Reviews

Sorry to Disrupt the Peace by Patrick Cottrell

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filmnoirz's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

i really felt for her as i too am depressed, weird, and a fan of fiona apple. however this just didn’t work for me

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erincampbell87's review against another edition

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4.0

This book is quiet, sad and bleak in a way that feels very much like inhabiting the confused, scattered mind of someone deep in the throes of a conflicted grief.

Helen is a memorable narrator like no other whose eccentricities feel keenly observed and believable rather than manufactured for the purpose of creating throwaway quirky plot points. She's what makes this one of the standout books I've read this year.

The author consistently makes stylistic choices to grant the everyday pain of life with an absurd dark humor. In this way, the journey Helen takes through her grief feels natural - the way our brains end up working and processing the traumas we are forced to live with. The story succeeds because its author makes no judgments. At the end, it has the stylistic effect of disturbing the peace - bringing to life the way we all occasionally feel inserted into our own lives through Helen's interactions with the world. As Helen bumbles through her own life, she forces us to reflect on what it is that wills us to make the decision to stay alive, and contemplate whether that choice can possibly be as mundane as she comes to conclude it is.

meghan111's review against another edition

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3.0

An affecting novel with an oddball & unique narrator. Helen Moran is 32, living in New York and working as a counselor for troubled youth, wearing clothes she finds discarded on the street. Korean born, she hasn't seen her white, Midwestern adopted parents in five years. Helen is weird, troubled, isolated, and under investigation at her job for her unorthodox ways of helping the troubled youth, involving marijuana and 24 hour cell phone availability. When she gets a phone call that her adopted brother has committed suicide, she decides to travel back to her childhood home to investigate. Her adopted parents seem surprised to see her, and she starts trying to figure out the cause of her brother's suicide. By the end, this is a moving story of the suicide of a family member, sincere, complex, and sad. Along the way, Helen is obviously deeply eccentric and has an interior world unfamiliar to most people - sometimes this is funny, sometimes it makes you question the narrator's reliability.

audaciaray's review against another edition

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5.0

Funniest book I've read about suicide and the abyss.

piripiw's review against another edition

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challenging funny

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

The pace is hectic but also nothing happens. It's a hell of a ride. I loved it. The narrator is unlike any other I've met. Had some of those "oh! So you're allowed to write about this!" moments

Content Warnings

jwilly19's review against another edition

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3.0

I admire what Cottrell accomplished with this book -- the voice is original and the protagonist has this dry, absurd and disoriented tone that seems appropriate for a book where the main character is trying to make sense of her brother's suicide. But I just got tired of reading it after a while -- it wasn't a narrator that I wanted to hear more from. I mostly just felt sorry for her; and while the dry humor is amusing at first, it becomes tiresome to watch the character spinning her wheels after a while. But Cottrell is a promising writer.