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agathag's review against another edition
dark
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Child abuse, and Violence
hendrixpants's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Abandonment and Violence
Minor: Rape
aardwyrm's review
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
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? It's complicated
4.0
Stylized, surrealist weirdness makes excellent set-dressing for the relentlessly serious. Nothing about the novella makes anything like sense, but it's very pretty and at the same time gruesome, which is the best kind of pretty.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, and Violence
Minor: Animal death, Cancer, Chronic illness, Infertility, and Mental illness
honeyreads1066's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This was the strangest book I have read in my whole life and yet I loved every minute of it.
This book follows Tetley a girl shunned from her community for doing something that she thinks saved them all. You follow her through her life as she lives in garbagetown, a floating town of garbage in the middle of a world that is only sea. Only she believes that she is the most beloved girl in garbagetown.
So I don't know how to describe any of this outside of weird. The characters themselves were loveable in a way because they were complicated and you felt for them in this dead world.
The setting itself is something to mention. Valente describes the setting in such a way it all seems so clear in my head but I'm also sure that a lot of it is open to interpretation. I love how distinctly different each place was and how that impacted the story.
My only issue is that the plot seemed very here and there at times especially at the beginning of the book. Maybe it was because of how different the world is from ours and also that there are jumps in time but it did take me a moment to understand at the beginning.
Overall, it will take me a moment to fully actually realise what I've read but I recommend it because I did love it.
This book follows Tetley a girl shunned from her community for doing something that she thinks saved them all. You follow her through her life as she lives in garbagetown, a floating town of garbage in the middle of a world that is only sea. Only she believes that she is the most beloved girl in garbagetown.
So I don't know how to describe any of this outside of weird. The characters themselves were loveable in a way because they were complicated and you felt for them in this dead world.
The setting itself is something to mention. Valente describes the setting in such a way it all seems so clear in my head but I'm also sure that a lot of it is open to interpretation. I love how distinctly different each place was and how that impacted the story.
My only issue is that the plot seemed very here and there at times especially at the beginning of the book. Maybe it was because of how different the world is from ours and also that there are jumps in time but it did take me a moment to understand at the beginning.
Overall, it will take me a moment to fully actually realise what I've read but I recommend it because I did love it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
misty_muskrat's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
5.0
This might be my favorite book of the year! Don't read if you can't take many, MANY curse words.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Alcoholism, Violence, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and Emotional abuse
archaicgambit's review
dark
funny
medium-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
5.0
This book was incredible. I'm shocked by how lush the world was in such a short amount of time. The non-linear storytelling led to perfect reveals. Tetley is such a charming protagonist, and though the prose is very much Valente, and has a voice of it's own, as does Tetley.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence and Physical abuse
emusing's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Cursing
Moderate: Violence and Blood
Minor: Sexual content
fdallachy's review
adventurous
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
2.5
This was a pretty solidly middle of the road book for me. It kept me interested, but it's not especially memorable. It has the kind of broad-brush social satire about human wastefulness that makes it more tiresome than incisive, and the endless references to everyone pre-flood as 'Fuckwits' are irritating in a social-media-smug-self-righteous-everyone-but-me-is-an-idiot kind of way. For a few brief moments the author explores the idea that human nature is constant and that those who survive would fall into the same patterns of behaviour as their predecessors (although mostly in the afterword, which is a little late), but there's no real development or nuance to these ideas, so this ends up largely a 'told you so' novella which will mostly be read by people who already agree with its message.
The main character, Tetley, does develop but most of the others around her get very little time and it's very difficult to understand any of them well enough to actually like them. The most convincing relationship is between Tetley and a prototype Alexa-like smart device, which I suppose is perhaps intentional! Overall, although it seems like the author wants Tetley to be a positive, unshakable character who sees the joy in life no matter what happens, this ends up feeling like a cynical misanthropic story in which a misunderstood central character discovers that other humans are, at best, unreliable and, at worst, unforgivably selfish, and that you're better off talking to animals, plants, and half-finished AIs.
The main character, Tetley, does develop but most of the others around her get very little time and it's very difficult to understand any of them well enough to actually like them. The most convincing relationship is between Tetley and a prototype Alexa-like smart device, which I suppose is perhaps intentional! Overall, although it seems like the author wants Tetley to be a positive, unshakable character who sees the joy in life no matter what happens, this ends up feeling like a cynical misanthropic story in which a misunderstood central character discovers that other humans are, at best, unreliable and, at worst, unforgivably selfish, and that you're better off talking to animals, plants, and half-finished AIs.
Content Warnings
Minor: Sexual assault, Violence, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse
The main character can legally be abused by others in their community in any way short of murder. Although most of the descriptions are brief and vague, there are many potentially triggering comments throughout.readundancies's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
I'm at a bit of a loss for words to explain exactly how much I feel for this novella.
There were so many themes tackled from what it means to hope, to pharmaceutical usage, to the environment, to humanity's need to persist within it's own selfishness, etc.
Catherynne M. Valente has created a world borne out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with all of its wonderfully whimsical regions like Pill Hill and Electric City and Aluminimopolis and it made both the saving grace and last stand of humanity, with St. Oscar the Grouch as their patron. And I loved it. I wanted to see it in 3D, to feel the heat from the candles burning in Candle Hole, to see the wondrous plays on the barge that was Brighton Pier, to wander the gasoline gardens of Engine Row. The world-building was not poetic in its prose, but it was eye-catching and evocative and bluntly brilliant and I could've stayed within it's confines learning more about it as time past me by without a care in the world.
I still want to.
But the real delight of the story lies in it's narrator: Tetley Abednego. Tetley is the kind of character that is the embodiment of hope because she never gets down on herself when the going gets rough (and the going gets ROUGH for her, real rough). She was always herself, cheerful, honest to a fault - *always* to a fault - and underestimated and undervalued, constantly pushing on to the beat of her own drum, often to her own detriment (mostly to her own detriment) for the greater good. I simply adored her.
The story in both parts has two sort of timelines which culminate to an end that is neither awe-inspiring nor disappointing. It's just this wonderful little peek into a speculative future that is more reminiscent than meant to impart teachings.
My heart is so full of this tale and Tetley and I never really wanted to step out of it. Instead, I will just have to get a physical copy of this book and read it over and over again like I never left.
So I end this review with a reverent salute to the author:
Thank you, Madame Valente, for my instruction.
There were so many themes tackled from what it means to hope, to pharmaceutical usage, to the environment, to humanity's need to persist within it's own selfishness, etc.
Catherynne M. Valente has created a world borne out of the Great Pacific Garbage Patch with all of its wonderfully whimsical regions like Pill Hill and Electric City and Aluminimopolis and it made both the saving grace and last stand of humanity, with St. Oscar the Grouch as their patron. And I loved it. I wanted to see it in 3D, to feel the heat from the candles burning in Candle Hole, to see the wondrous plays on the barge that was Brighton Pier, to wander the gasoline gardens of Engine Row. The world-building was not poetic in its prose, but it was eye-catching and evocative and bluntly brilliant and I could've stayed within it's confines learning more about it as time past me by without a care in the world.
I still want to.
But the real delight of the story lies in it's narrator: Tetley Abednego. Tetley is the kind of character that is the embodiment of hope because she never gets down on herself when the going gets rough (and the going gets ROUGH for her, real rough). She was always herself, cheerful, honest to a fault - *always* to a fault - and underestimated and undervalued, constantly pushing on to the beat of her own drum, often to her own detriment (mostly to her own detriment) for the greater good. I simply adored her.
The story in both parts has two sort of timelines which culminate to an end that is neither awe-inspiring nor disappointing. It's just this wonderful little peek into a speculative future that is more reminiscent than meant to impart teachings.
My heart is so full of this tale and Tetley and I never really wanted to step out of it. Instead, I will just have to get a physical copy of this book and read it over and over again like I never left.
So I end this review with a reverent salute to the author:
Thank you, Madame Valente, for my instruction.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Physical abuse and Violence
jacquelynjoan's review
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Catherynne Valente may be my number one favorite author, however I do not like dystopias and I just read Parable of the Sower and saw news stories about climate change affecting ocean currents and so I did not exactly love this because it's too real. I am scared. The book had a light tone and the protagonist was adapting to the new world which was her only world and it's a funny, tongue-in-cheek short book about how we "f***wits" f***ed it all up, but humans are resilient and adaptable and will still find beauty and tell stories and fall in love no matter what.
Content Warnings
Minor: Physical abuse, Violence, and Fire/Fire injury