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amyjo25's review
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, and Sexual content
daniellekat's review against another edition
I really don't want to DNF this but I'm only half way and my attention has dried up.
This is so well written and I can easily see how this topic would make for a hilarious podcast, but there is SO MUCH information packed into each chapter. While each chapter focused on a particular "Bad Gay", this book was actually more about the history of homosexuality and each Bad Gay was mainly used to provide a time frame in that history. I was expecting more of a brief biography for each chapter with a side serving of history, but the abundance of names and dates and places ultimately did me in. I really enjoyed the narrative writing style, especially coupled with the authors side remarks, but after 7 chapters this had me glazing over.
This is so well written and I can easily see how this topic would make for a hilarious podcast, but there is SO MUCH information packed into each chapter. While each chapter focused on a particular "Bad Gay", this book was actually more about the history of homosexuality and each Bad Gay was mainly used to provide a time frame in that history. I was expecting more of a brief biography for each chapter with a side serving of history, but the abundance of names and dates and places ultimately did me in. I really enjoyed the narrative writing style, especially coupled with the authors side remarks, but after 7 chapters this had me glazing over.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia and Colonisation
Minor: Death, Torture, Murder, and War
abiiba's review
funny
informative
4.25
Content Warnings
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Genocide, Homophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Colonisation, War, and Classism
emg3's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
3.75
Good: I learnt a lot and found the ideas built through this story really interesting. It made me want to listen to the podcast
Not so good: The writing style was dense and hard to focus on. The structure was sometimes confusing.
Not so good: The writing style was dense and hard to focus on. The structure was sometimes confusing.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Rape, Suicide, and Islamophobia
Minor: Adult/minor relationship
hocuscrocus's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
I really wanted to like this book. The concept is great, but unfortunately the content was so disorganized that it became a chore to finish.
The introduction of the book lays out a strong, clear thesis, but it doesn't take long for it to be forgotten completely. (Quick side note: if the focus of the book is supposed to be societal impacts of and on "bad" gay men, what is Margaret Mead doing in there?! I enjoyed reading about her, but what?!)
In this book, people with shitty opinions are put on par with literal Nazis. Some misdeeds are presented neutrally while others are presented with clear condemnation from the author(s). Each and every chapter goes on tangents that drag so long that it's hard to remember who the subject was in the first place. It was rough.
On the positive, you can feel the love and care that went into compiling information for this book. The anecdotes and scene-setting were very thoroughly researched. I'm definitely going to look further into a lot of the people and events referenced throughout. This book also has a very handy reading list at the end!
In short, the poor execution of this book unfortunately overtakes what is a very compelling concept.
The introduction of the book lays out a strong, clear thesis, but it doesn't take long for it to be forgotten completely. (Quick side note: if the focus of the book is supposed to be societal impacts of and on "bad" gay men, what is Margaret Mead doing in there?! I enjoyed reading about her, but what?!)
In this book, people with shitty opinions are put on par with literal Nazis. Some misdeeds are presented neutrally while others are presented with clear condemnation from the author(s). Each and every chapter goes on tangents that drag so long that it's hard to remember who the subject was in the first place. It was rough.
On the positive, you can feel the love and care that went into compiling information for this book. The anecdotes and scene-setting were very thoroughly researched. I'm definitely going to look further into a lot of the people and events referenced throughout. This book also has a very handy reading list at the end!
In short, the poor execution of this book unfortunately overtakes what is a very compelling concept.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia, Pedophilia, and Violence
ashareadsbooks's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Suicide
Moderate: Misogyny, Torture, Violence, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Injury/Injury detail
vaguelyredhead's review against another edition
informative
slow-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Racism, and Transphobia
Moderate: Sexual content and Colonisation
Minor: Genocide
the_vegan_bookworm's review against another edition
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
I feel like this book sets out with a really interesting thesis and then proceeds to not be able to address it adequately at all. It seems to me to be a problem of trying to tackle too many angles, which leads to not adequately discussing any of them well. On one hand, this book seeks to go through history from a queer perspective, which is interesting but falls apart when trying to deep dive into the "bad gays" it is profiling. The chosen profiles don't really fit into the chosen narrative arc of homosexuality throughout history, so it feels muddled as a focus. This is not helped by the run-on sentences and lack of overarching reflections for the thesis statement.
The book also tries to look at queers who are evil or bad throughout history, but it doesn't provide enough context on any of them to really substantiate these claims of evilness. For many, the individuals just seem to be participants in a colonial/imperial/racist system rather than people actively enacting harm. For individuals with whom I was familiar (such as J. Edgar Hoover), I felt that the details were far too light on the very real and active harm perpetuated by the individual. If you go into this story without the background knowledge on the people profiled, I don't feel the authors really provide it or justify it enough for you to think "ah yes, this is a person who could be seen as truly evil". They also have a very white and male selection of individuals that they profile, which they don't address at any time.
They might have had better results if they chose fewer individuals and really dived into their respective backgrounds, while making stronger points and analysis related to the thesis they set out to discuss. With the great number of people profiled, the biographies feel very disjointed and not cohesive as a book.
This is still 4-star for me, since I learned a lot of interesting things about homosexuality throughout history and the figures highlighted in the book. If you're really interested in history, I think there are some great historical nuggets buried in here that still make it an interesting read!
The book also tries to look at queers who are evil or bad throughout history, but it doesn't provide enough context on any of them to really substantiate these claims of evilness. For many, the individuals just seem to be participants in a colonial/imperial/racist system rather than people actively enacting harm. For individuals with whom I was familiar (such as J. Edgar Hoover), I felt that the details were far too light on the very real and active harm perpetuated by the individual. If you go into this story without the background knowledge on the people profiled, I don't feel the authors really provide it or justify it enough for you to think "ah yes, this is a person who could be seen as truly evil". They also have a very white and male selection of individuals that they profile, which they don't address at any time.
They might have had better results if they chose fewer individuals and really dived into their respective backgrounds, while making stronger points and analysis related to the thesis they set out to discuss. With the great number of people profiled, the biographies feel very disjointed and not cohesive as a book.
This is still 4-star for me, since I learned a lot of interesting things about homosexuality throughout history and the figures highlighted in the book. If you're really interested in history, I think there are some great historical nuggets buried in here that still make it an interesting read!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Racism, Transphobia, Xenophobia, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, and Colonisation
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Sexual content
Minor: Genocide and Hate crime
vagaybond's review against another edition
informative
reflective
4.25
I love when books exist about queer culture, people, theory, sociology etc that use the word faggot and refer to people as racist with the knowledge and fair assumption that I would not first need to be convinced racism exists. It's like a friend and comrade is infodumping to me in the alley outside a drag show while they're having a cigarette. It's writing that talks to me like a peer and a queer.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Police brutality, Antisemitism, Islamophobia, Religious bigotry, Murder, Outing, Cultural appropriation, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
This book profiles several different historical figures who have done a variety of different things which are by and large, horrifying. Some of these figures have died by suicide or assassination. There is a fair bit in the book which talks about older gay men being into young boys, but it doesn't outright state what exactly that means or what the age gap is, or how young these boys are. It's unclear if they merely mean adult twinks or actual minors. (I may be misremembering details, but this is my best recollection after listening to the audiobook.)aus10england's review
I found the introduction really fascinating, but the historical figures discussed in subsequent chapters failed to capture my interest
Content Warnings
Moderate: Homophobia