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mccordian's review
5.0
A childhood wound is re-salted via USPS, so creative-writing-prof-on-the-no-tenure-fast-track Iris drops everything (but the package) to do some personal soul trampling. In Scapegoat, real life professor Beilin gives us both a passionate rant and an angry vaudeville act, all the while megaphoning from the text to her real life students that this is NOT how it’s done. And she really Does the splendid heck out of the Don’ts. Creator/creation and fact/fiction blur/burp into/out a sort of Journey to the End of the Dud Avocado… with (a real highlight) talking feet.
reginahafner_'s review
dark
emotional
fast-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
2.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, and Mental illness
nura_aga's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
maybekatiebird's review
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
alexjmack's review
4.0
Fucking brilliant. I’ll have to post a full review later but wow, I’ve been craving a book like this for a while. Thank you Caren Beilin.
toulouse757's review
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
Sucked
roseandisabella's review
5.0
Writing the trauma plot can be scary for two reasons: 1) Your audience will want to gobble up every last wound you have for their own. 2) They will judge your wounds not even worthy of a poke. This book (so long-awaited and adored!), gets at this. What do we owe the reader? Do they deserve to read the letters? I was honestly pretty surprised the letters were shared! I half expected a cruel and delightful refusal. But in opening up that window to the reader, Beilin invites scorn, especially through the lens of critics who want a trauma plot dripping in blood rather than Nazi Cow Milk.
"Oh, it was a little bit, you know, I got bored."
"I was worried that sharing it invites people to think, 'What's the problem?' And of course it wasn't that bad in some sort of comparative scheme or, I don't know, there's a lot of really bad traumas in families, but this was mine and it killed me. I guess I'm a little sensitive about how boring it turned out to be, it's just some dad ragging on a teenager or something."
From one Scapegoat to another, I loved it! The printing itself is gorgeous too, props to all at Dorothy.
"Oh, it was a little bit, you know, I got bored."
"I was worried that sharing it invites people to think, 'What's the problem?' And of course it wasn't that bad in some sort of comparative scheme or, I don't know, there's a lot of really bad traumas in families, but this was mine and it killed me. I guess I'm a little sensitive about how boring it turned out to be, it's just some dad ragging on a teenager or something."
From one Scapegoat to another, I loved it! The printing itself is gorgeous too, props to all at Dorothy.