Haven’t been here in a minute. This is the first nonschool book I’ve finished in the year. Goodness this was a rough book.
Tw: physical abuse, drug abuse, mental abuse, self harm, pedophilia, rape
An overall review that I can’t promise will be coherent/will probably be in bullet points:
-the writing style is very eloquent
-the relationship between Jude and Willem/Jude and Harold is very tender
-I love the fact that it was an account of somebody’s life despite no real plot
-this is NOT a 21st century gay romance it is literally not good LGBT rep. Most of the gay men are abusers/pedophiles or total jackasses
-I don’t like the way JB’s character was handled. I understand there are no perfect characters but he barely had any redeeming qualities and kinda treated Jude like crap especially
-I also wanted Jude to be treated better at certain points. Not in the sense where his suffering was nonexistent but where he actually has longer moments of release
-while I completely understand why the author chose to include all these tragedies into one book—anyone is capable of dealing with multiple traumas—this book is undeniably trauma porn. If you are a person whose experienced said things I do not recommend it