Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Acts of Service

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.

Content Warnings

hecateswickeddaughter's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective tense slow-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

3.0

Content Warnings

jgrhcklzccv's review against another edition

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dark informative tense medium-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

2.75

Content Warnings

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