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alexiswiththefreckles's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-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
4.25
I’m pretty sure I felt unsettled the entire time I read this book, which maybe was the goal? The unreliable narration intermixed with other character’s perspectives really had me thinking - what on earth is happening? - the entire time. I haven’t read a lot of books where I do not like the main narrator at all but still enjoyed the book, so I take that as a testament to Arnett’s excellent writing and storytelling.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, and Toxic relationship
angel_hardy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Vomit, Pregnancy, Panic attacks/disorders, Miscarriage, Lesbophobia, Kidnapping, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Child death, Child abuse, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Addiction, Abandonment, Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, Grief, Gaslighting, and Emotional abuse
toofondofbooks_'s review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-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
4.0
Sammie Lucas is a lesbian mother who, on the surface, has the perfect queer family unit. A beautiful home, a wife she loves, Monika, and their son, Samson. Everything is perfect, except...Monika isn't around a whole lot, and if she's honest, she's afraid of her own son...
This book had me by the throat from the first sentence and then it wouldn't let me go for the next five days. It didn't matter what I was doing, I wanted to pick this up and shut out the world. Don't get me wrong, it's not a riveting tale or anything. It's not plot driven at all, it's mainly a character study of Sammie and how she's clearly very troubled and was never meant to be a mother. I hated her with every fiber of my being. I hated her on every page, every sentence. She was at best, whiny, and at worst, violent. It was crazy how unreliable of a narrator she was. She also struck me as someone who would go to a Planned Parenthood protest on the weekend, but I'm not going to tell you why.
I was so fascinated by this terrible character and her terrible interactions with her son and wife, fascinated by her dealing with religious trauma, her hypocrisy, her complete inability to connect with her son and then complaining about how he was suuuuch a problem. It was insane. The behavior of everyone in this book is absolutely unhinged, but Sammie takes the cake.
It's safe to say this book had my attention, but that being said, the writing wasn't really remarkable and the references to teeth (other people's teeth, what Sammie's teeth were doing, biting, etc) seemed a bit shoe-horned in and obvious at times. I also thought I was going to combust at times at how ableist the treatment of Samson as a character was. You can chalk that up to his parents being bad people - and they are, but it was just too much for me and it made me *too* angry.
Anyway I know that I'm probably going to read a lot of GR reviews calling this bad lesbian rep, but sometimes even queer people are bad and unhinged, and I think it's important to write about that. Argue with the wall. Overall, a really intriguing read.
I forgot to mention that there are little vignettes at the end of every chapter that show contrast between how Sammie sees certain situations happening in a chapter vs. what an outsider experiences and I think they were genuinely my favorite part of the book and I can't believe I didn't mention this somewhere above. Oops! Here it is.
This book had me by the throat from the first sentence and then it wouldn't let me go for the next five days. It didn't matter what I was doing, I wanted to pick this up and shut out the world. Don't get me wrong, it's not a riveting tale or anything. It's not plot driven at all, it's mainly a character study of Sammie and how she's clearly very troubled and was never meant to be a mother. I hated her with every fiber of my being. I hated her on every page, every sentence. She was at best, whiny, and at worst, violent. It was crazy how unreliable of a narrator she was. She also struck me as someone who would go to a Planned Parenthood protest on the weekend, but I'm not going to tell you why.
I was so fascinated by this terrible character and her terrible interactions with her son and wife, fascinated by her dealing with religious trauma, her hypocrisy, her complete inability to connect with her son and then complaining about how he was suuuuch a problem. It was insane. The behavior of everyone in this book is absolutely unhinged, but Sammie takes the cake.
It's safe to say this book had my attention, but that being said, the writing wasn't really remarkable and the references to teeth (other people's teeth, what Sammie's teeth were doing, biting, etc) seemed a bit shoe-horned in and obvious at times. I also thought I was going to combust at times at how ableist the treatment of Samson as a character was. You can chalk that up to his parents being bad people - and they are, but it was just too much for me and it made me *too* angry.
Anyway I know that I'm probably going to read a lot of GR reviews calling this bad lesbian rep, but sometimes even queer people are bad and unhinged, and I think it's important to write about that. Argue with the wall. Overall, a really intriguing read.
I forgot to mention that there are little vignettes at the end of every chapter that show contrast between how Sammie sees certain situations happening in a chapter vs. what an outsider experiences and I think they were genuinely my favorite part of the book and I can't believe I didn't mention this somewhere above. Oops! Here it is.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Animal cruelty, Alcoholism, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Homophobia, Infidelity, Lesbophobia, Body horror, Sexual content, Grief, Misogyny, Animal death, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Cursing, Child abuse, Child death, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail, Stalking, and Domestic abuse
Moderate: Miscarriage and Murder
Minor: Pedophilia and Rape
nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
medium-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
2.75
I’m just so confused as to what I just read. .. I made some notes halfway through reading this that I’ll post here:
White teeth
White teeth
I don’t like the cliches of queer life - might be the reality for the author though but I wish the book had taken the portrayal of queer beyond the stereotypes that are already out there…
The characters are super unlikeable which I understand is the point but I personally just get more excited to read a book with at least one character I like.
Also there are a Bunch of random events that never get mentioned again - attempted kidnapping, swimming lessons where sammie cheats on her wife, therapy and stalking the neighbor (okay most of these come back later in the book but like too late??)
The amount of times there is drunk driving blows my mind - is this normal to some people? I don’t understand it at all!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Miscarriage
Moderate: Body shaming, Fatphobia, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Toxic relationship
mosscovereddreams's review against another edition
lighthearted
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
3.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Blood, Alcoholism, Child death, and Child abuse
painausten314's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Cursing, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Violence, Sexual content, and Miscarriage
Minor: Homophobia and Vomit
stevie's review against another edition
dark
funny
sad
medium-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, and Toxic relationship
rileyharrell's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
fast-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
3.0
I don't know why everyone is raving over this book so much... This one felt and read just fine? That's how I would describe this book. Fine. I didn't particularly find anything I really liked about it but there wasn't one thing that I really disliked about it either. I think Arnett was trying to prove that queer parents go through all the tried and true struggles that any other heterosexual couple would go through, dealing with a difficult child and all.
One thing I can appreciate about this book, though, was the pathos that Arnett evokes for Sammie. Sure, she does some things that I don't necessarily agree with but overall you can really tell that she is trying to do her best. It definitely is hard, though, because there are a lot of red flags in the coping mechanisms and techniques she uses that indicate they may not be the best way to handle the situations.
One thing I can appreciate about this book, though, was the pathos that Arnett evokes for Sammie. Sure, she does some things that I don't necessarily agree with but overall you can really tell that she is trying to do her best. It definitely is hard, though, because there are a lot of red flags in the coping mechanisms and techniques she uses that indicate they may not be the best way to handle the situations.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship
richelleski's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-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
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol and Miscarriage
Minor: Domestic abuse
leah_alexandra's review against another edition
challenging
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I'm surprised I liked this as much as I did. This was a really well-crafted story. It was dark, and tense, and the tension never feels resolved, but it's clear that effect is purposeful.
On further reflection, I do think the book suffers a bit from under-development of the secondary characters, especially Samson.Based on the set-up and first part of the book, I expected it to go in a darker, kind of horror-esque direction, with Samson's odd behavior. But more and more I think his behavior was just being a kid who felt misunderstood, considering he evens out as a teen, and the second part of the book goes in a more typical direction of describing a woman's destructive tendencies.
On further reflection, I do think the book suffers a bit from under-development of the secondary characters, especially Samson.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Body shaming, Child abuse, Cursing, Kidnapping, Medical content, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Stalking, Toxic relationship, and Violence