Scan barcode
klor's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
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
1.5
i do not support all women, some of u bitches are very dumb !!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content and Sexual violence
camjam36's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
medium-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? Yes
4.5
This is the first novel I ever started and finished in a day. It was hard to read. It was even harder not to read. Eve's own little world enraptured me as swiftly and securely as any fantasy from my childhood if not moreso. Eve's sexual identity was painfully relatable in ways I cannot describe. The choices she made were immoral, yet unavoidable. The book is steamy and intense all the way through—in some ways like sharing a sauna on your honeymoon, in others like humid summer's fish market. That is to say, it was as sweet as it was sickening. My lesbian perspective on such a deeply bisexual story is surely preventing me from engaging with it on a deeper level than I already have, but I've still closed this book feeling touched, maybe even a little gently violated. Fishman's prose is robust and extensive, sometimes to its detriment. Character dialogue sometimes reads a little too closely to the ramblings of Eve's mind. Also there are no quotation marks. I tolerated it, but I definitely didn't like it. At all. I did like the book though. I think. Probably.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Sexual content
Moderate: Toxic relationship
Minor: Misogyny, Sexual violence, and Gaslighting
jneverland's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Violence, Misogyny, and Sexual violence
yasmeenk's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-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
3.75
It was interesting to read about the experiences of a young woman exploring her sexuality and grappling with the impacts that exploration has on her life and existing relationships. She reflects on her own desires and seeks out the opinions of others to assist her. Fairly unlikeable but I appreciate the characters still. I feel like the end could have been a bit less abrupt and tied up more loose ends. Some points could have been a bit less abstract.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity and Sexual content
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
marieantoinette's review against another edition
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Sexual content
Moderate: Alcohol
Minor: Physical abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Violence, and Mental illness
wilful_wisp's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Lesbophobia, Gaslighting, Sexual violence, and Biphobia
anka_not_anchor's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
God. How am I supposed to feel? This book is entrancing and gripping in so many ways. Focuses on major moral grey areas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexual content
glitterdeww's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
My feelings on this book went through so many iterations. I think there's a really salient point here that I finally placed in my update.
Acts of Service is primarily a study on sex. The plot is relatively thin from beginning to end, and serves to reinforce the psychological, cultural, and philosophical analyses of sex and sexuality through the main character, Eve. As her worldview shifts, Eve relates her personal beliefs to other characters, no matter how briefly they reside in the context of the story.
As one might expect, the scenes involving the act of sex are graphic, but it's the energy around these scenes... the ways in which sex is tied to attraction, class, vanity, monogamy, consent, kink, control, and freedom... That seemed, at least to me, to be the most challenging. And similarly, the additional characters of Olivia and Nathan are... Difficult. So many of their intentions were left walking the line between selfish, cruel, and pitiful.
The prose used throughout the book can be excellent, almost hypnotic. It both confused and fascinated me, very much like a slow moving car crash. I still don't know if or how I liked it.
~*EDIT from a week later*~
This book has been nagging at me for days now, and I think I've hit on a "more" conclusive review after remembering tiny aspects to the writing that, in retrospect, are very intelligent and very important.
There are a number of lines in this book that felt like throwaways as I was reading it... But I think they were intentionally placed to pull the reader back from reaching the same conclusions as the main character. When I said before that the plot of this book is thin... In regards to action in the plot, that still is true. The most notable events in this book took place within Eve's character, and the changes in her are meant to be unsettling. Initially I wasn't sure if the author meant to convince the reader of any argument the characters make, but when remembering those throw away lines...
A cult joke, a hint that Nathan may have actually been Olivia's college professor, comments about a LACK of communication being ideal, boundary violations all over the place, Olivia's visible anxious ticks...
...None of these are meant to convince the reader of anything, but they are all intentionally meant to pull the reader into discomfort just as Eve is choosing to disregard them. The book is also framed with two passages on feminism which painfully illustrate how Eve's beliefs have changed.
I saw another review where the individual asked, "Did any other lesbians read, and actually like, this book?" That comment put the final pin in my thoughts on the writer's intention, because who IS the audience for this book? It's fellow queer folks, women, progressively minded and sex-positive individuals that probably look a lot like Eve at the beginning of the story. The book is not meant to criticize any progressive cultural practices, like queerness, kink, nonmonogamy, etc, but rather to show how, when constant pressure is applied by systems like patriarchy, we can change our worldviews in such a subtle way that we don't even realize it. If you cease to think critically why you align yourself with particular groups or labels, your "ideals" are more easily corruptible. And that's terrifying. No, this was not an enjoyable read, it was damn depressing. That's the point.
Eve thinks towards the beginning that men like Nathan... Cold, calculating, privileged... had "gone out of style." This is a reminder that if you ignore a pervasive problem by acting like it has already gone away, it will eventually corrupt you.
Acts of Service is primarily a study on sex. The plot is relatively thin from beginning to end, and serves to reinforce the psychological, cultural, and philosophical analyses of sex and sexuality through the main character, Eve. As her worldview shifts, Eve relates her personal beliefs to other characters, no matter how briefly they reside in the context of the story.
As one might expect, the scenes involving the act of sex are graphic, but it's the energy around these scenes... the ways in which sex is tied to attraction, class, vanity, monogamy, consent, kink, control, and freedom... That seemed, at least to me, to be the most challenging. And similarly, the additional characters of Olivia and Nathan are... Difficult. So many of their intentions were left walking the line between selfish, cruel, and pitiful.
The prose used throughout the book can be excellent, almost hypnotic. It both confused and fascinated me, very much like a slow moving car crash. I still don't know if or how I liked it.
~*EDIT from a week later*~
This book has been nagging at me for days now, and I think I've hit on a "more" conclusive review after remembering tiny aspects to the writing that, in retrospect, are very intelligent and very important.
There are a number of lines in this book that felt like throwaways as I was reading it... But I think they were intentionally placed to pull the reader back from reaching the same conclusions as the main character. When I said before that the plot of this book is thin... In regards to action in the plot, that still is true. The most notable events in this book took place within Eve's character, and the changes in her are meant to be unsettling. Initially I wasn't sure if the author meant to convince the reader of any argument the characters make, but when remembering those throw away lines...
...None of these are meant to convince the reader of anything, but they are all intentionally meant to pull the reader into discomfort just as Eve is choosing to disregard them. The book is also framed with two passages on feminism which painfully illustrate how Eve's beliefs have changed.
I saw another review where the individual asked, "Did any other lesbians read, and actually like, this book?" That comment put the final pin in my thoughts on the writer's intention, because who IS the audience for this book? It's fellow queer folks, women, progressively minded and sex-positive individuals that probably look a lot like Eve at the beginning of the story. The book is not meant to criticize any progressive cultural practices, like queerness, kink, nonmonogamy, etc, but rather to show how, when constant pressure is applied by systems like patriarchy, we can change our worldviews in such a subtle way that we don't even realize it. If you cease to think critically why you align yourself with particular groups or labels, your "ideals" are more easily corruptible. And that's terrifying. No, this was not an enjoyable read, it was damn depressing. That's the point.
Eve thinks towards the beginning that men like Nathan... Cold, calculating, privileged... had "gone out of style." This is a reminder that if you ignore a pervasive problem by acting like it has already gone away, it will eventually corrupt you.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gaslighting, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Classism, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Addiction, and Violence
nat_dalkiewicz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Sexual content, and Sexism
loverofeels's review against another edition
reflective
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
horrendous in many ways but i enjoyed it very much so... 3 stars?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship
Moderate: Sexual violence, Misogyny, and Lesbophobia
Minor: Rape