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3.59 AVERAGE
3.59 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
What an interesting story! Raizl is a woman caught between two worlds: her Orthodox Jewish community and the porn she finds herself addicted to watching. She’s been given access to a computer in order to complete her studies in accounting so that she can help support her brothers’ education. Raizl wants to meet someone to spend her life with in earnest, but she’s just so distracted by the titillating life happening on the screen of her computer. This is a book that asks the question: how can we reconcile the very different parts of ourselves that are seemingly in opposition with one another? This is a book about communities and individualism woven together in a both funny and poignant narrative. Thank you to Netgalley and to Atria Books for the advanced review copy. Want to learn more? Listen to episode 81 of my book recommendation podcast, Books Are My People.
In der ersten Hälfte fand ich es sehr lustig und stilistisch elegant, aber ich habe mir Sorgen gemacht, dass das schon wieder so ein Fremde-Kultur-als-Fototapete-Buch sein könnte. Dann kommt ein etwas unentschlossener Mittelteil (was vielleicht Absicht ist, denn es geht auch inhaltlich um Unentschlossenheit) und dann ein überraschender Schluss, der meinen Fototapetenverdacht gelindert hat. Nebenbei lernte ich das schöne Wort seichelphone (und viele andere).
emotional
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Shmutz has the most intruiging blurb I've read recently and I had no idea what the story would be like beforehand. It was surprisingly compelling and not as smutty as I expected but an interesting story non the less
The brilliant premise of this book — a Hasidic teenager who’s barely allowed to access the internet becomes addicted to pornography— is matched by the frenetic, genuinely can’t put it down nature of the writing. This book is obviously about coming to terms with one’s sexuality amid religion, but it’s also about the merits of therapy and why people choose to stay in supposedly “bad” situations, it’s about how sex exists in the human mind even absent from most media, it’s about desire, a little about queerness, about bravery and education and so many of the things you need to talk about if you want to say something smart and interesting about sex in the mind of a young woman.
I loved it. I tore through it in two days. The ending infuriates me, but I can handle it for the sake of all the many clever doors this book opens.
I loved it. I tore through it in two days. The ending infuriates me, but I can handle it for the sake of all the many clever doors this book opens.
I think this book is well written and I was intrigued enough to want to finish it but I don’t think I really “got it.” I just don’t know how I feel about how it portrayed Raizl or really the ending to her story I guess. Like I get that it’s my own cultural bias that wanted her to break out of her community but at the same time I am deeply concerned by anyone marrying someone they’ve only met twice. But also I don’t want to impose my idea of what agency is onto her?! But then again she shouldn’t marry a complete stranger! I’m perplexed.