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3.42 AVERAGE
3.42 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I think I hated this book and it was because it challenged my view of the world in which I lived and how corrupt the systems in place are. I think it an effective and stirring book, but a difficult one to swallow nevertheless.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Body horror, Body shaming, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Vomit
Moderate: Sexual assault, Torture
I was incredibly conflicted about this book. On the one hand, I really admire the originality of the author: the world he creates, where people's size varies depending on how wealthy they are, is incredibly creative, and provides an excellent social commentary as well as an entertaining background. On the other hand, however, I found this book very hard to read.
While I appreciate the thought that must have gone behind inventing a whole new language for the world, I found it incredibly difficult to understand what was being said. Perhaps it was due to the ARC formatting, or maybe that was the actual intention, but too many times I was faced with words smashed together and sentences that just made no sense on a first reading. I had to go back and re-read several times in order to understand what was going on, and that just made it impossible for me to enjoy the book as much as I would have wanted to. I also found the dreamworld to be a tad too complex for my liking, and struggled to understand without re-reading whole passages.
I didn't particularly like the characters, but I feel that may have been the original intention: none of them seem to be particularly likable from the start, with Warner (our narrator) being the only one to seemingly make an effort but ultimately being worn down by his dire circumstances and the exploitation to which he is subject. With unlikeable characters and a plot I struggled to appreciate fully, however, this book soon fell flat for me. I seriously considered DNF'ing multiple times, but ultimately stuck it out in the hopes that it would get better. Alas, for me it didn't.
As I said, I really appreciate the idea behind this, but the execution just didn't work for me.
For this and more reviews, visit Book for Thought.
I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.
While I appreciate the thought that must have gone behind inventing a whole new language for the world, I found it incredibly difficult to understand what was being said. Perhaps it was due to the ARC formatting, or maybe that was the actual intention, but too many times I was faced with words smashed together and sentences that just made no sense on a first reading. I had to go back and re-read several times in order to understand what was going on, and that just made it impossible for me to enjoy the book as much as I would have wanted to. I also found the dreamworld to be a tad too complex for my liking, and struggled to understand without re-reading whole passages.
I didn't particularly like the characters, but I feel that may have been the original intention: none of them seem to be particularly likable from the start, with Warner (our narrator) being the only one to seemingly make an effort but ultimately being worn down by his dire circumstances and the exploitation to which he is subject. With unlikeable characters and a plot I struggled to appreciate fully, however, this book soon fell flat for me. I seriously considered DNF'ing multiple times, but ultimately stuck it out in the hopes that it would get better. Alas, for me it didn't.
As I said, I really appreciate the idea behind this, but the execution just didn't work for me.
For this and more reviews, visit Book for Thought.
I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.
2.5 stars
MunMun by Jesse Andrews is about a satirical world where a person’s size indicates wealth, running from people the size of rats to giants. Our protagonist, a tiny boy named Warner, makes his way through life with some serendipitous turns, but all the while, he is still in his mind a little. The book is not so much character or plot driven, being a straight satire or allegory for the way Andrews see our world. For example, he showcases the power big pharmaceutical companies have and the sliminess of politics. It deals with a wide range of issues from his beliefs about the class system to the campus rape of Warner’s sister, satirizing many aspects of society. It takes a while to get used to the writing here because of the very concatenated way that Andrews writes here, using phrases like “he lolled” and “kidjail.” The phrases, while mostly immediately identifiable, take you out of the book for a while because the characters’ dialogue includes abbreviations such as lmao. The plot takes place over the course of many years, maybe 2 decades. Warner is very much explored, though he is more of a tool for Andrews to create this world and satire than a fully fledged character. The other characters were quite flat, with very little appeal to the reader, which would have been acceptable in a better satire. The satire became too much and dragged on too long to be interesting; there is only a certain amount of times you can poke fun at something before it stops being novel and cool. There was a funny joke about the degradation of politics into talk about penis size, an obvious barb about the Rubio-Trump hand debate. The book deals with sex, not heavily, but enough to merit a warning to younger readers. This book will certainly annoy those who want a solid plot because for a while, this book just moves along with very little destination. The closest thing to a plot begins maybe 150 pages in. Overall, while the book isn’t bad, I think that it takes a very specific reader to actually enjoy reading it, instead of feeling like you’re reading a school assignment.
I received an ARC of this book through the BookParade program in exchange for an honest review
MunMun by Jesse Andrews is about a satirical world where a person’s size indicates wealth, running from people the size of rats to giants. Our protagonist, a tiny boy named Warner, makes his way through life with some serendipitous turns, but all the while, he is still in his mind a little. The book is not so much character or plot driven, being a straight satire or allegory for the way Andrews see our world. For example, he showcases the power big pharmaceutical companies have and the sliminess of politics. It deals with a wide range of issues from his beliefs about the class system to the campus rape of Warner’s sister, satirizing many aspects of society. It takes a while to get used to the writing here because of the very concatenated way that Andrews writes here, using phrases like “he lolled” and “kidjail.” The phrases, while mostly immediately identifiable, take you out of the book for a while because the characters’ dialogue includes abbreviations such as lmao. The plot takes place over the course of many years, maybe 2 decades. Warner is very much explored, though he is more of a tool for Andrews to create this world and satire than a fully fledged character. The other characters were quite flat, with very little appeal to the reader, which would have been acceptable in a better satire. The satire became too much and dragged on too long to be interesting; there is only a certain amount of times you can poke fun at something before it stops being novel and cool. There was a funny joke about the degradation of politics into talk about penis size, an obvious barb about the Rubio-Trump hand debate. The book deals with sex, not heavily, but enough to merit a warning to younger readers. This book will certainly annoy those who want a solid plot because for a while, this book just moves along with very little destination. The closest thing to a plot begins maybe 150 pages in. Overall, while the book isn’t bad, I think that it takes a very specific reader to actually enjoy reading it, instead of feeling like you’re reading a school assignment.
I received an ARC of this book through the BookParade program in exchange for an honest review
This is quite possibly the best explanation of how income disparity affects everyone that I have ever read. In the world of MunMun everyone's size is directly proportional to how much money they have. Therefore, billionaires are the size of giants, and poor people are the size of rats. And of course, there's every size in between. The book does a good job of explaining this, everyone has a bank account for their size and a bank account for spending money, essentially. And if you have to take munmun out of your size account because you spent all the munmun in your spending account, well, that's when you have to size down, which is a painful process. And just wait till you learn about minmun. I mean, I can't really describe how amazing this book is at explaining income inequality and why it exists without just quoting entire chapters. So I'll just say, you should read this for that reason alone.
The book is written in its own language, almost, or maybe more of a slang or dialect. It's incredibly easy to get the rhythm of, however, and this slang leads to people saying hilarious things like, "I continue to be obsessed with your personal energy," said by a Mass Level Marketing consultant. And yes, of course the book is brilliant when it comes to satirizing MLMs too.
So like, if I loved it so much, why the 3 stars? Well, Warner, the main character, is kind of boring. He's a littlepoor, along with his sister Prayer, and together they attempt to get munmun so they can size up. Warner's abrasive, but also just not that interesting a person. Prayer's viewpoint would be more fascinating to me, to see how much different poverty affects women than men. But we're stuck with Warner, who meets a girl in Dreamworld, (everyone can go to Dreamworld while they sleep, and interact with all the other sleepers, and create dreams for themselves and others) and because of this meeting he gets a chance at a different life. The relationship between Warner and the girl, Kitty, is clearly meant to be Important and Significant, except I did not get it at all. I know absolutely nothing about Kitty, which means this relationship means nothing to me. It's a shame, because Warner briefly dates a different girl, Grace, and that relationship is written realistically, so I know Jesse Andrews can write a teen relationship well. And becausethe ending is completely about Kitty and nothing else, it's really hard to overlook it.
Despite my disappointment in that, this book still made me laugh and made me mad about the world, so you should still read it.
The book is written in its own language, almost, or maybe more of a slang or dialect. It's incredibly easy to get the rhythm of, however, and this slang leads to people saying hilarious things like, "I continue to be obsessed with your personal energy," said by a Mass Level Marketing consultant. And yes, of course the book is brilliant when it comes to satirizing MLMs too.
So like, if I loved it so much, why the 3 stars? Well, Warner, the main character, is kind of boring. He's a littlepoor, along with his sister Prayer, and together they attempt to get munmun so they can size up. Warner's abrasive, but also just not that interesting a person. Prayer's viewpoint would be more fascinating to me, to see how much different poverty affects women than men. But we're stuck with Warner, who meets a girl in Dreamworld, (everyone can go to Dreamworld while they sleep, and interact with all the other sleepers, and create dreams for themselves and others) and because of this meeting he gets a chance at a different life. The relationship between Warner and the girl, Kitty, is clearly meant to be Important and Significant, except I did not get it at all. I know absolutely nothing about Kitty, which means this relationship means nothing to me. It's a shame, because Warner briefly dates a different girl, Grace, and that relationship is written realistically, so I know Jesse Andrews can write a teen relationship well. And because
Despite my disappointment in that, this book still made me laugh and made me mad about the world, so you should still read it.
OH DANG.
I've been a fan of Jesse Andrews since Me and Earl and the Dying Girl came out in 2012. I had my doubts that he could pull off what sounded like a fantasy/sci-fi inspired world. Not because I don't have faith in him, but because, to be honest, I don't have faith in any young adult fantasy/sci-fi. That's right, YA, I'm putting you on blast.
I didn't have to worry though, he's done something pretty incredible here. In Munmun the amount of money you have scales directly to the size of your body. If you're the poorest of the poor, a littlepoor, you're about the size of a rat. Tenbillionaires are giant, they eat whole cows and drink full vats of water. It's a satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift, a story of class and income disparity in the tradition of Dickens, except that characters use the word "peen" as an insult.
After his father is crushed to death when their home is accidentally stepped on by a middlerich kid, Warren and his sister Prayer take off on a journey to get munmun and scale up so that they can be safe and lead "better" lives. The story follows in a pretty traditional adventure/misadventure style and the scaling device is the perfect visual for how poverty can be a physical barrier to having a healthy, safe, successful life. Andrews covers just about everything you can think of from accident claims, healthcare, banking, education, drug use, the criminal justice system, and even MLMs. It's also a great illustration for how wealth begets more wealth, and how political systems work to keep poor people poor.
And, hey, remember, this is a satire aimed at young adults.
Can you think of a single satire aimed at young people? Like straight up satire in the traditional sense? I can't! And this one is about income disparity!
There's an updated kind of dialect and way of writing employed here that I know a lot of reviewers have found frustrating. Warren often compounds words that don't get that treatment in our life and death world, like nottomention or atleast or peenface. To me, atleast, this makes sense. They're words that are always used together, and they're not that hard to discern on the page. This is in part because our main character, Warren, has been illiterate for much of his life (littlepoors are too small for school) and also due to the fact that this is a different world and they speak differently than we do. I found it pretty similar to the way a lot of jokes and memes are now written - probably as a way to connect to youths. I had no trouble with the vernacular, and honestly, found it to be one of the best uses of language for world building that I've read in a contemporary novel. And to really double down on my literary references - and perhaps oversell this thing - I'll even say that it reminded me of the main character's voice from Tatyana Tolstaya's The Slynx, a satirical post-apocalyptic Russian novel.
I will say that the last page of this book bummed me out a little bit, it really veered hard into something I thought was pretty disappointing, but I'll deal because the rest of this book is hilarious, and way way way too real. And I can't believe it got written, but I'm so glad that it did.
I know I said a few times that this is Young Adult, but I truly see no reason why anyone interested in political/societal satire, or even sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction would not like it.
I've been a fan of Jesse Andrews since Me and Earl and the Dying Girl came out in 2012. I had my doubts that he could pull off what sounded like a fantasy/sci-fi inspired world. Not because I don't have faith in him, but because, to be honest, I don't have faith in any young adult fantasy/sci-fi. That's right, YA, I'm putting you on blast.
I didn't have to worry though, he's done something pretty incredible here. In Munmun the amount of money you have scales directly to the size of your body. If you're the poorest of the poor, a littlepoor, you're about the size of a rat. Tenbillionaires are giant, they eat whole cows and drink full vats of water. It's a satire in the vein of Jonathan Swift, a story of class and income disparity in the tradition of Dickens, except that characters use the word "peen" as an insult.
After his father is crushed to death when their home is accidentally stepped on by a middlerich kid, Warren and his sister Prayer take off on a journey to get munmun and scale up so that they can be safe and lead "better" lives. The story follows in a pretty traditional adventure/misadventure style and the scaling device is the perfect visual for how poverty can be a physical barrier to having a healthy, safe, successful life. Andrews covers just about everything you can think of from accident claims, healthcare, banking, education, drug use, the criminal justice system, and even MLMs. It's also a great illustration for how wealth begets more wealth, and how political systems work to keep poor people poor.
And, hey, remember, this is a satire aimed at young adults.
Can you think of a single satire aimed at young people? Like straight up satire in the traditional sense? I can't! And this one is about income disparity!
There's an updated kind of dialect and way of writing employed here that I know a lot of reviewers have found frustrating. Warren often compounds words that don't get that treatment in our life and death world, like nottomention or atleast or peenface. To me, atleast, this makes sense. They're words that are always used together, and they're not that hard to discern on the page. This is in part because our main character, Warren, has been illiterate for much of his life (littlepoors are too small for school) and also due to the fact that this is a different world and they speak differently than we do. I found it pretty similar to the way a lot of jokes and memes are now written - probably as a way to connect to youths. I had no trouble with the vernacular, and honestly, found it to be one of the best uses of language for world building that I've read in a contemporary novel. And to really double down on my literary references - and perhaps oversell this thing - I'll even say that it reminded me of the main character's voice from Tatyana Tolstaya's The Slynx, a satirical post-apocalyptic Russian novel.
I will say that the last page of this book bummed me out a little bit, it really veered hard into something I thought was pretty disappointing, but I'll deal because the rest of this book is hilarious, and way way way too real. And I can't believe it got written, but I'm so glad that it did.
I know I said a few times that this is Young Adult, but I truly see no reason why anyone interested in political/societal satire, or even sci-fi/fantasy/speculative fiction would not like it.
Income inequality sucks--I get it. This book is trying to make a point and I agree with that point, but I couldn’t stomach it’s hammering execution. That’s strike one. The whole book was full of misspellings and the author did it on purpose. The. Whole. Book. The author wanted to illustrate that people in lower classes do not have the same educational opportunities, but it detracted from the story and made it toohardtoread. Strike two. The main character is a little twit. I spent the entire book hoping someone would step on his misogynistic, littlepoor ass so the book would finally end. #teamsquish Strike three.
I got a review copy from the Australian publisher. Not quite sure what to say about this, so review to come on or after the publication date - 28th of March.
I really like Jesse Andrews as a person, but I do find it difficult to get into his stories. Munmun was no different.
It was incredibly weird, but deeply reflective on our society’s obsession and dependency on money, and how the classes interact and are divided. Essentially, the poor stay poor and the rich get richer.
From the perspective of a littlepoor (the smallest, poorest of people) it is clear how intolerant, ignorant, and disdainful the upper classes treat those less well off.
Munmun was, for me, hard to digest. Not just for the content but the hard to follow writing style that was done specifically to reflect the lack of education of the littlepoor protagonist. A lot of made-up, compounded words I had to read over multiple times before I understood the meaning, slang, and misspelled words. That in of itself made it a three star book for me, though I understand why Andrews made that decision. It definitely packs a bigger punch. I was thrown off by the dreamworld/real world dynamic as well. It seems odd and didn’t fit well.
It was incredibly weird, but deeply reflective on our society’s obsession and dependency on money, and how the classes interact and are divided. Essentially, the poor stay poor and the rich get richer.
From the perspective of a littlepoor (the smallest, poorest of people) it is clear how intolerant, ignorant, and disdainful the upper classes treat those less well off.
Munmun was, for me, hard to digest. Not just for the content but the hard to follow writing style that was done specifically to reflect the lack of education of the littlepoor protagonist. A lot of made-up, compounded words I had to read over multiple times before I understood the meaning, slang, and misspelled words. That in of itself made it a three star book for me, though I understand why Andrews made that decision. It definitely packs a bigger punch. I was thrown off by the dreamworld/real world dynamic as well. It seems odd and didn’t fit well.