9/20/22!
Thank you to NetGalley and Recorded Books for an advance audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Fraternity is out 9/20/22!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Bullying, Cancer, Death, Homophobia, Grief, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Racism, Transphobia, Blood, and Vomit
Minor: Deadnaming, Sexual assault, and Sexual content