Reviews

The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara

disguisedposer's review against another edition

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

amydunnewasright's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

tmiles's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

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

3.5

tree_star's review

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 against another edition

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

jack_wilson's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

bmanatee_reads's review

challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

4.0

timothyjmcl's review against another edition

5.0

This book is so beautiful. The characters are richly drawn and each one has layers upon layers of depth. If you’ve seen Paris Is Burning, you’ll be familiar with the world they inhabit, but this story is something completely different from the glamorous ball scene. I highly recommend it.

merlin_thewitch's review against another edition

4.0

It took me over two months to finish this book - it was just so slow in the beginning - but it was worth reading it to the end. The ending made me feel incredibly sad (and even cry a little).. I think about it all the time.

Beautiful book with beautifully written characters.

piiiesk's review against another edition

5.0

this book is amazing. I laughed, I cried, I felt for the characters. the author wrote the characters in such an understanding, warm way that you cannot do anything than love them just as much. No matter what they did, there was no shame, just showing what can (and did) happen and how different people deal with it in various ways. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Terminal illness, and Transphobia

Moderate: Child abuse and Rape

Minor: Suicide