Reviews with content warning for Child abuse - Vacuum in the Dark

Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Vacuum in the Dark by Jen Beagin

5 reviews

chelseyanderson's review against another edition

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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? Yes

4.5

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beanwa's review against another edition

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dark medium-paced

3.0

I really enjoyed Pretend I'm Dead, but this one was a miss for me. The story felt disjointed and random, I was disappointed that Mona's story didn't pick up from where we left her. All the lessons she learned in the first book did not carry over to this one - I was disappointed that Jesus and her dog got written out in the first few pages. It was like Mona had regressed and reset, I found her really unlikeable (which hadn't been the case w Pretend I'm Dead)!

Also, I have to agree with other reviewers that the incessant tales of sexual trauma felt gratuitous. It's to the point where it became absurd and over the top, I really don't like it when authors use sexual trauma for shock value and that's what it felt like here.

I wouldn't recommend this one unfortunately, Pretend I'm Dead is much better and feels like a more purposeful and coherent story!

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noveltay's review against another edition

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dark emotional funny fast-paced

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

5.0

Dark- WTF?
Mona- What are you doing!!!!
Everyone else- You’re just as weird and as bad as them.

Love how the cover resembles Mona’s bush. That made me laugh after the few times she mentioned it’s shape.

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katherineflitsch_'s review against another edition

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funny lighthearted reflective medium-paced

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

3.25

I’d already read and loved BIG SWISS before reading this one, and I enjoyed this book for many of the same reasons as I’d enjoyed BIG SWISS: it’s funny, largely because of the lead character and her dry sense of humor revealing childhood and lifelong trauma. Beagin has this voice down! I was admittedly a bit thrown off, however, because Mona (our lead here and, apparently, in Beagin’s debut, PRETEND I’M DEAD) she seems so uncannily similar to Greta, our lead in BIG SWISS, but they aren’t the same character? In some ways I almost felt like they were the same. And from a distance of a couple months and with many other books read in between, to my memory they are totally the same. It just makes me feel like Jen Beagin is a one-trick pony, with a schtick that I happen to really enjoy and think highly of critically, but it’s a solitary schtick nonetheless. In an interview I found about BIG SWISS, Beagin said she was departing from Mona with the new book, but I’m not so sure she really did that. BIG SWISS holds the same horny, voyeuristic tone and dry sense of dark-adjacent humor as does VACUUM IN THE DARK. There are even some plot points that are eerily similar (the dinners with the couples in their beautiful artsy homes, the obsessive and all consuming affairs with overpowering people, the goddamn dog named Piñon!). It had me gaslighting myself: are the books connected and I’m supposed to know about that? Overall, really well done, but in too similar of a manner as her other book I’ve read, which makes me doubt Jen has any other literary talent cards up her sleeve. I hope with book #4 she proves me wrong.

Oh, I did particularly enjoy the section detailing her return home and her relationship with her mom and step-dad, particularly as those relationships healed.

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kmstr99's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad 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

3.0

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