Reviews with content warning for Stalking - Pizza Girl

If I didn't know anything about this book at all, I'd be convinced it's a novelization of an indie film. I wanted to like this book more; it had the potential to explore so many areas of the human experience and raised so many questions, but as I approached the last page with nothing much to latch on, I grew disappointed. I do, however, loved the deadpan humor and the unpredictability of the story.

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ryanlee's review against another edition

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dark funny sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book is beautifully written and compulsively readable. Plus, I really felt Jane’s malaise and aimlessness and grief, and I admire the author’s ability to convey Jane’s complicated, mixed-up desires for Jenny. There’s so much to love about this book! I get all the rave reviews.

With that said, I don’t feel like book has a resolution, and it leaves readers dangling. I don’t mean that the characters’ lives have to be neat and clean, their futures rosy with possibility. But when a dark and sudden twist

(a gun, with all the Chekovian implications that has)

is introduced late in the third act, it ratchets up the stakes and deepens the book’s darkness considerably. As I reader, I needed more than a short epilogue to bring me down from that episode.

If you’re in for a dark read—darker even than the premise of a pregnant, fledgling alcoholic teenager who’s grieving the death of her alcoholic father and becomes a stalker—I highly recommend it. The book is funny, and despite the content, it does feel “light” in some ways, at least until the end. But I’ve seen it described as fun and light-hearted and a romp—and those, it certainly is not.

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cortnereads's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book took me on a wild ride I didn't know that I needed and I loved every minute of it.

"Pizza girl" is pregnant and unhappy. She finds herself falling for a customer and it gets out of hand. Her mom and boyfriend, Billy, worry about her every night. She sneaks off into her dead Dad's shed to drink. She doesn't have any friends. She seemingly hates her life until Jenny.

"..if you were pushed off a cliff, you'd grab hold of anything resembling safety."

I read this in three days and if it wouldn't have been for responsibilities, I would have devoured this in one sitting. Read this book.

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