Reviews tagging 'Rape'

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

17 reviews

librariana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Rape and Suicide

dizzymissliz's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

What an incredibly depressing book. Even though gay culture has so many highs and a beautiful, rich, history, it's easy to forget how dark and lonely it was for our community in the 1980's. This book describes this period in explicit detail. Even though it was hard to read and extremely sad, I think it's important to reflect on this time period. This book focused more on the relationships between trans/gay entertainers and their found family rather than ball culture, but I think that that's what made it special. There really is a familial love between these characters, heavily influenced by and named after the people in Paris is Burning. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Incest

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Abandonment, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

remy_licked_my_book's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was so incredibly heartbreaking and beautiful. I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I couldn't stop reading. These Queens were fierce until the end. Some fell sooner than others and I can't imagine what it would be like to have been a homosexual in the 80's-90's when AIDS was rampant and no one cared. This book gave me a glimpse. Some sections were heavy and hard to listen too but they are a reflection of real traumas that happen to people all over the world. Angel was my favourite character and she was flawless right to the very end. My heart broke for Daniel, Venus, and Juanito. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Terminal illness

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Minor: Incest and Rape

crichar9's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Violence, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Chronic illness

Minor: Suicide, Dementia, and Dysphoria

weelittlemouse's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This book is horrible. Not in a bad writing way, but in a this book deals with so much death and abuse that it's so hard to read. I would have never read this book if it was a required reading. And even then, I wanted to drop it. The beginning moved so slow and was so hard to read about all the struggles that the characters went through, but about 1/4 to 1/2 way through, it started to pick up a lot more. 
I've read a lot of reviews saying that this book was derivitive of Paris is Burning. I haven't seen that film so I can't actually say whether that's true or not. But I did talk to my sister who has seen Paris is Burning, she says that a lot of people, because LGBTQ media has been so oppressed that people often compare many works to Paris is Burning. Again, I can't speak to the subject. But I can say that as an English Lit major, that every book has 6 degrees of seperation of either other books or some other form of media or history. I've also read that people think that there wasn't enough mention of drag life. I don't think that this book was supposed to be about drag life during the 80s. I think that it was supposed to be about life as a gay/trans person in New York during the 80s. I would also argue that it had a lot to do with class and race as much as it did with gender and sexuality. 
If you are a person who are easily triggered, don't read this book. I don't think that there's enough time in the world to write all the trigger warnings that would be need for this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Grief

Moderate: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Transphobia

Minor: Alcoholism, Incest, Pedophilia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Excrement, and Dementia

misssleepless's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, and Grief

Minor: Hate crime, Incest, Suicide, Excrement, and Vomit