Reviews with content warning for Blood - Her Body and Other Parties

i’m not entirely convinced i like this book but it is incredibly Present in my thoughts and my friend pearl said this provocativeness was conducive to a piece of art and i think they’re completely right. some of the stories made an overwhelming impression on me and some i can barely remember but it was an out of body experience reading this book and i felt almost separate from myself. some thoughts i had while talking about it with pearl because i think they are the best way of describing how i feel:
- it feels so overwhelmingly 21st century to me and i feel that’s not what the author was going for so in a way i feel guilty for not interpreting it like the artist but then stupid for that because art is supposed to be interpreted by the onlooker but then it makes me wonder whether actually she intended for us to have a collective reaction after all and she’s just a genius at creating it im not sure
- the resident has affected me so deeply i think the line that’s sticking with me is when one of them calls the speaker ethereal because to me she felt almost cumbersome but not in a bad way. it was eerie and beautiful and i cannot get it out of my head
- i keep thinking about how some of the stories were so obvious and some were absolutely incomprehensible (to me)
- especially heinous felt like a mixture of both to me. like it confused me as a concept but it was also weirdly addictive and beautifully done and i keep coming back to it. the almost positive ending felt disjointed in the context of the collection but it was even more strikingly hopeful because of that. i also like associated it so strongly with b99 in this like hazy summer soup of just gotham city energy that it almost removed any law and order intention or themes around it and it was so interesting to see how it affected me in a way i’m not sure it was supposed to (but then again maybe it was). maybe because the city was breathing and bleeding and heart beating so much i felt connected to it (in a way it reminded me absolutely unintentionally of the weird evocative mess of new york and the contrast with the version i read of it in detransition baby)
- real women have bodies had a line about fingers being tied into grommets which was intensely unnerving
essentially i don’t think i liked the experience of reading it at all but i also liked it for making me uncomfortable. i think some stories personally will stick with me more than others and some i will probably forget. i think overall it is very much worth reading just to see what resonates and what doesn’t. a very interesting and subversive debut <3

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silverrose187's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

3.5

I had a hard time with how abruptly some of the stories ended, my favorite short story especially because there was so much to explore and uncover. I felt like it could have been an entire novel on its own. I did like more of the stories than I didn’t.

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bookbabe0614's review against another edition

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adventurous dark informative mysterious reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

Everyone is better off having read this book

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jmq23's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.75

I think a lot of the themes kind of went over my head when i read it. I’m going to have to give it a more in depth read and i’ll probably also have to annotate it too in order to understand. but i loved it, it was meaningful and relatable and the prose was amazing.

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dhritigupta's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

it took me a bit to get through this, but i still liked it! i felt like i was too dumb to fully understand the stories a lot of the time, but many of them still stuck with me! the writing was beautiful the whole way through, but some stories i wanted to know what was going on a bit more!! my faves were mothers, inventory, real women have bodies and eight bites. however, even with the ones i didn’t get as much, i’m still thinking about them, bc they grow on you by the time you finish the story. like with especially heinous and the resident i’m still thinking about the perfect eeriness, even if i didn’t love them.

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ejr1904's review against another edition

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dark funny tense slow-paced

3.25

It was hit and miss.

I wanted so desperately to fall in love with all of these tales, but only a couple of them resonated. The Inventory was sensational and the ribbon was a really fascinating modernized version of urban legend. It was dark and nostalgic.

I felt like the SVU story missed the mark. It was long, over imagined, and was difficult to track. I was most excited for that, but I was neither moved by the meaning nor the prose.

Her writing is impactful and the subject matter is crucial, I was just left with wanting a bit more.

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