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ddgwriter's review against another edition
4.5
Moderate: Child abuse, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual content
rayreyes's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Grief
Minor: Animal death and Death
melbell222's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Cancer, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Death of parent
lisettemarie's review against another edition
4.5
Graphic: Addiction
Moderate: Body shaming, Cancer, Drug abuse, Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Death of parent
abelh's review against another edition
3.5
Moderate: Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
tieflingmom's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Biphobia, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Outing, Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
cozy_academic's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Death of parent
_alicereadsbooks's review against another edition
4.0
The challenges and hurdles and experiences that they have faced throughout their life were sometimes hard to read. I am always amazed by the way people can come through trauma like that and be such a joyous and loving person, both to themselves and others.
I do wish I had listened to this as an audiobook as I think I would have enjoyed it even more.
Graphic: Addiction and Drug abuse
Moderate: Child abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual content, and Death of parent
jessicaharleee's review against another edition
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual assault
pacifickat's review against another edition
4.0
The audiobook absolutely made this book work for me as a reader. There were so many jokes and moments that relied on anticipating the correct voice intonation in order to completely land, and it was fun hearing JVN's humor come through in the audio narration. Plus, I would have hopelessly butchered all the Russian pseudonyms in my head.
Lots of trigger warnings could be applied to this book (childhood trauma, sexual content, drug use, self harm, bullying, etc.), but I have rarely heard more accurate or compelling descriptions of addictive behaviors and the self-destructive-yet-all-consuming mental state behind them than here. This felt like an extremely honest and open account of the author's most formative life experiences, and I can't help but admire that.
I also really appreciated learning a bit about AIDS/HIV stigma, treatments, and current positive prognoses when caught early and managed carefully. This kind of information is truly a public service to get out there in the open.
Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Chronic illness, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Self harm, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Dementia, and Alcohol
Minor: Eating disorder and Fatphobia