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erinnh's review
4.0
Nonfiction is an unnamed narrator’s reflection on her life and relationships, focusing largely on her fraught relationships with her daughter and mother. The book’s exploration of addiction, trauma, intimacy, guilt, and family legacies are all bound to resonate with readers.
Myerson uses some stylistic choices to great effect here. The nonlinear and stream-of-consciousness writing style highlights parallels in the story and demonstrates the ripple effects one relationship can have on others. The use of an unobjective narrator who writes for a living also adds depth to the narrative. And if you know Myerson’s past work, there are even more layers to consider.
There’s a lot to process with this one, and it is definitely one that will stay with you for a while after reading it.
*Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!*
Myerson uses some stylistic choices to great effect here. The nonlinear and stream-of-consciousness writing style highlights parallels in the story and demonstrates the ripple effects one relationship can have on others. The use of an unobjective narrator who writes for a living also adds depth to the narrative. And if you know Myerson’s past work, there are even more layers to consider.
There’s a lot to process with this one, and it is definitely one that will stay with you for a while after reading it.
*Thanks to NetGalley, the publisher, and the author for providing a free digital ARC in exchange for an honest review!*
corymackenziegray's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- 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
larabesque's review
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This is probably one of the only books that I wasn't totally mad that it didn't use quotation marks. It kinda fit with the rest of the story. (It's still a choice I don't like but it's acceptable here I suppose)
An excellent book depicting how the actions of a parent can mold the child, from generation to generation. Everyone needs to be seen. Everyone needs to be loved. Understood.
An excellent book depicting how the actions of a parent can mold the child, from generation to generation. Everyone needs to be seen. Everyone needs to be loved. Understood.
cxffee_addxct's review
4.0
Review subject to change after reading
I just received this book in the mail from a giveaway and I can't wait to read it! I'm really excited for it.
I just received this book in the mail from a giveaway and I can't wait to read it! I'm really excited for it.
elbell1012's review
5.0
First 5 star read of 2024!
This book was absolutely phenomenal. Nonfiction is written as a letter(maybe a series of letters) from an unnamed mother to her daughter as she grapples with her daughters drug addiction. She explores her relationship with her mother in addition to her daughter through these letters. We read of her childhood, this mother before having a family, her affair she had, and the writing lessons she teaches (which almost seem the be the author talking to or about herself).
While this book is nonfiction, it very obviously draws on this authors life. It begs the question, "what stories do we have the right to tell?" It almost seems like people are more accepting of a true story if it can masquerade as fiction.
This book was absolutely phenomenal. Nonfiction is written as a letter(maybe a series of letters) from an unnamed mother to her daughter as she grapples with her daughters drug addiction. She explores her relationship with her mother in addition to her daughter through these letters. We read of her childhood, this mother before having a family, her affair she had, and the writing lessons she teaches (which almost seem the be the author talking to or about herself).
While this book is nonfiction, it very obviously draws on this authors life. It begs the question, "what stories do we have the right to tell?" It almost seems like people are more accepting of a true story if it can masquerade as fiction.
burrrianna's review
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
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
4.0
I didn’t need to be hurt like that.
mtomchek's review against another edition
4.0
"Writing's a balancing act, I tell her. An act of madness, of sustained and necessary obsession, of insane self-belief. The moment you listen to the opinions of others - the moment you even consider letting them in - well then, you risk breaking the spell and, if you're not careful, sanity creeps in."
"I don't know who I am without my most unforgiving and self-lacerating thoughts."
This was a seriously sad and heart-breaking novel. Julie Myerson presents us with a novelist main character and her complicated family. She shifts back and forth through time, and it is quite intense. We are constantly questioning the results of various events. Well-written, but so dark. Life is challenging, but the challenge is to continue living and enduring these challenges. Agh...
"I don't know who I am without my most unforgiving and self-lacerating thoughts."
This was a seriously sad and heart-breaking novel. Julie Myerson presents us with a novelist main character and her complicated family. She shifts back and forth through time, and it is quite intense. We are constantly questioning the results of various events. Well-written, but so dark. Life is challenging, but the challenge is to continue living and enduring these challenges. Agh...
sterlingisreading's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I loved all of the layers this had, along with the structure. It felt so natural, it felt like the way our emotions work. How our feelings and memories can yank us out of time and place, the way we can only see patterns when we’re ready to. There’s a hazy vagueness to it all that adds a foggy, hypnotic darkness to the narrative. No characters are named, the novel jumps around in time without explicit clarification. And this aspect of it also felt emotionally true, an accurate portrayal of the way we feel pain and how we reflect on our lives. It also interrogates the way writing fiction works. How much of fiction is invented? Can something ever truly be completely untrue, wholly untethered from some element of reality? I don’t know if it can and neither does the author. In the novel, her daughter is a teenage drug addict, her marriage is splintering, and her mother is cruel. Her writing career ebbs and flows around the burdens she’s carrying. And all the while, she’s searching for her place in it all: her culpability, her failures, how much pain she’s responsible for. Sometimes loving people, especially those closest to us, can be challenging and complicated. Sometimes they push us away. It’s a beautiful book about what it means to love someone and then have to let them go.