Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

The Prettiest Star by Carter Sickels

6 reviews

amarreth's review

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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Homophobia, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Sexual content

town_scar's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Lesbophobia, Outing, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Fatphobia, Infertility, Miscarriage, Racism, and Alcohol

Minor: Murder and War

remimicha's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Death, Genocide, Homophobia, Infertility, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Abandonment

dianacarmel's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Although this is fiction, it’s so raw and real. It’s heartbreaking to know this exact scenario played out in many families across North America in the 80s. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Homophobia

Moderate: Bullying, Fatphobia, Hate crime, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Excrement, Suicide attempt, and Outing

mothumn's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Homophobia, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Hate crime, Racism, Death of parent, Lesbophobia, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Gun violence, Miscarriage, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Excrement, Medical trauma, and Death of parent

moneyispizza's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Outing