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act_10's review against another edition
3.0
Honestly, the only thing that saved this book from a 2 star rating was the author note at the end. I didn’t like this story. I didn’t like the main character. I felt the book got a bit preachy in a very progressive, liberal way. But hearing (I did this one as an audiobook) the authors intention, I get where she was trying to go with it. It was meant to be empowering to young women, but to me it seemed like a teenager making a lot of really bad choices all in a row. Yes, she gets better by the end, but I still didn’t like her. The author talks about how she LOVES Nina, but for her it’s like loving one of her kids. She wrote this girl into existence, so she kinda has to love her.
The small, intertwining stories and martyr tales were pretty interesting though. Probably the best parts of the book
The small, intertwining stories and martyr tales were pretty interesting though. Probably the best parts of the book
josssc's review
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
blakehalsey's review
5.0
No one writes about the visceral, terrifying, gory experience of being a girl like Elana K. Arnold. Gorgeous language, vividly imagined stories within the main story, heartbreaking reality of what it means to grow up as a girl. So good and necessary.
haylisreading's review
5.0
This book is gritty, disturbing, and unflinchingly real. Elana K. Arnold leaves no details out of the graphic descriptions of sex, masturbation, and abortion. I feel that it is important that females especially should read this book. I really loved every painful little thing about this book.
starryeved's review
3.0
I've been told that this is a "nasty little book with little invisible claws." When I read it, I could not agree more. This book is profound and (I can see how it is) upsetting, and when I finished I had no idea how to describe it. It is one of those works that "just is" rather than "is about," but maybe that's what it's supposed to get at.
freesien's review against another edition
4.0
Yes, this book is upsetting, disturbing and at times even gross but it is also brutally honest. And I love it. Being a teenage girl is not all sunshine and roses, folks.
Between the main story there are Nina's short stories about female martyrs, those bits I liked especially.
Between the main story there are Nina's short stories about female martyrs, those bits I liked especially.
freesien's review
5.0
Still awesome as fuck.
Original review:
Yes, this book is upsetting, disturbing and at times even gross but it is also brutally honest. And I love it. Being a teenage girl is not all sunshine and roses, folks.
Between the main story there are Nina's short stories about female martyrs, those bits I liked especially.
Original review:
Yes, this book is upsetting, disturbing and at times even gross but it is also brutally honest. And I love it. Being a teenage girl is not all sunshine and roses, folks.
Between the main story there are Nina's short stories about female martyrs, those bits I liked especially.
lexiww's review
3.0
Arnold’s latest reveals how capricious first love—and our trust in it—can be. Nina, 16, is trying to make sense of the obsession she feels for her first boyfriend. “I know it isn’t okay to care this much about a boy. I know it’s not feminist, or whatever, to make all my decisions based on what Seth would think,” she chastises herself. Besides, she has grown up being told by her mother that all love has limits; it can’t just surge forth unbridled. Then, just as Nina and Seth’s relationship turns more intimate, he abandons her without explanation. In Nina’s grief, she explores the origins of her longing for love, recalling a trip she took with her mother to Italy to study statues of saints, intertwining the saints’ suffering with what she views as her own. Nina’s honest musings about her vapid relationship with Seth, as well as the relationship of her fickle parents, demonstrate a keen sense of introspection and self-respect. Smart, true, and devastating, this is brutally, necessarily forthcoming about the crags of teen courtship.
— Lexi Walters Wright, First published February 15, 2017 (Booklist).
— Lexi Walters Wright, First published February 15, 2017 (Booklist).
kristina_h's review
4.0
Grotesquely beautiful.
This is not a book for everyone. Especially the pro-life/religious sect. It is raw and honest and downright depressing at times. Kind of like the life of a teenager.
I liked What Girls Are Made Of for the same reason I didn't: It brought back some turbulent memories. Would I have appreciated reading it 20 years ago when I was around the same age as Nina? I don't know. I don't know if I could have appreciated its wisdom back then. Then again, it may have saved me from some poor decisions.
A worthwhile and important read.
This is not a book for everyone. Especially the pro-life/religious sect. It is raw and honest and downright depressing at times. Kind of like the life of a teenager.
I liked What Girls Are Made Of for the same reason I didn't: It brought back some turbulent memories. Would I have appreciated reading it 20 years ago when I was around the same age as Nina? I don't know. I don't know if I could have appreciated its wisdom back then. Then again, it may have saved me from some poor decisions.
A worthwhile and important read.
emdowd's review against another edition
4.0
This, particularly Nina's own short stories between chapters, reminds me so much of Margaret Atwood in the very best way.
Really rough and really good.
(I've just started a librarian position at an all girls school and do I have FEELINGS about this book.)
Really rough and really good.
(I've just started a librarian position at an all girls school and do I have FEELINGS about this book.)