A review by celestriakle
Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

I see why this book is considered a foundational queer text. It covers such a length of time, and it's fascinating to have that glimpse into the past and over the decades. It really does resonate even in 2023; so many of the struggles we had then are recurring again, and it's fascinating to see how the conversations played out both then and now. It did succeed in its main mission, getting me to think about gender and expression and all such things. Even when I wasn't reading, I found myself reconsidering my own gender and considering the experiences and variety we see. Not to mention, the prose is beautiful. I had so many passages highlighted of beautiful description that underscored the mood of the moment.

That said, it's not a perfect book. There are a LOT of side characters, and for me they blended together. All the butches sounded and acted very similar, so did all the femmes. The archetypes make a big splash of strong characterization the first time, but then it loses some power when you see all the characters acting similarly. That said, there are still a couple stand-outs, so it's not all bad.
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