Reviews tagging 'Homophobia'

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

4 reviews

stormagedon's review

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Drug use, Gore, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail

felishacb's review

adventurous challenging emotional informative mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

This novel is an experimental, wild ride. The story features a trans and/or intersex character and is told by a trans scholar and professor. The basis of the novel is the true legend of a historical figure, a white English man named Jack Sheppard whom I had never heard of. In CONFESSIONS, Rosenberg, a trans author, queers the story and imagines Jack as a gender-expansive thief. 

Footnotes tell the story of the narrator of sorts who is translating and interpreting the tale. They are also dealing with a faceless entity who wants to control the translation and treats Jacks's transness with an otherness. These layers give Rosenberg the opportunity to comment on queerness, as well as class, colonialism, and power. 

Another main character based on reality is Bess who in this book is an Asian sex worker. Bess offers a safe place for Jack and teaches him more about class revolution by sharing her own family's tragic story. Her lived experience could connect with Jack's own experience of class oppression (and queer repression) and inform him on how it intersects with racism. 

Although it is fiction, this book serves as a powerful reminder that trans people (and people of color) have always been here and have always been the main characters in their stories even if their history is lost or never told. 

Towards the last third of the novel, I did find myself not picking this up as much. But the authors voice and perspective kept me wanting to see how this story ended and what nuggets of truth they would share.

From the book: "All history should be the history of how we exceeded our own limits."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Confinement, Genocide, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Torture, and Kidnapping

Minor: Grief

charlieleelee's review

adventurous informative reflective 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? Yes

5.0

This is a fantastic mix of fantasy, academia, and anti-capitalist queer theory.

As the "editor" notes, it's clearly written for a certain group of people. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, and Police brutality

Moderate: Death, Xenophobia, Blood, and Medical content

ned_reading's review

adventurous hopeful informative inspiring medium-paced

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

3.5

Loved almost every part, the second half kind of unraveled a bit though.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Transphobia, Blood, Police brutality, and Medical content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Torture, and Vomit