Reviews

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

seeseamus's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad fast-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

3.25

I think it's hard to write about the internet because the internet is, by definition, self-critiquing constantly, and any time you take the internet into a different medium your are essentially trying to set into stone a section of an ever-evolving beast, which will always feel trite and reductive and outdated and annoying. 

I also think that her commentary is shallow and lacks an analysis beyond “hey look at how weird and silly this all is”. Anyways it kinda feels like we got tricked into reading her Twitter, which is not a book. 

And then the back third of the book happens, expanding the analysis into the true story in an emotionally rich and compelling way. That said, I did find that the emotions it evoked in me were more to do with subject matter than Patricia's style. The connection between her real life and the internet life continued to irritate me, and I found the passage "I was just thinking that you and I have seen very different memes in our lives" to be so lame that it sucked out every ounce of compassion I had to the rest of the story. That's maybe something I should investigate in myself though, lol. 

Anyways I don't think it's bad by any means. This is all a personal grievance, not an objective review. 

kyrajanson's review against another edition

reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

aftonpatterson's review against another edition

4.0

no plot just vibes

lgreensh's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

almond's review against another edition

5.0

I almost didn't pick this one up because it sounded like it might be a bit too conceptual for me, but I'm glad I gave it a try. I have never engaged that intensely with the culture, so I didn't catch many of the references, but it didn't matter. My partner heard parts of it and said it sounded almost like a poem, and it did. Some of it reminded me of song lyrics that don't necessarily make sense in and of themselves, but somehow convey meaning anyway. It did an excellent job of conveying the feeling of scrolling through social media, and Kristen Sieh pulled off the challenging narration like a champ!

I did not expect the

dead baby

at all, and it felt jarring, this huge, heavy dose of reality in the midst of all this mindless nonsense. But I think that was the point. At the end of the day, none of the online crap we get all worked up about matters. Yes, it was heavy, but it was beautiful and moving and somehow even uplifting in the sadness.

octobussy's review against another edition

tense slow-paced

1.0

nebulous_tide's review against another edition

I might come back to write a longer review at some point, when I’ve digested it and had time to form a rose-tint on my thoughts.

But my first impression is slightly miffed confusion.

Perhaps I needed to be there.

alpheus's review against another edition

2.0

I wasn't sure about it for the first hundred pages but the last hundred were touching.

theredqueenlinnea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

snaillydia's review against another edition

4.0

The moon fell into her window and woke her. Every morning at four a.m., a prehistoric sense of duty, danger, and approaching wolves told her to get up and check the fire. She did, and the fire of the world still burned in its circle of stones.

This novel is about a woman obsessed with the internet as real-life tragedy pulls her out of her online stupor.
At least that’s how it was sold to me online. I was surprised that the tragedy here went hand-in-hand with tenderness and joy. The second half of this book was a mixed bag of emotions that really worked for me. I smiled and I teared up, sometimes at the same time.
As powerful as some moments were, there were other moments where I felt out of the loop. Some paragraphs were incomprehensible to me, and the fragmented style made for a reading experience in stops and starts, the opposite of smooth. I also thought some of the language was overly complex and pretentious. The way Lockwood wrote about the internet sometimes worked for me, but other times just didn’t.
I enjoyed this a lot overall.