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emzireads's review
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
sad
fast-paced
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Infidelity, Gore, and Alcohol
oliverigotti's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
this was recommended after i read “everyone in this room will someday be dead.”
pretty good, but the characters felt a little off to me, i don’t know what it was. i feel like they just got in their own ways a bit too much, if that’s even a valid criticism. this book did accurately describe how terrible florida is.
huge word of warning, this book is super gory, not for those with weak stomachs
pretty good, but the characters felt a little off to me, i don’t know what it was. i feel like they just got in their own ways a bit too much, if that’s even a valid criticism. this book did accurately describe how terrible florida is.
huge word of warning, this book is super gory, not for those with weak stomachs
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Death of parent, Gore, Animal death, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Sexual content
ecn's review
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
Nothing about this story was resolved and not in a fun way. So much and so little happened that it dragged on. Easily could have been half the length. I wanted to know SO much more about every character and we were given nothing. I felt like i was a therapist sitting with a client trying to help them organize their stories and getting nowhere. The flashbacks were disjointed and only added to the trauma and grief that ran through everything but never fulling etching into to the main character’s personality, only explaining why she’s shut off.
The ending also seemed extremely abrupt. Too much was trying to be resolved in a matter of DAYS and the characters glossed over so much and so much was implied that it seemed impossible and unrealistic for them to be how things would unfold.
This book had so much promise but ended up falling so flat. I wanted more for and of every character but wasn’t given a fraction (felt very indicative of how they were treated I’m sure - maybe it’s stylistic).
The ending also seemed extremely abrupt. Too much was trying to be resolved in a matter of DAYS and the characters glossed over so much and so much was implied that it seemed impossible and unrealistic for them to be how things would unfold.
This book had so much promise but ended up falling so flat. I wanted more for and of every character but wasn’t given a fraction (felt very indicative of how they were treated I’m sure - maybe it’s stylistic).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Injury/Injury detail, Gore, Blood, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Cancer, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Homophobia, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Death, and Alcohol
ghulsona's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I really did like this read, but my goodness, is this book nasty . . . the descriptions are so visceral and gross, and I know that was kind of the point, but it's honestly kind of nauseating at times sorry aslkdjaslkdj
Also, I think the buildup to the resolution was excellent and really good, but the way the resolution was actually executed felt kind of rushed and did not feel like it was earned (even though it should have!), so I was a bit bummed out from that.
Also, I think the buildup to the resolution was excellent and really good, but the way the resolution was actually executed felt kind of rushed and did not feel like it was earned (even though it should have!), so I was a bit bummed out from that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Death of parent, Suicide, and Gore
Moderate: Alcohol, Sexual content, and Blood
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, and Pregnancy
hannakutlu's review against another edition
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, Suicide, Animal death, Blood, Cancer, and Gore
kyrad4983's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Suicide
Moderate: Alcohol and Alcoholism
Minor: Vomit
As many other reviews have mentioned - this book is not for the faint of heart. I felt nauseated, dreadful, disgusted - while the taxidermy scenes were difficult to stomach at times it was the raw chicken cooking scenes that broke me. I wanted to scream “WASH YOUR FUCKING HANDS OH MY GOD” Babes - everyone in this narrative is getting salmonella. The text oozes with grime, artfully mirroring the nasty coils of grief entangling this family. However, in the book’s attempts to raise the stakes on the gross, it runs out of steam handling the implications of said actions.kinomatica's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Primarily well-written descriptions of creating taxidermy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, Suicide, Toxic friendship, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Pedophilia, Outing, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Gore, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, Death, Chronic illness, Blood, Alcoholism, and Alcohol
Moderate: Cancer
himboluvr's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
lighthearted
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? Yes
5.0
fucking funny dark and made me cry exactly what i needed and i didn’t know it
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Cancer, Death of parent, Death, Drug use, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Toxic relationship
kry_yang's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"We were collectors, dismantlers, and artisans. We pierced together life from the remnants of death. Animals that might have weathered into nothing got to live on indefinitely through out care. Our heart was in the cure of a well-rendered lip smoothed over painted teeth."
I've been sitting here for a hot second, trying to formulate my thoughts on this book.
I knew of Kristen Arnett from her short stories, and I was really drawn to the flamingo on the cover of this novel, so I thought, hey why not give this book a try.
Going into this novel with absolutely no idea what to expect, the whole *vibe* of this book really shook me to the core. I honestly love reading messy, gore-y, beautifully-horrific prose, and this book just gave me so much of that. This isn't an easy read (also lots of NSFW warnings for the graphic sex scenes)--there's so much deeply disturbing, gag-inducing imagery about cutting, ripping, bleeding, burning, and anything else "gross" that you can possibly imagine.
But somehow all of that disgusting imagery was... so beautiful. There's not a lot that *happens* per se in the book--it's one of those stories where not a lot happens, but the characters meditate a lot on their past/future--yet for some reason, I felt incredibly drawn towards this book. Once I got with the whole "taxidermy as a metaphor for everything that's going on in the rest of the story" vibe, I enjoyed this book immensely, and finished it quite quickly. Something about Arnett's style drew me in, and kept me hooked the entire time.
Mostly Dead Things is about grief, sex, family, and loss, packaged in lyrical descriptions of the strange and disturbing. A slow-paced read, but one that breaks your heart, makes you gag, and leaves you feeling like you just traveled to the swamps of Florida and back. Would not recommend this book to the faint of heart, but if you want to immerse yourself in a bizarre world for a couple hours, then you would love (and hate) this novel.
What an emotional rollercoaster. Maybe one of the strangest novels I've read, and I definitely have a love-hate relationship with the characters. But oh my god Arnett's style is absolutely to die for. This book scrambled my brain in a good way (I think?) so I'm not even sure how to give this a rating out of 5.
I've been sitting here for a hot second, trying to formulate my thoughts on this book.
I knew of Kristen Arnett from her short stories, and I was really drawn to the flamingo on the cover of this novel, so I thought, hey why not give this book a try.
Going into this novel with absolutely no idea what to expect, the whole *vibe* of this book really shook me to the core. I honestly love reading messy, gore-y, beautifully-horrific prose, and this book just gave me so much of that. This isn't an easy read (also lots of NSFW warnings for the graphic sex scenes)--there's so much deeply disturbing, gag-inducing imagery about cutting, ripping, bleeding, burning, and anything else "gross" that you can possibly imagine.
But somehow all of that disgusting imagery was... so beautiful. There's not a lot that *happens* per se in the book--it's one of those stories where not a lot happens, but the characters meditate a lot on their past/future--yet for some reason, I felt incredibly drawn towards this book. Once I got with the whole "taxidermy as a metaphor for everything that's going on in the rest of the story" vibe, I enjoyed this book immensely, and finished it quite quickly. Something about Arnett's style drew me in, and kept me hooked the entire time.
Mostly Dead Things is about grief, sex, family, and loss, packaged in lyrical descriptions of the strange and disturbing. A slow-paced read, but one that breaks your heart, makes you gag, and leaves you feeling like you just traveled to the swamps of Florida and back. Would not recommend this book to the faint of heart, but if you want to immerse yourself in a bizarre world for a couple hours, then you would love (and hate) this novel.
What an emotional rollercoaster. Maybe one of the strangest novels I've read, and I definitely have a love-hate relationship with the characters. But oh my god Arnett's style is absolutely to die for. This book scrambled my brain in a good way (I think?) so I'm not even sure how to give this a rating out of 5.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content, Gore, Animal cruelty, Blood, Death, and Grief
just_one_more_paige's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
“We spent so much time looking for pieces of ourselves in other people that we never realized they were busy searching for the same things in us.”
The cover of this book is so eye-catching! I’ve had it on my list for a while because of that, in a sort of backburner capacity, but I have to be honest and say I didn’t really know what it was about. Quite recently, Arnett published a second novel, With Teeth, that has been getting a fair amount of buzz and I figured maybe the time was ripe to finally pick this one up.
Everything changes the morning that Jessa-Lynn Morton walks into the workshop of her family's taxidermy shop and finds her father, dead by suicide, at his work bench...with a letter addressed to her sitting next to him. Per his instructions, Jessa-Lynn steps up and takes over the failing shop, trying to keep both it, and her family, from drowning. But it's tough, as her mother deals with her grief by creating increasingly more lewd art with the shop's taxidermied animals, her brother (Milo) mourns the wife (Brynn) that left him (the wife that is also the only woman Jessa-Lynn has ever loved), Brynn's children are left without consistent supervision, and Jessa-Lynn herself is falling into alcohol as a coping mechanism for the loss of the father she idolized, the woman she loved, and the general bottled up emotions and relationships she's allowed to stagnate.
Whoa. This book was messy. Like, purposefully, authentically, messy. Every single character is handling their grief in a very imperfect, very real, way. And reading it was both uncomfortable and also a bit cathartic. That actually goes not just for the grief they're experiencing, if I'm being honest. The story itself is told in a dual timeline way, unfolding both in the present (as things are falling apart), but also in the past, giving the reading the background on all the "origin stories" of these characters. So, we get to see how Jessa-Lynn and Brynn fall into a covert (but not as secret as they thought) physical relationship as high-schoolers, and the way that evolved to end in Brynn marrying Milo. We also watch how Jessa-Lynn and Milo's father, following some very stereotypical gender-role expectations, shows clear disappointment in Milo's lack of interest in taking up taxidermy, while leaning hard on Jessa-Lynn's interest in it to help him, but never being fully willing to train her as a full apprentice. His control issues and gender-lines rolled over too into his decision to end his life, the responsibility he (unfairly) saddled Jess-Lynn with, and the unorthodox and uncomfortably (for the rest of the family) sexual way that his wife deals with mourning him. In general, this book dove head first into the uglier sides of interpersonal relationships, outside the "normal" and into some really unconventional, almost excruciating (for this reader at least), interactions. And yet, these characters are all just humans, doing their best with what they've been handed. And in that way, Arnett provides some that literary magic that makes this super strange and pretty messed up set of lives and stories that are sort of lost in the cracks of life, into something worth reading about.
Other than the characters (because this is very much a character-development novel, as opposed to one with a heftier plot line), the one other major part of this novel that I would be remiss if I didn't mention, is the taxidermy piece. On its own, that would kind of be enough to add weirdness to any novel (in my opinion, anyways), but Arnett takes it one (or several) steps further. This aspect of the novel was pretty dark and weird. The hyper-focus on the gritty aspects of bodies, blood and skin and bone and fur, was explicit and intense. And the juxtaposition of those taxidermy details with sapphic attraction, was reminiscent of The Pisces, in it's strange and kind of off-putting, but also totally fascinating and philosophical, look at sex and sexuality. Honestly, I can't decide whether I loved or was repulsed by it, so I feel like at the very least it's a mark of good writing. And along these lines, in looking at the writing, it was just really well executed. The vibe of wistfulness and deep longing in the writing gave the book a sort of sepia-toned delivery, perfectly fit to the messiness (almost dirtiness) of the characters and their journeys that you somehow still felt for.
Overall, if I had to pick just a few words to describe this novel, I'd have to go with grotesque and unrequited. So basically, this book definitely won't be for everyone. And I think it requires being in the right headspace to really appreciate it. But at the same time, it's the type of book that, if you're at all in the mood for, will hit the spot like nothing else could. And you'll come out the side just as ready for new beginnings as these characters are.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gun violence, Suicide, and Animal death
Moderate: Sexual content