Reviews tagging 'Adult/minor relationship'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

15 reviews

prizazz's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.75

Wow. Yeah. Real Life is too real in the messiness of the characters. I think I'm going to THINK a lot about this book, but I'm NOT going to want to read it again anytime soon. I like the language and the observations made by the author. He is SO articulate, but the romantic relationship stuff is WAY rough.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Classism

I'm not sure with the ending if I should be hopeful or if I should just expect patterns to get repeated, because the author may be implying that and I so HATE that for all the characters, except for Dana, what a jerk!

mr_cain's review against another edition

4.75

All too real. Rips your heart in two and forces you to confront how you exist in the world.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Toxic relationship, and Vomit

Minor: Body shaming, Drug use, and Eating disorder

cadystanton's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Outing, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

alicechak's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Love Taylor's writing style, very excited to read Late Americans next!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, and Death of parent

mourtarymaggots's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• 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: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Child abuse, Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

sfx_naike's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Classism

bitsandbobsdivination's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

I’m not huge into literally fiction, but I do read a few of them and it’s typically a hit or miss for me. In this case, it’s more difficult to explain how I feel.

On one side, I felt the writing itself was done really well and if their writing was winning awards on creating a visceral and ‘real life’ response from you, then it definitely done it’s job. 

On the other hand, this story didn’t really go anywhere in that there was no resolution and just was kinda faltering from one subject to another. Not all stories have to have a resolution, but usually even then there is a bit of a development in the story or character growth in at least one of the characters. In this story, I felt no one grew, only explored more of their pain in an unhealthy way or lost themselves more to it. 

To me, this story showed us some very important, difficult, and painful topics that deserve to be shared... This I don’t disagree with and again, was done very well in expressing them, and at the same time they were shown and felt by us the readers, but never explored to show any way of challenging these topics…

No way of showing the reader any hope, any growth, or to show the that the narrative of Wallace’s life could improve or deviate from the snowball event it has been and seems to continue to be. Also the side white characters never growing either which is not on Wallace to fix, but them (myself included) to learn and do better. 

I suppose for some, ‘real life’ really can be and is that painful and this story shows that, and I respect that. We all live life with our own array of pain and trauma and heartache and suffering and it’s difficult to compare or ever really understand, and this story shows one voice in one ‘real life’.

I think for me it was pretty painful to see Wallace continue to suffer and never get any real help, resolve, or real support, only more to add to his already painful list, including the other character’s lists as well. 

Overall, this story left me feeling like I learned from his perspective as well as the others, but also left me a bit at odds with my feelings towards it as my personal view of life is quite an optimistic or hopeful one! This although is coming from my own personal perspective with heartaches and challenges as someone who is a woman and lgbt+, but also a cis, white, and lower middle class Midwestern. 

I want to hope that his life does improve with the right people and support around him in time beyond this one weekend, and that that can be ‘real life’ as well. 

3.75 / 5 Stars

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Grief, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

maggiekateb's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Homophobia, and Rape

raelin's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-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

3.25

Things I Loved

• The lab setting and descriptions and inclusions of high science. I have never read a book that casually includes the graduate setting of a science lab and I loved that backdrop of order and focus admits the emotional chaos and intensity  surrounding Wallace. 
• The sharing of a painful insight into what it is like to be the “other” in academia at a PWI. 
• The beautiful prose and achingly tragic descriptions. 

Overall this was just a gut wrenching, rip your heart out and cry for Wallace. I was depressed and deeply sad the whole time reading it. It felt open and important to read, but painful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Racism, and Blood

noahee's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Cursing, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, and Death of parent