Reviews with content warning for Homophobia - Giovanni's Room

‘People are too various to be treated so lightly. I am too various to be trusted.’

Wonderful and remarkably vulnerable, Baldwin gives his insight into the complexities, anxieties and passions that exist beneath the skin of our most palatable and performative natures. And, how we can be so convinced and hypnotised by a separate safe idea of ourselves that it can be seen to be corrupted and imperilled by our most genuine and intimate selves.

In short, be prepared for many tears.

Content Warnings

jun_liuyue's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

Probably one of the best classics I've read. The characters are complex and even if I would have liked another ending this one is the one that makes sense for the characters.

Content Warnings

bookwormcat's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Content Warnings

eliisar's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

2.75

I wanted to like this so bad. It did have some good and emotional moments, I especially liked the last couple pages. But the language was very confusing for me. Might be because English isn't my first language, but every page had sentences I had to reread several times before I understood them. And that didn't even work sometimes so I just moved on because I was getting frustrated lol.
The story also went in a direction I wasn't expecting. I mean, I didn't think it was gonna be a super happy queer love story, but I wasn't expecting this, so I kinda went through the book with a completely wrong idea in my head.

Content Warnings

beckyytodd's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

itsjadenbaby's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

I can officially say that a book has put me in a reading slump for being too good! The novel is perfection. There were lines in this that had my jaw on the floor because of how hard hitting yet beautiful they were.

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