Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

26 reviews

elliejk's review

challenging dark sad 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? No

3.75

I really enjoyed this book for the most part. In places it felt a little stretched out and others a little rushed which left the pacing feeling slightly off. Having said that, it really is such a beautifully told story and as the reader I felt every heartbreak. The ending will be one which will take a while for me to stop thinking about for sure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Transphobia

greenan26's review

emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Infidelity, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Murder, Outing, Abandonment, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Excrement, Vomit, and Dementia

disguisedposer's review

challenging dark slow-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Dementia, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

tree_star's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

This book is really rough and hopeless. It is also really well written. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Incest, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Transphobia, and Abandonment

blund88's review

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

halaagmod's review

dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad 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

4.0

I was gifted an ARA copy of this book way back in 2018. Ever since then, I've been struggling over what exactly to say about this book. There are no words. Heartbreaking and simply magnificent.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, and Transphobia

Moderate: Drug abuse, Drug use, Hate crime, Racism, Sexual content, and Suicide

Minor: Excrement

glorifiedloveletters's review

dark emotional sad medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Transphobia

Moderate: Incest

Minor: Deadnaming and Murder

waytoomanybooks's review against another edition

I was assigned this book in my Contemporary Queer Literature class, and I and several of my classmates told our professor that we couldn't and wouldn't finish reading it. The book steps out of "gritty realism" and veers into "tragedy, trauma, and grief porn" a la A Little Life. Every character in the novel is graphically raped multiple times. Every underage character at one point or another enters into a "relationship" with an adult. Every character at one point or another becomes a prostitute. There is even a character that had a mummified corpse in their closet. This is not an exaggeration. I'm not putting this behind spoiler tags because I think everyone should know about this before reading it. I wish I had known! Upon realizing that we weren't going to finish the book, our professor said that if we found the first third to be horrific, then we certainly shouldn't finish the book because it "gets worse."

Grief, loss, trauma, death, rape, etc. are unfortunate parts of life, but the author seems to take almost ghoulish delight in hurting characters who are based on real people. Don't read this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Lesbophobia, Outing, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ploganiv's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

If you like Paris is Burning or Pose, this is the perfect blend of the two works. It really felt like fan fiction of these stories. Cassara did an amazing job making you root for this found family of Xtravaganzas. The ending was very Tarantino-esk and it was brutal. The HIV/AIDS epidemic killed so many of our queer siblings, but Cassara really leaned into every possible way HIV/AIDS could affect a person besides dying. The bond this family had was beautifully contrasted with their own varied relationships with their families. Some were very refreshing, but most were as you would imagine. I really enjoyed the Puerto Rican slang and culture sprinkled throughout. It made me crave Mofongo and want to visit my New York family. It is also incredible that this is Cassara's debut novel. It felt very mature and like he has really worked on his craft. Super excited to see what he does next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, and Murder

Moderate: Drug abuse

krissymcgeehan's review

challenging dark emotional funny sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Dysphoria