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jeffrosa's review against another edition
5.0
A powerful account of gay life in the early post-Stonewall years exploring what was the largely unknown largest mass murder at a gay club until the Pulse shootings in Orlando. It’s a shame that the history of the fire at the Upstairs Lounge isn’t more widely known.
finnthehuman217's review against another edition
5.0
There needs to be more books on lesser known events like the upstairs lounge fire. This book is an important part of the community’s history and needs to be told, I am glad to have read it
blathering's review against another edition
4.0
It's an odd experience to read a history book where everything happens during your lifetime of not during your memory. I became aware of the Up Stairs Loung fire in the 90s when stories started appearing in the local paper. And so it's interesting to read an outsider (non-New Orleanian) take on our city. He gets a lot right and a few things wrong. But a really important read
mariellep's review against another edition
4.0
This book started out strong detailing the lives of the individuals involved in this tragedy. Pretty quickly it goes into the fire and it is heartbreaking to read. I really loved the first part of the book where I was able to learn about Gay life in the south through the various people involved. The second half of the book started to wander between storylines and was somewhat hard to follow making it feel disjointed.
tracithomas's review against another edition
3.0
Very interesting subject matter but couldn’t quiet get into the writing style. Language was circular and forced me to keep stopping and going back. I couldn’t catch my flow. I also loved the history but didn’t always feel like the authors argument was clear. Super sad story and some sections were very gripping. A bit of a mixed bag.
paperd's review
challenging
emotional
informative
sad
tense
slow-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Suicide, Violence, and Outing
missamandamae's review against another edition
4.0
This was an incident I hadn’t heard of until the Pulse shooting and death counts were compared. This was definitely another level of horrific- 32 people burned in a bar on a casual Sunday night. The police never apprehended the perpetrator. People made crass jokes about the victims. Some bodies were burned so badly they were never identified. Families of some of the victims were reluctant to come forward because they didn’t want anyone to know they had a gay son. And to make it just a little extra worse, many of them were members of a church community hanging out after services.
At times it was a little difficult to keep track of all the people involved, but overall I was drawn in and wanted to know about the victims and survivors and what happened in New Orleans in 1973.
At times it was a little difficult to keep track of all the people involved, but overall I was drawn in and wanted to know about the victims and survivors and what happened in New Orleans in 1973.