Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom

17 reviews

simple_alien's review

emotional 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? Yes

5.0

Magical and bada**. A must read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Hate crime, Self harm, and Violence

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Blood, and Murder

chonkooch's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted 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? Yes

4.0

it grew on me like mold on blue cheese

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Transphobia, Xenophobia, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Drug abuse, Drug use, and Alcohol

podanotherjessi's review

adventurous challenging funny fast-paced

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

4.5

This book was a very strange experience. I treated it more like non-fiction with heavy metaphor than fiction iwth real life inspiration, but I rated it like I would fiction, so I really don't know. But in any case, I don't agree with every theme the author included in here (opening with "I don't believe in safe spaces" certainly had my back up from the get go), but I do think they are presented in a deep way. The writing style is amazing, and the audiobook narrator includes inflections that make it almost sound like listening so spoken word poetry at every moment. I really enjoyed this book over all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body shaming, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Transphobia, Police brutality, Grief, and Murder

emfass's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A beautiful, gut-wrenching read. Honestly I don't want to say too much more because I think it is best to go in knowing very little, except perhaps that this is a fictionalized memoir, not a true-to-life nonfiction one, though it carries many truths. The narrator remains nameless, and is a young Asian trans girl trying to find a place for herself.

Haunting, heartbreaking, powerful, hopeful, full of magical realism and the power of trans femininity. I read it on audiobook and would love to revisit it in hard copy form.

Many many quotes I loved that I forgot to capture as I was voraciously listening, but one I did write down: 

 "That's the difference between love and hunger. Hunger is a story you get stuck in. Love's the story that takes you somewhere new." 

I'm so grateful to the Bad Bitch Book Club's LGBTQIA+ subgroup for picking this one, I don't know if I would have heard about it or read it otherwise!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Self harm, Sexual violence, Transphobia, Police brutality, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Body shaming, Child abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Sexual assault is a definite undercurrent, and is threatened or implied many times, but I can't recall if any instances happened explicitly on-page.

diana_blackmoon's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Transphobia and Police brutality

Moderate: Drug use, Self harm, Sexual content, and Violence

Minor: Child abuse and Gun violence

simonamiller's review

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Police brutality, and Medical trauma

Moderate: Transphobia

ashheinrich's review

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

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

5.0

A memoir full of fantasy, suspense, and beautiful characters, this book keeps you hanging on until the last page.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Homophobia, Racism, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence