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gabs93's review against another edition
emotional
informative
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Vomit
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Suicidal thoughts, Abortion, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
marta_v's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
3.75
✨Ha sido un libro que me ha costado bastante leer. Lo comencé hace años, y ahora que lo he retomado, he tenido que empezar desde el principio ya que no me acordaba de mucho.
✨Es un libro duro, en el que ya desde el principio se tratan temas tales comoviolaciones u operaciones indeseadas.
✨A pesar de que el estilo de escritura por momentos se hacía raro, la historia ha sido lo suficientemente atractiva como para seguir leyendo. Hay muchos puntos de vista, y cada uno está más o menos adaptado al personaje que está hablando (no es lo mismo un capítulo de Max que uno de Danny).
✨Un punto a su favor es que también habla de la intersexualidad desde el punto académico/médico, y de cómo todavía es por un lado, un tema tabú y que se trata como una enfermedad, y por otro, la poca información sobre el tema que existe (que hace que los profesionales de la medicina se comporten como si estuviesen estudiando especímenes en vez de seres humanos).
✨Es un libro duro, en el que ya desde el principio se tratan temas tales como
✨A pesar de que el estilo de escritura por momentos se hacía raro, la historia ha sido lo suficientemente atractiva como para seguir leyendo. Hay muchos puntos de vista, y cada uno está más o menos adaptado al personaje que está hablando (no es lo mismo un capítulo de Max que uno de Danny).
✨Un punto a su favor es que también habla de la intersexualidad desde el punto académico/médico, y de cómo todavía es por un lado, un tema tabú y que se trata como una enfermedad, y por otro, la poca información sobre el tema que existe (que hace que los profesionales de la medicina se comporten como si estuviesen estudiando especímenes en vez de seres humanos).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
ivulikkivulik's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Abortion
Moderate: Violence and Suicide attempt
glass123banan's review against another edition
emotional
informative
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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Rape, Sexual assault, Abortion, and Pregnancy
horsefamous's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Rape, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Outing
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Toxic friendship
majahultqvist's review against another edition
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Toxic friendship
queenfury's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
2.0
I'm conflicted in how I feel about this one. I went into it expecting a powerful, painful but necessary read. But after a while, it seems like it turned into trauma porn. Absolutely nothing goes Max's way, and he is stripped of all autonomy in every decision in his life, both due to being "a pushover" who doesn't want to rock his already fragile family and as a "scientific interest." At first, I recognized this as a reflection of his intersexuality and how it didn't feel like it belonged to him, but even after the characters went, "Gee, maybe we should let Max have control of his own body," after his mother tells the surgeons to proceed with an abortion after Max withdraws his consent, his choices in not wanting to be around his mother anymore and not reporting his rapist to the police or his parents are taken away from him yet again.
I also found the writing itself to be quite bad. The POV shifts are frequent and often unnecessary. Aside from the literal child narrator, who is overly intelligent for his age due to autism (which is never remarked upon by any character), each character has the same narrative voice with almost no distinguishing features. The characters besides Max felt bland and two-dimensional.
Ultimately, I feel like this is a book with important themes that it misses the mark on.
I also found the writing itself to be quite bad. The POV shifts are frequent and often unnecessary. Aside from the literal child narrator, who is overly intelligent for his age due to autism (which is never remarked upon by any character), each character has the same narrative voice with almost no distinguishing features. The characters besides Max felt bland and two-dimensional.
Ultimately, I feel like this is a book with important themes that it misses the mark on.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Abortion, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, and Dysphoria
Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Abandonment
katymitchell's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
mxbenjaminrose's review against another edition
3.0
It's important to have good stories like this featuring characters like these. I applaud Tarttelin for creating a story that is very human, but challenging. I liked a lot of things about this book. Archie was an especially endearing character, as was Daniel.
However, I just can't give it too much praise because the heavy subject matter is not handled gracefully, in my opinion. [SPOILER]: The very. first. chapter. is a rape scene. Not an implied scene, either - it's a detailed and explicit account. I'm not against the purposeful use of such heavy scenes, but Tarttelin just drops us into that scene without any build-up or prior attachment to the characters. Every appearance by Hunter in the story is abrupt and makes it hard to follow the story at a reasonable pace.
Maybe I just missed something; like I said, I could see a lot of good here. But the way the subject matter was handled seemed a little careless and caused the story to take some major ups and downs. That said, please keep writing diverse and unique characters like Max.
However, I just can't give it too much praise because the heavy subject matter is not handled gracefully, in my opinion. [SPOILER]: The very. first. chapter. is a rape scene. Not an implied scene, either - it's a detailed and explicit account. I'm not against the purposeful use of such heavy scenes, but Tarttelin just drops us into that scene without any build-up or prior attachment to the characters. Every appearance by Hunter in the story is abrupt and makes it hard to follow the story at a reasonable pace.
Maybe I just missed something; like I said, I could see a lot of good here. But the way the subject matter was handled seemed a little careless and caused the story to take some major ups and downs. That said, please keep writing diverse and unique characters like Max.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape and Sexual assault
serendipitysbooks's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
Golden Boy is a novel exploring a subject I don’t think I’ve read about before - that of being intersex. It centres on Max, a 15yo who seems to have it all. Max is sporty, good looking, does well in school, has a good group of friends and comes from a loving well-off family. Except Max has a secret. He’s intersex, was born with both male and female genitalia and has never had any surgical “correction”. It’s a topic his family never really talks about - his younger brother doesn’t know - that is until a traumatic event changes everything for Max and his family. Max’s life seems to spiral out of control for a while until, thankfully, he gets the help he needs and is able to begin making decisions that are right for him about how to handle issues surrounding his gender.
I thought the depiction of sexual assault was very well done - taking the reader into Max’s head so we could experience all his emotions. It made the event incredibly real without being explicitly graphic. I also liked the intersex positive tone of the book. While Max’s mother was in favour of surgical interventions if only to make life easier for Max, his father had always opposed it believing that Max was perfect as he was. They didn’t get every parenting decision right (obviously they should have communicated a lot more with Max, especially as he got older)and they weren’t always on the same page but their hearts were in the right place. Max himself seemed generally happy with his body, but understandably worried about the reaction of others and how being intersex would impact him as he got older. A girlfriend was also positive and accepting, although initially overwhelmed. Sadly this won’t be the reality for every intersex teen but it is nice to have some literature offering positive potentials.
My one main criticism was that I felt the book was a little long and that there was a little too much teenage angst. It was perfectly understandable given the plot. But I don’t think anything would have been lost had some material been trimmed a little.
All in all I felt this book did a good job of highlighting some of the issues around being intersex, and did so in an intersex positive way.
I thought the depiction of sexual assault was very well done - taking the reader into Max’s head so we could experience all his emotions. It made the event incredibly real without being explicitly graphic. I also liked the intersex positive tone of the book. While Max’s mother was in favour of surgical interventions if only to make life easier for Max, his father had always opposed it believing that Max was perfect as he was. They didn’t get every parenting decision right (obviously they should have communicated a lot more with Max, especially as he got older)and they weren’t always on the same page but their hearts were in the right place. Max himself seemed generally happy with his body, but understandably worried about the reaction of others and how being intersex would impact him as he got older. A girlfriend was also positive and accepting, although initially overwhelmed. Sadly this won’t be the reality for every intersex teen but it is nice to have some literature offering positive potentials.
My one main criticism was that I felt the book was a little long and that there was a little too much teenage angst. It was perfectly understandable given the plot. But I don’t think anything would have been lost had some material been trimmed a little.
All in all I felt this book did a good job of highlighting some of the issues around being intersex, and did so in an intersex positive way.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Transphobia, and Suicide attempt