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benegesserwitch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Bullying, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Miscarriage, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
Minor: Body shaming, Fatphobia, and Classism
rieviolet's review against another edition
- 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
3.0
I cannot fault Baldwin's prose, he knows how to paint a scene or portray an emotion with words. I also don't mind bleak and melancholic stories. I think that my main problem was that I struggled to connect with the characters. I wasn't very fond of David but honestly, I disliked Giovanni the most, he spewed such brutally misogynistic remarks that I just wanted to throw him into the Seine, sympathizing with him was the furthest thing from my mind.
While I recognize that not getting along well with unlikeable characters is a personal issue, I also think that the relationship itself felt a bit flimsly grounded. I was disconnected from the characters and, accordingly, I wasn't strongly invested in their turmoils and tragedies.
All in all, I understand and value the importance of the themes explored and the relevance of the novel within the queer literary canon, but it didn't resonate with me as deeply as with other readers.
Graphic: Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
Minor: Alcoholism, Body horror, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Suicide, Car accident, and Death of parent
pipisonstage's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Homophobia
Moderate: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment
Minor: Alcoholism and Death of parent
keelymightread's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Addiction and Alcohol
Moderate: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Police brutality
Minor: Death and Death of parent
rafdee13's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Alcohol
everesto's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, Sexual content, and Transphobia
Minor: Suicidal thoughts
kitandink's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
(okay on a serious note, this is my first time reading baldwin and it was brilliant. his prose - there's an urgency in it. like he's sat in a chair across from you, holding your gaze intensely, and going, "listen. listen to this.")
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual content and Sexual harassment
amy_q13's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism
Moderate: Body shaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Murder
e_r_q's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
"I feel in myself now a faint, a dreadful stirring of what so overwhelmingly stirred in me then, great thirsty heat, and trembling, and tenderness so painful I thought my heart would burst."
Despite being only 150 pages long, it did take me a while to read Giovanni's Room. It's definitely a lot to digest, it's very literary and emotionally intense, but those are also exactly the reasons I love this book so much.
With his powerful prose, it feels as though James Baldwin is reaching across time, right into the depths of my Queer soul. Honestly, sometimes it even hurt to read this (in a good way).
Giovanni's Room is a story of self-destruction, identity, shame, repression, alienation, gender and sexuality. It's a tale that examines the destructive forces of toxic masculinity, and internalised homophobia and misogyny. To quote Baldwin himself:
"It's about what happens to you if you're afraid to love anybody."
"But if I were still able to feel affection and if he had seen it in my eyes, it would not have helped, for affection, for the boys I was doomed to look at, was vastly more frightening than lust."
Baldwin is a master at writing. The way he plays with tense/chronology/structure is especially ingenious. While very literary, his writing isn't impenetrable, and is still filled to the brim with complex themes, intensity, symbolism and poeticism. Every sentence is so perfectly crafted, and there are so many quotes that just took my breath away.
I honestly can't do this book justice with words. Just read it. It's life changing.
As I finished this book in a graveyard, bathed in the gleam of the Spring sunlight, the striking potency of the climax involuntarily caused me to frantically hold the book closer to my face. And when it was over, with that haunting denouement, I closed the book and sat there for a while in silence.
"No matter how it seems now, I must confess: I loved him. I do not think that I will ever love anyone like that again."
Moderate: Death, Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, and Transphobia
Minor: Misogyny and Sexual content
marissasa's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Alcoholism, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol