Reviews tagging 'Sexual content'

Real Life by Brandon Taylor

86 reviews

dalek_caan's review against another edition

dark slow-paced

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

0.5

If I wasn't reading this for a book club I wouldn't have finished it. I don't understand at all what I was supposed to take away from this book other than grad school sucks. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

emk5's review against another edition

sad

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Fatphobia, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship

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!

hihet's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Grief, and Death of parent

kailinlee's review against another edition

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Death of parent

runlaurarun's review against another edition

challenging dark 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

4.5

Instantly compelling, traumatic at times, but ultimately thought provoking and real. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Racial slurs, Racism, and Sexual content

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

Minor: Death of parent

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

krobart's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.25

 Almost from the beginning of this novel, I was struck by how morose it seemed. Yet I couldn’t quite figure out why it seemed so much more dour than novels with similar stories. To read my complete review, see the following link: https://whatmeread.com/2024/06/06/review-2441-real-life/

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content and Violence

Moderate: Racism and Rape

_puberty2's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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

5.0

This is a beautiful piece of prose, especially for a debut novel. I blew through it in 3 days and was genuinely glued to the story. I just want to hug Wallace and be a friend to him that will treat him like an actual person, Brigit was the only real one. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic friendship

Moderate: Body shaming and Eating disorder

xenamollie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

this was really not my fav, but i also kind of couldn’t put it down (in a not so enjoyable can’t-look-away way). i can’t decide if the characters felt well developed or not — the absolutely excessive over thinking sort of tricked me into thinking yes, but on reflection i don’t feel like i have a grasp on the characters at all — but even that feels intentional, like the main character expends so so so much energy on overthinking himself and others and yet all he has to show for it in the end is these bits and pieces of understanding. 

it was a really tragic story but not without a tinge of optimism (or maybe i just imposed that on it so i could finish the book without feeling like absolute shit?). i wasn’t sure what to make of the interpersonal violence or what the intention was or what i was supposed to think of it. i guess all i can say was it made me wildly uncomfortable, which clearly was part of the point but definitely not the whole point. definitely feel like i was missing something. 

biggest pet peeve with this book was it’s very important to me to be able to track where people/things are in space, and it was so difficult for me to do that throughout. i just felt like the descriptions of scene/setting/movement were extremely confusing and i very often could not follow, and it didn’t particularly strike me as intentional, so that really didn’t work for me.  

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Eating disorder, Homophobia, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, and Death of parent

Minor: Self harm