Tag: Sexual Assault

Books

Book 669: Are You Listening? – Tillie Walden

Geoff W

cover art for "are you listening" and amazon affiliate linkWhen I picked this up from the library, I had some preconceived notion that it would be more along the lines of Bloom than what it ended up being. I’m not sure why I thought this. They did often appear on Best (LGBT+) Graphic Novels of 2019 lists together, but that shouldn’t really have made me think they’d be as similar as I thought they would be.

I was drawn to the illustration style on the cover as the limited use of colors reminded me of Bloom and the illustration style reminded me of Alison Bechdel’s style in Fun Home (or maybe it’s just the glasses on Lou?). Walden’s story follows Bea as she’s running away from home, we’re not told why at the beginning and Lou, a distant family friend doesn’t ask any questions. A random cat shows up (Diamond) and then the story gets really weird, like magical realism weird. [SPOILERS after the link, including the recommendation.]

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Books

Book 639: The Music of What Happens – Bill Konigsberg

Geoff W

cover art for the music of what happensNo matter how many of these I read I’m always going to ask where these were when I was in high school. Kids these days don’t know how great they have it. I’m legit laughing at myself writing that, because I know how much better things were for me when I was in high school/college than it was just 5-10 years before that.

This is the third Konigsberg I’ve read and I feel like I should read The Porcupine of Truth and Honestly Ben just to complete the novels! I have enjoyed all three of them so it’s not like it’d be the most difficult thing in the world, but I do have a lot of books on my TBR list, so maybe I should wait a little longer. Spoilers to follow, so don’t read it if you don’t want to know any major plot points.

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Books

Book 576: Boy Erased – Garrard Conley

Geoff W

This was harder to read than I thought it would be. Not because of anything I’ve personally experienced, but because it kept hitting me over and over that what was happening in this book was not happening in the 60s, 70s, 80s or even 1990s.

It was happening in the mid-2000s, the same time I was coming to terms with my sexuality and learning about the wider LGBTQ+ world. It was also incredibly eerie how many of the thoughts Conley had mirrored thoughts I had myself and I did not grow up religious, just southern!

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Books, The Classics Club

Book 395: Tropic of Capricorn – Henry Miller

Geoff W

Miller, Henry - Tropic of CapricornI didn’t think it was possible, but I liked this one even less than Tropic of Cancer. Seriously, I was in no way a fan of this book. The amount of raunchy sleazy descriptions in Tropic of Capricorn, if possible out weight those in the first novel.

The only thing I can truly say I’m grateful for is that I got it off my shelf where it’s languished since the 2010 Boston Book Festival (it was the last one!). It also counts toward my Classics Club list so yay for that too!

I can’t even pretend it’s hard to say why I didn’t like this book, it really was just too much sex, misogyny, sexual assault and crass language. When you add in the stream-of-consciousness I’m surprised I even got through the book. It’s no wonder the book was banned in America (Wikipedia link) for 30 years. I don’t believe in book banning or censorship, but this really tested my limits.

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