Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - Boy Parts

What the actual fuck.

Scalding commentary on the role of art in our society and the current state of the patriarchy. Absolutely repulsive, don't read it unless you're mentally stable.

Content Warnings

beccawatson's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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nere's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

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

4.75

monday the 19th of february 2024

i’m going to start off by saying. if you get it you get it if you don’t you don’t if you know you know. either you get the vibe or you don’t get the vibe

i started reading right before bed and mentally i was like. let me just read the first page. and then i looked up and i was a quarter of my way through the book.

the writing style is incredibly engrossing. its very quip and readable but not without personality. it’s so easy to read. there’s almost something incredibly mundane about all of it. but you still want to keep reading to know what happens next. its so addictive thats all i can say. eliza clark is some sort of wizard.

the book follows irina, a professional photographer who is known for taking risque photos of men. there’s not really a need to know much else besides the fact you are reading a horror novel. be wary of trigger warnings if applicable

i’m not entirely settled on a rating I think
I’ll need to sit on it a bit more but its definitely one I haven’t been able to stop thinking about which is always a sign of a winner.

“Do you like it rough? I think so. I think I must. Men are rough, aren’t they? Have I always had a taste for rough stuff, or did I acquire that? In the back of Lesley’s car, on the floor of a friend’s house, half-conscious with my underwear around my ankles? Was it my idea to have him hurt me, or did he just let me think it was? And that gets sewn into them young, doesn’t it? Violence.”

Content Warnings

aubreyyy's review against another edition

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dark medium-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

2.0

This was disappointing. Irina is absolutely disgusting and this book lowkey made me nauseous. Irina is so disgustingly evil but there’s no point. Like I genuinely don’t get it and it just seems like the author wanted to write awful characters. I 100% believe that if a man wrote this it would’ve been canceled but because a woman wrote it it got all this praise as being edgy. The only way I could see this book being saved is if it’s marketed as horror but even then there’s just a lot of shock factor nonsense. Super disappointed.

Content Warnings

sydneythekydneybean's review against another edition

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dark tense medium-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

3.25

Listen... when you pen this as "american psycho for hot girls," I expect "american psycho for hot girls." And it did fulfill that for about the first half. Irinia is so unreliable, messy, manipulative, and overall fucked-up; and hey, I love reading about messy bitches sometimes, but as soon as she stops hyper-focusing on her man-hating/loving photography and starts calling everyone ever a size 2 fat and dumpy, and is constantly thinking about carbs and her weight and blah blah blah, you do start to lose me.

The synopsis of Boy Parts says that Irina goes into a tailspin after she is asked to be a part of an exhibition and that tailspin centers around Irina’s relationship with her obsessive best friend, Flo, and Eddie from Tesco who has attracted her attention. Now, after reading that, I was expecting a lot of interaction between Irina and Flo, and Irina and Eddie. I expected to witness Irina's and Flo's toxic, unhealthy relationship bumped up to 1000. I expected Irinia to become bloodthirsty for the seemingly innocent, insecure, "perfect for the picking" Eddie. I expected violence, sex, manipulation, and like Black Swan levels of obsession. Irina's unpredictable, we don't know how much of her memory we can trust, and I wanted the book to almost gaslight me, as the reader, into believing shit that didn't happen because that's how Irina remembers it. And unfortunately, Boy Parts just didn't live up to my expectations.

I love this book's genre more than I love this book.

Content Warnings

gracepickford's review against another edition

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challenging dark tense medium-paced

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

1.0

Content Warnings

kotletka_polina's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective 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

3.75

I didn’t hate it but o certainly didn’t like it. There isn’t enough plot and I dislike it when the whole book is about “oh look she’s so edgy and horrible and does disgusting things she should be in jail for” and nothing else.
The main character is insufferable but that’s the whole point. I just wish it was done better, more epic/intense because I wasn’t encouraged to read further.
Overall it was okay but boring to read and in the ending there’s zero conclusion or sort of outcome so you have to like philosophising about content afterwards to make the book make sense.

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