Reviews with content warning for Death - The Prettiest Star

Loved the Bowie references and the way the last chapter is summarises the main character Brian’s life in the style of a Bowie song. The writing in the rest of the book was good but didn’t particularly stand out to me. I did however appreciate the details like the sister’s fascination with whales.

The book definitely gripped me and despite the heavy topic it was an ‘easy’ read. As in, I wanted to keep on reading and almost read it in one sitting. There’s a somewhat superfluous romance subplot that I didn’t see the point of but it doesn’t significantly detract from the plot either. However, ultimately the ending ruined it a bit for me (see spoilers at the end of this review).

From the beginning, it is very obvious what’s going to happen throughout the book. The beauty lies in how it is told. Each chapter is told from the perspective of one of the main characters (except Brian’s grandma Lettie, but while reading I saw myself in her and I imagine her perspective is that of any sane and compassionate person who would read this book, so there was no need to include it) which is often infuriating in a good way, like when the mom is making excuses for her and her husband’s shitty behaviour.

Personally, I also didn’t like the way that the main character Brian’s thoughts were only narrated as video tapes he records. I liked it as a stylistic device but it seemed like there could have been more depth from his perspective and the video tape style created a certain distance and especially at the beginning it feels a bit forced. But then again, the last Brian video tape chapter was perfect.

Early on, I also took a closer look at the table of contents and was curious because the second to last chapter was going to be told from the (incredibly bigoted and emotionally stunted) dad’s perspective. I had high hopes for this but that chapter fell very flat for me and left a very sour taste.

The man behaved absolutely despicable towards his dying son up until the very end, but then we get a chapter where he acts like he understands now, but that lacks and depth. He references the Vietnam war he fought in and survived by chance, paralleling the AIDS epidemic and how it claims lives haphazardly. He has a revelation that he helped kill his son. Like no sir, I don’t want your half-assed redemption now, you failed your son. In the last chapter everything is summarised (beautifully!) in the style of a Bowie song and again, the dad gets a redemption in the very last sentence even though he has failed his dying son at every step of the way.

Content Warnings

herelieshenry's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I appreciate this book for a lot of things: not only the fact that it’s plain good writing. To begin with, its representation of a queer small-town Appalachian experience resonated with me, so much that I had to take breaks between reading chunks of it because the chord it hit, realizing how much my experiences existing here mirrors Brian’s experience, was a tender one full of complicated grief and reverence. Our lives and experiences are not the same, but a lot of the treatment of Brian, and the way all of his actions, and his mere existence in his hometown, become politicized, reminded me of the way I’ve been treated as a trans person in a similar setting. The derision from medical staff and nurses in particular hit home.

But, further, contrary to some people who seem to think all AIDS stories are the same story and there’s no need for more of them, I believe it’s imperative to have a dearth of representations of different experiences with HIV/AIDS and particularly of the AIDS crisis. While “a man returns home to die” is not an unheard of premise, I think this particular iteration of it is important; the AIDS crisis was not exclusively a “big city” epidemic, and demonstrating how people and families in other situations were affected by it is important.

I also think the fact that this book unflinchingly shows the less easily digestible symptoms, like incontinence, is important. I find that media likes to portray HIV/AIDS in a sanitized manner (not unlike the almost glamorized media portrayal of tuberculosis). While I understand that not every story or medium could portray a less sanitized image on account of censorship etc, it’s still a glaring issue in media representations of the virus, which is how a majority of people without personal connection to a topic like this will learn of it.

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amarreth's review

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

Do you want to finish a book drowning in your own tears? Do you want to feel like your soul has left your body because the grief is too much to bear? Do you want to experience a sex scene that is desperately heartbreaking and all the more beautiful for it? Do you want to witness one of the most complicated family dynamics ever put to paper?

In this novel, our main character is a young gay man dying of AIDs at the height of the crisis in the 80s. His partner has recently died of the same disease, and he returns home to his small, conservative town, and his small, conservative family, to die. Perspective shifts between the videos he records in the basement, himself as he tries to navigate his disapproving parents, his mother as she tries to reconcile hating what he son is and wanting to care for him as he dies, and his sister, lost in the mix with her own emotions. Others will pop in, like his father in one of the hardest parts of the book.

This isn't a book that can be spoiled, you know what is going to happen to him. Instead, this is a book that proves the journey is what truly matters. Because, in the end, we all know what is coming for us.

Content Warnings