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litwithkat's review against another edition
will be coming back to this! just not a book i’m finding myself wanting to pick up at the moment.
molly_dettmann's review against another edition
5.0
A sophomore read this for her memoir lit circle choice and raved about it. She said it was the best book she had ever read and she really saw herself in it. She did warn me it was a “little mature.” Yep! This one sure is! We open with a particularly violent episode that is seemingly unrelated to Gurba’s story, but when that part comes back around and the connections are made, whew! I just loved the writing. I loved how each vignette is filled with such snark and anger and meanness, and how it worked so well in telling her story. Gurba’s use of language is all over the place as her memoir is almost like seemingly random bits of her life thrown together, but yet it creates such a captivating look inside her life. There is a lot of language and mention of sexual assault. I think it’d be interesting to go back and pull passages to explore in a higher level English class.
avisreadsandreads's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Excrement, Rape, Eating disorder, Vomit, Sexual assault, and Racism
Minor: Suicide attempt
bunny_rose's review against another edition
This book honestly made me a little uncomfortable it was kinda corny at times like when she writes anyjuan at the beginning I feel like I was just cringing at a lot of the writing tbh but i stopped a quarter of the way in the author when uses the n slur multiple times to talk about being bullied in elementary school, I don’t doubt the interaction went down that way irl but the author is white and Mexican so it just felt very unnecessary for the story and just weird af tbh
milohno's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Rape
Minor: Pedophilia
ethantw00's review against another edition
4.0
Book 2 for my Advanced CNF Writing class.
4.5 Stars
Gurba’s voice is easily the best thing about this memoir. It’s perfectly caustic and funny, even when it maybe “shouldn’t” be.
Mean tackles a whole lot in its slim page count, and it mostly does a damn good job of doing so. Gurba’s observations are, yes, entertaining and witty, but they’re also so full of truth.
Though I loved this I am rounding it down because I occasionally felt some sections (though all entertaining or interesting) weren’t really servicing the overall narrative or themes very well. The Michael Jackson sections near the end are decent example of this. Interesting, funny, well-written, but not really doing enough to feel necessary or cohesive in this book.
Anywho,
I definitely want to read more of Gurba’s stuff. She’s awesome.
4.5 Stars
Gurba’s voice is easily the best thing about this memoir. It’s perfectly caustic and funny, even when it maybe “shouldn’t” be.
Mean tackles a whole lot in its slim page count, and it mostly does a damn good job of doing so. Gurba’s observations are, yes, entertaining and witty, but they’re also so full of truth.
Though I loved this I am rounding it down because I occasionally felt some sections (though all entertaining or interesting) weren’t really servicing the overall narrative or themes very well. The Michael Jackson sections near the end are decent example of this. Interesting, funny, well-written, but not really doing enough to feel necessary or cohesive in this book.
Anywho,
I definitely want to read more of Gurba’s stuff. She’s awesome.