Reviews with content warning for Vomit - Golden Boy

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.

Content Warnings

eliasiexil's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

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danielle2121's review against another edition

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challenging emotional hopeful informative sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

*Re-read - 2022*
This is still such an important book, and truly heart wrenching the whole way through.
I must say there are a few things like views and opinions that may be considered a little out-dated for 2022 when it comes to gender identity, but for the most part everything holds up and still has such important messages at heart.

A wonder of a book.

*First read - 2017*
This book is so god damned important.
I wholeheartedly believe that EVERYONE in the whole world should read it.

This is the first time I've found myself unable to write a review for a book I've read, but truthfully, I'm completely lost for words.

Wow...

Content Warnings

delilahreads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

Diverse cast of characters? Yes

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noravercamer's review against another edition

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emotional sad

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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lilacvictim's review against another edition

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Pausa. Muito pesado e com gatilhos para o momento que estou vivendo

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