Reviews

Dirty Heads by Aaron Dries

miserable_biscuit's review

dark medium-paced

4.0

r0seres's review

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective 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

4.5

I saw the story as a manifestation of queer struggle and the fear of a family being changed by coming out. Particularly how queer youth are then abandoned in society and seen as lesser

skogsheks's review

challenging dark mysterious sad

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

amcleod's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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? Yes

5.0

Extremely evocative and hyperreal. I read it straight though and was hanging on every word. Beautifully written.

herdgrace's review

dark tense fast-paced

3.0

Convoluted. Doing too much. 

irlposer's review

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

dragonflydecay's review

dark tense medium-paced

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

3.75

i have really mixed feelings about this one but i did enjoy it enough to read it all in one sitting. i think the prose is so perfectly adolescent (not in the sense that it's immature, but in the sense that its tumultuous and incomplete and oddly paced in a way that feels very reflective of adolescence), plus i love love love a good use of typography. i love supernatural allegories that aren't a 1:1 metaphor for the things they allegory, but i do think that in this it didn't quite land as much as i was hoping it would have, especially given the cover. it does the fast-paced action/horror well, and it does the more mundane coming-of-age bits beautifully, but i don't think the two quite melded together as cohesively as they could have. it was allegorical enough that the climax of the horror bits were gut wrenching in a very effective way, but spent so much time in the mostly-real world that i think that climax wasn't as satisfying as it should have been because it didn't feel quite in line with that part of the story. tldr the horror and the coming-of-age plots are both well executed but don't quite meet where they need to. i still think it was very worth the read tho 

marieke17's review

can’t get into it

binka_28's review

5.0

I really enjoyed this book. The cover art was what drew me in and the beautiful descriptions through the story kept me hooked. I loved the ambiguity of the story. All the 90's references made me super nostalgic. Super quick read I read this in one sitting, I couldn't put it down!

littlespookysmut's review

5.0

Give me more gay cosmic horror!! I absolutely loved this from start to finish. I love the nostalgia of going to the video store and just looking at the horror VHS’s. This might be one of my favorites of 2023.