Reviews

Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis

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hhwalker425's review against another edition

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emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

icanreadish's review against another edition

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slow-paced

2.5

I hate every single character in this book, but I like that they're messy and overdramatic. A lot of them read like very real, very painful depictions of yuppy, white self-flagellating lesbians in desperate need of hobbies. And that can be fun! It can! It can be fun and awful and a blast to read!

I might've enjoyed this book more if the narrative wasn't such a slog to get through. Cutting at least 40% of this book - made up mostly of Sasha's whining, monologuing about pop culture, diatribes on who's fucking or not, how much Sasha hates Jesse or other-femme Darcy - would've made for a much better read. There isn't a plot, so I really don't see why it had to be so long (And yes - I know it's only like 312 pages but it FEELS SO LONG) I do think there's a difference between your characters being insufferable and your book being insufferable.

Picked this up as a 30 year old lesbian thinking it'd check my boxes of a gay satire but instead I just felt bored and annoyed. It's as performative as it's characters, and equally as unremarkable while pretending it's something revolutionary because Gay.

wollstonecrafty's review against another edition

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Dykette offers a particular vision of the 20something urban dyke milieu that you'll only be keyed into if you live in Brooklyn or went to a ritzy women's college, as well as a semi successful mediation on self-sabotage in relationships. It's probably 2023's Detransition, Baby, but, crucially, lacks the multiple POVs that allows each of Torrey Peters' characters to justify themselves in turn. Being limited to Sasha's perspective turns the reading experience into a long slog of mediating on how terrible all of these people are to each other, with no relief of their own internal monologues (except once when you get Vivienne the pug's perspective, oddly). It does deliver on being a "weird" (read: non appealing to straight people) book where so many fail. & I'll absolutely be sending snippets of it to my bff from college to laugh about how annoying our culture is!

ajudeholbert87's review against another edition

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2.0

Love supporting queer authors and/or books with queer characters, but this book was bizarre AF. I couldn’t even tell you what it was about.

aleatorizzy's review against another edition

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4.5

I will say first the 4.5 is literally just because Sasha exclusively refers to her vagina/vulva during the sex sense or just generally as "kittycat". I thought it was a joke at first and then it wasn't a joke.

I read this via audiobook and I think that really made the experience; the internal, analytical, Iowa style point of view worked well as something spoken and the stress on certain words or phrases was very conversational. I feel if I read this in print I would get very tired or turned about by Sasha's self-dissections. The entire book is Dyke Drama to the MAX and hearing it via audio was like discovering bits of gossip. I actually burst out laughing at certain points, like when they discuss Lou's resin cutting board business or the lesbian beach volleyball tournament on fire island or getting cancelled on twitter for? femmephobia? biphobia? both actually!

So on the nose it was almost painful: obliquely wealthy, lesbian-sexy and fucking crazy. There was so much packed into this book and so much deeply wrong with all of these people and it felt so familiar and yet so hilariously like discovery. I think any young dyke will see some of themselves or their social circles in this book, and hopefully leave it thinking "wow, we're fucking crazy but at least its a few steps shy of XYZ". Also the first book I've read with a he/him butch character for real and I want more of that.

salemnities's review against another edition

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emotional funny tense slow-paced

Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

Really enjoyed reading butch characters that were clearly written with love and respect of butches. Loved the gender moments (Jesse being he and she ruled) and the high femme antics.

Such messy people doing ridiculous things and I enjoyed it immensely.