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bxlbooks91's review against another edition
3.0
3,5* Not totally in love with the prose, but some parts were beautiful and the ending really was very compelling.
laura_blackmore's review against another edition
3.0
Good. Except for the dude reading it. Almost ruined it for me. But I kept on and got through it.
orestesfasting's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
3.0
Perhaps there is more to be said for this book being one of the first coming out novels, but I’ve read enough similar that it really hasn’t left much of a trace in my memory. Allegedly iconic in the UK, I can’t help but feel that Vidal’s The City and the Pillar does the same a million times better. There is no real sense of pathos, just that this is a homosexual novel, which isn’t enough when there are now so many.
holmesstorybooks's review against another edition
3.5
a breeze to read but read a bit like young adult (which makes sense) but i don't love YA so. <3
sirlancereads's review against another edition
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
A beautiful portrait of what it was like to grow up gay in the 1950s and his own struggles with his sexuality and particularly the lengths in which the narrarator will go to conceal or even attempt to undo his own homosexuality.
mandraluhana's review against another edition
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
lestada's review against another edition
4.0
“I felt as though I were a dancer not up to his role but inspired by the expectation everywhere in the darkness around me. Or I felt like someone in history, a queen on her way to the scaffold determined to suppress her usual quips, to give the spectators the high deeds they wanted to see.”
Here lies the narrator at his young age, imbibed by his own curiosity, wanting to see the length of his desire, to witness how much would this desire dictate his journey. The controversy and the blatant scenes of immorality splattered this book, and yet there’s no way for me to put this down. Edmund White, I hear you — loud and clear.
Here lies the narrator at his young age, imbibed by his own curiosity, wanting to see the length of his desire, to witness how much would this desire dictate his journey. The controversy and the blatant scenes of immorality splattered this book, and yet there’s no way for me to put this down. Edmund White, I hear you — loud and clear.