Take a photo of a barcode or cover
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts
Moderate: Animal death
dark
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ah, this book is complicated for me! The magical realism mixed with sex and love addiction was beautiful. Addiction can make a narrator unreliable, in the sense that what they experience is 100% true to them, but perhaps not objectively factual. I think that the magical realism really enhanced this. This author is also fantastic about being so real with her characters. She explores the depth of humanity, even if it isn't pretty. It was an enticing read, and I finished it quite quickly. Much of my copy is highlighted because of the number of lines that deeply resonated with me. I also believe that the merman she encounters was just a hallucination of her addiction-rattled mind, but this was never confirmed, which I like.
I had a hard time with the animal abuse, though. I know it was used as a way to highlight just how consuming her addiction was - addiction isn't pretty or neat or simple, and it makes people do things they would normally never. This also helped validate a statement that was presented early in the book: that sex and love addiction harms not just ourselves. I think the death of a dog helped show just how true this is. I don't think it was wrong to include in the book! I just didn't like reading it. But, to drive the themes and messages home, she needed to make the reader very uncomfortable, and she sure did accomplish it...
I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I do think it's a well-told story.
I had a hard time with the animal abuse, though. I know it was used as a way to highlight just how consuming her addiction was - addiction isn't pretty or neat or simple, and it makes people do things they would normally never. This also helped validate a statement that was presented early in the book: that sex and love addiction harms not just ourselves. I think the death of a dog helped show just how true this is. I don't think it was wrong to include in the book! I just didn't like reading it. But, to drive the themes and messages home, she needed to make the reader very uncomfortable, and she sure did accomplish it...
I wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but I do think it's a well-told story.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I have a love/hate reaction to this book. I've not come across another book that better deals with the weird feelings around suicide, desire and the strange ties that bind us.
However, Lucy is also the worst. She is genuinely horrible and only gets glimpses of being fully formed. Perhaps this is the point, but even so she is not as interesting as other flawed narrators. (I will willingly go the rest of my lifetime not to hear her internal monologt and to never hear the word "pussy" again.) Even when clearly the sex was supposed to be sexy it was not.
I'm summary, repulsed by the story, attracted to the messages.
However, Lucy is also the worst. She is genuinely horrible and only gets glimpses of being fully formed. Perhaps this is the point, but even so she is not as interesting as other flawed narrators. (I will willingly go the rest of my lifetime not to hear her internal monologt and to never hear the word "pussy" again.) Even when clearly the sex was supposed to be sexy it was not.
I'm summary, repulsed by the story, attracted to the messages.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Addiction, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Medical content
Minor: Blood, Death of parent
reflective
medium-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
A cautionary tale about comp het
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
i basically hate read this so I could talk about it in my book club. there were some good themes that could have really been explored. if the author had skillfully and adequately dived into some of these themes, maybe I would have looked past the rest but everything was trying too hard to be deep without any actual depth or dimension. also the fmc is the so incredibly, unbelievably unlikeable.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
challenging
dark
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I would say for literally 99% of this book I was like maybe I hate this, but the author pulls everything together in a really impactful way. this book is insane and dark but ultimately is a pretty powerful meditation on self destruction
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Animal cruelty
I wanted a silly, weird, chaotic book, but the constant self-absorption and self-destruction was TOO MUCH. The "premise" is barely even a sub-plot to Lucy constantly getting in her own way. Lucy spends her life trying to get over her problems by getting under them, and it's tiresome to listen to because all other details about her pale in comparison. I get that she's meant to be insufferable, but I didn't think it would be the core of the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Violence, Excrement
Minor: Self harm, Suicidal thoughts
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit
Moderate: Suicide attempt
Minor: Abortion