All tagged lgbt
Martyr! – Kaveh Akbar
Expectation: Writers jumping from poetry to fiction often struggle with pacing and characterization, so I expected an ostentatious mess.
Reality: Akbar's poetic prose and captivating characters shine through the non-linear structure, making “Martyr!” an engaging read despite its occasional superfluousness.
Arthur and Teddy Are Coming Out – Ryan Love
Expectation: A different spin on the coming out story exploring it through two generations within the same family.
Reality: Mediocre execution that falls flat due to predictable characters and forced plot twists.
Detransition, Baby – Torrey Peters
Expectation: A novel that subverts the typical motherhood story with a focus on trans and found families.
Reality: More theory than fiction, Torrey Peters presents interesting ideas, but with an air of pretentiousness that can test patience.
The Taking of Jake Livingston – Ryan Douglass
Expectation: A “Wednesday” meets “The Sixth Sense” gay horror-romance set in suburban Atlanta.
Reality: The subject matter was darker than expected – a plus – but the execution faltered near the end.
Small Joys – Elvin James Mensah
Expectation: A dramedy about self-discovery and queer acceptance.
Reality: Terrible dialogue ruined the few bright spots in an otherwise undercooked story.
Pink Triangle Legacies: Coming Out in the Shadow of the Holocaust – W. Jake Newsome
While not as well-known in the mainstream as the Pride flag, the pink triangle – the Nazi concentration camp symbol for prisoners convicted under Paragraph 175, the German law that criminalized homosexual activity among men – is an enduring and important marker of queer history that morphed from an emblem of shame into a symbol of activism.
High-Risk Homosexual – Edgar Gomez
After a choppy start, Edgar Gomez’s engrossing memoir, “High-Risk Homosexual” morphed into an interesting dissection of cultural expectations, acceptance and self-discovery.
Fellow Travelers – Thomas Mallon
Expectation: A steamy political thriller about two up and coming politicos balancing a clandestine, queer love affair under the specter of the Lavender Scare.
Reality: Essentially a nonfiction novel with unlikable characters and flat development. Do yourself a favor and skip it in favor of the limited television series.
We Could Be So Good – Cat Sebastian
Expectation: Gay love overcoming the odds in 1950s America!
Reality: Incredibly repetitive and too saccharine, the historical fiction element is almost an afterthought to typical romance genre tropes.
Big Swiss – Jen Beagin
Expectation: A quirky comedy about voyeurism and self-discovery.
Reality: The epitome of dark comedy, the back half is chock full of sex, lies and violence, which makes it sound a lot more intriguing than it ultimately was.
Chlorine – Jade Song
Expectation: A horror story of a high school swimmer turning into a bloodthirsty mermaid in an act of rage.
Reality: Aimless and boring, a few body gore sections weren’t enough to keep me interested before throwing in the towel.
It Came from the Closet: Queer Reflections on Horror – Joe Vallese
Various queer writers dissect and debate the overt and obvious subtexts of both mainstream and art house fare with a mixture of analysis and theory. Many of the essays veer into the personal, showing how important the horror genre is to out and proud queers of a certain age.
Our Wives Under the Sea – Julia Armfield
Expectation: A supernatural horror story focused on a lesbian couple navigating the devastating aftermath of an extended trip under the sea.
Reality: Slowly plotted and more literary than mindless, this is for people who like their horror light and their emotions heavy.
Elegy for the Undead – Matthew Vesely
Expectation: A survival story about husbands navigating life before one of them turns into a zombie.
Reality: Come for the mediocre zombies but stay for the love story. The strongest aspects of this novella focus on the relationship of the main characters, not their circumstances.
Yes, Daddy – Jonathan Parks-Ramage
Expectation: A queer #MeToo revenge thriller rooted in the worlds of BDSM, wealth and privilege.
Reality: B-movie sensibilities that feel incoherent and for shock value pivot to an engrossing exploration of repercussions from religious and sexual trauma.
Pageboy – Elliot Page
Readers should know this is as much a cautionary tale about Hollywood as it is about not living an authentic life. Sure, there’s celebrity gossip — the juiciest details of which have already been reported in the press — but that’s not why people should read this. Instead, read it to celebrate Page’s courage.
A Single Man – Christopher Isherwood
Expectation: A queer classic focused on a middle aged man trying to find connection with one of his students.
Reality: The day-in-the-life structure is as tedious as it is engrossing, but this rightly deserves to be in the canon of exceptional queer literature.
Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic – Alison Bechdel
Alison Bechdel’s seminal graphic memoir about coming out and family secrets has been banned in libraries because of its nudity and depictions of consensual sex, but it is an important deconstruction about the ripple effect of code-switching and life in the closet.
The People Who Report More Stress – Alejandro Varela
Expectation: Rich social commentary about urban, middle-aged and non-white queer life.
Reality: Uneven and heavy handed, the collection felt rushed and lazy.