Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg

6 reviews

ellenigrace's review against another edition

4.5

I much preferred the narrative about Jack & Bess to the footnote narrative about Dr Voth, but the latter didn't spoil the book for me and in some places did add to it. I didn't like that

Spoiler

the collective group of queer editors

wasn't expanded on - for the sake of how much it was touched on it could have been left out, for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Drug use, Dysphoria, Blood, Gore, Body horror, and Medical content

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Transphobia

caseythereader's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny mysterious sad tense medium-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Vomit, Xenophobia, Confinement, Death, Dysphoria, Classism, Alcohol, Gore, Racism, Colonisation, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Deadnaming, Grief, Murder, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Police brutality, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Gun violence, Racial slurs, Sexual content, Excrement, and Violence

carbs666's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious medium-paced

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

5.0

Deeply researched and lovingly crafted, this book is like nothing I've ever read before. Confessions layered on top of confessions, the inherent queerness of the disobedient archive, funny and insightful and personal footnotes, unreliable and fantastical and multiplicitous narration, a utopia outside of time, an escape. It's good. You have to read it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Medical content, Dysphoria, Alcohol, Confinement, Police brutality, Injury/Injury detail, and Colonisation

Moderate: Death, Medical content, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Blood, Body horror, Racism, and Transphobia

jameslyons's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is not a fun historical romp and those approaching this book with any expectation of a Nice Time will be disappointed/horrified. It's visceral, confronting, disgusting, and uncomfortable; romantic, riotous, hilarious, and very fucking trans.

Ambitious and almost overwhelming at times. It took a lot of faith in the author for me to get through the wilder parts that didn't make sense until everything Did. Thank god it all pulled together in the end. I remain annoyed at the heavy academic bent, but that's a personal pet peeve, and scholarly sycophants will likely adore that aspect. Everyone else, my advice is to just ignore and skim at will. The rest of the story contains So Much aside from that.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Genocide, Slavery, and Vomit

Content found within, which storygraph doesn't have specific tags for yet: graphic descriptions of public executions (hangings), murder, corpse multination, a VERY graphic surgical scene (which could be skipped by the reader), and medical abuse. That would normally be enough for me to give this just 1* or not finish, but in the context of this book, I valued all of the nasty bits as much as the rest of the story.

sneako's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Violence, Vomit, and Gun violence

bookstolivewith's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny mysterious medium-paced

• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Okay so I keep trying (and failing) to write a coherent review but here’s the long and short of it: I found Confessions of the Fox endlessly interesting and fascinating and I am definitely not smart enough to understand everything happening here. And that’s okay, because a) I am not the intended audience as a cis-straight woman and b) that leaves me even more room to read it again and again until I figure it out.

I wish this was a book that had been taught in a college course — and I would urge professors, especially those who teach classes that involve discussions of gender and sexuality, to teach it. There is an unbelievable amount to discuss here.

On one hand, it’s a “found” novel that explores the concept of communal writing and memory. It also unpacks sexuality and gender, both in the 18th century and in the 2010s. The footnotes not only include real-life and modern references, but jointly tell the story of the “transcriber” and their struggles alongside the struggles of the fictional characters they’ve found. The manuscript explores the rise of capitalism in England and how it insidiously twists inside every single aspect of life, even death itself. No stone is left unturned here, and all of it is done through beautiful written prose that is as emotional as it is intellectual.

I would highly recommend reading this one, although I will warn you that the manuscript itself can be tricky to read, full of English cant and old words. I’m still trying to figure out the right words to express how I feel about Confessions of the Fox, and in some way, I suspect that it’s the author intention to have the book defy labels and summaries and something so simply said as a single word. However, I do feel that it will probably be one of the most important books I’ve read in a while.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Blood, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Transphobia, and Violence

Moderate: Xenophobia, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Gore, and Confinement