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2.94 AVERAGE
2.94 AVERAGE
This book was a fun treat!! Living for that end.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing an arc in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are
My own.
Thank you NetGalley for allowing an arc in exchange for my honest review! All thoughts and opinions are
My own.
This book was def more vibes that plot but overall a fun read. I love me a story with an unhinged female protagonist. Gone Girl, Jennifer’s body, etc.
Absurd at times sure but was expected from a dark comedy. That unreliable narrator trope had me guessing what was actually real and what wasn’t.
I really enjoyed all the book references she was making throughout to help tell her own story.
I feel like this is a book should have a cheesy quote from a news article on the back like:
“Wickedly fun” - NY Times
Worth checking out if you’re someone who frequently daydreams or people watches.
Absurd at times sure but was expected from a dark comedy. That unreliable narrator trope had me guessing what was actually real and what wasn’t.
I really enjoyed all the book references she was making throughout to help tell her own story.
I feel like this is a book should have a cheesy quote from a news article on the back like:
“Wickedly fun” - NY Times
Worth checking out if you’re someone who frequently daydreams or people watches.
I could have done with a little less of Victoria’s psychic people-watching and instead a little more about what happened AFTER the main event…
So this book was interesting… It surprised me that none of the characters were likable. I really wanted to like Victoria and even saw a little of myself in her (as a book lover and people watcher). BUT she really wasn’t a good person - those inner thoughts are damning. This book also had a note of magical realism which I liked but wasn’t entirely sure it wasn’t just the main character’s vivid imagination. In the end, I give it 3 stars for “it was ok.”
Physical book. This book was not at all what I thought it was going to be. It was short but the pace was very slow which is why it is 3 stars. The last couple of chapters were good and fun ending but very repetitive up to that point.
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
slow-paced
“With a dreamy, far-off look, and her nose stuck in a book…”
Her name is Victoria, not Belle, and his name is Eric, not Gaston, and she’s not only disgusted by her husband but is also pretty sure the world would be no worse for wear if he were to die in, well, any number of ways.
I was delighted by this book. It combined immense whimsy with morbid comedy. How the heck am I supposed to resist that? This is like a sky full of colorful balloons all bursting at once only to find a sky raining blood on a gala full of ultra rich people dressed all in white and dripping in diamonds. That’s whimsical, morbid, and funny as heck. I’d pay to watch that.
Victoria has that rare and precious jewel a lot of people covet: a wild and active imagination. It’s too bad everyone in her life not only hates her tendency to daydream, but also to bury her nose in a book at every available opportunity (same girl, same). Her parents wanted her to be a lawyer and have never stopped belittling her or causing her to feel like she’s a disappointment to them. Her husband won’t allow physical books in the house because he feels they cause clutter, hates her bringing home books from the library, and doesn’t like hearing or seeing her react to the books she reads. And her best friend would rather shop and browse dating apps. But books have been with Victoria since she was a small child, and she’s not letting go of them now.
Whimsical, isolated, bored Victoria finds a possible answer to her prayers for an escape from the entropy of her life when she spies a handsome, working-class man reading the same book club-type book at her usual cafe one day. She sees it as a sign they’re meant to be together, and she aims to reach that goal. Sure, her husband will have to go, but that can’t be too hard, surely?
So much of what follows in this book are sparkling passages of differing types: dark, morbid, funny, and detailed scenarios in which Eric dies in various ways; Victoria’s vivid imagination creating backstories for the people she sees as she sits in the cafe, the narrator’s whimsical and erotic writing during the astral projection scenes, and the placid, Suzie Homemaker scenes later in the book when Victoria decides to take up baking in a fit of small rebellion.
Is this book perfect? No. But it’s a treat.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and Harper Perennial. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Literary Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Satire/Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Dark Comedy/Magical Realism
Her name is Victoria, not Belle, and his name is Eric, not Gaston, and she’s not only disgusted by her husband but is also pretty sure the world would be no worse for wear if he were to die in, well, any number of ways.
I was delighted by this book. It combined immense whimsy with morbid comedy. How the heck am I supposed to resist that? This is like a sky full of colorful balloons all bursting at once only to find a sky raining blood on a gala full of ultra rich people dressed all in white and dripping in diamonds. That’s whimsical, morbid, and funny as heck. I’d pay to watch that.
Victoria has that rare and precious jewel a lot of people covet: a wild and active imagination. It’s too bad everyone in her life not only hates her tendency to daydream, but also to bury her nose in a book at every available opportunity (same girl, same). Her parents wanted her to be a lawyer and have never stopped belittling her or causing her to feel like she’s a disappointment to them. Her husband won’t allow physical books in the house because he feels they cause clutter, hates her bringing home books from the library, and doesn’t like hearing or seeing her react to the books she reads. And her best friend would rather shop and browse dating apps. But books have been with Victoria since she was a small child, and she’s not letting go of them now.
Whimsical, isolated, bored Victoria finds a possible answer to her prayers for an escape from the entropy of her life when she spies a handsome, working-class man reading the same book club-type book at her usual cafe one day. She sees it as a sign they’re meant to be together, and she aims to reach that goal. Sure, her husband will have to go, but that can’t be too hard, surely?
So much of what follows in this book are sparkling passages of differing types: dark, morbid, funny, and detailed scenarios in which Eric dies in various ways; Victoria’s vivid imagination creating backstories for the people she sees as she sits in the cafe, the narrator’s whimsical and erotic writing during the astral projection scenes, and the placid, Suzie Homemaker scenes later in the book when Victoria decides to take up baking in a fit of small rebellion.
Is this book perfect? No. But it’s a treat.
I was provided a copy of this book by NetGalley and Harper Perennial. All views and opinions expressed in this review are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: Literary Fiction/Psychological Fiction/Satire/Mystery/Thriller/Suspense/Dark Comedy/Magical Realism