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astridrv's review
The hardest book to review this year.
I love Powers’ writing - yes it’s grandiose and saccharine and dramatic and I love it. Some pages left me breathless - the space chapters?? Perfection.
It felt cathartic to have my gut feelings about the climate crisis put unflinchingly in words.
I do think the books has some interesting things to say about neurodivergence: to which extend is the society we are supposed to function in even desirable? What treatment helps you to live, what treatment changes you, what doesn’t change you, why does it matter? What do we owe our children and ourselves? How to parent with a broken heart in a broken world?
But I also feel really conflicted about how Robbie’s autism was dealt with in the book, and I’m really upset by the ending, that is so seeped in the ableist trope of “ultra sensitive being representing humanity’s consciousness and downfall” when he is just a young human who deserves care and guidance and happiness.
I can sense that it was written with nothing but love, but I have big issues with it.
I love Powers’ writing - yes it’s grandiose and saccharine and dramatic and I love it. Some pages left me breathless - the space chapters?? Perfection.
It felt cathartic to have my gut feelings about the climate crisis put unflinchingly in words.
I do think the books has some interesting things to say about neurodivergence: to which extend is the society we are supposed to function in even desirable? What treatment helps you to live, what treatment changes you, what doesn’t change you, why does it matter? What do we owe our children and ourselves? How to parent with a broken heart in a broken world?
But I also feel really conflicted about how Robbie’s autism was dealt with in the book, and I’m really upset by the ending, that is so seeped in the ableist trope of “ultra sensitive being representing humanity’s consciousness and downfall” when he is just a young human who deserves care and guidance and happiness.
I can sense that it was written with nothing but love, but I have big issues with it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Child death, Death of parent, and Ableism
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Animal death
carbine's review against another edition
I absolutely loved The Overstory and was excited to move on to Bewilderment. It became clear within the first third of the book that I would not enjoy the depth of character development that I enjoyed in the previous work.
I abandoned this one at the point when the father physically abuses his autistic (but not officially autistic!) son. The ableist stereotypes were too much for me, as was the authors' decision to pair a disabled child with a neglectful and abusive father, then pass that off as "dad is just grieving". I did not find any of the characters likeable or relatable, although the son could have been if he had been treated as a human and not defined solely by his neurodivergence.
I acknowledge that my viewpoint may be biased as I work in mental health with children and families who fit this description, thus it may have hit too close to home. Still, I really would prefer to read stories about neurodivergent folks written by members of that community. Otherwise, it too often comes across as exploitative.
I abandoned this one at the point when
I acknowledge that my viewpoint may be biased as I work in mental health with children and families who fit this description, thus it may have hit too close to home. Still, I really would prefer to read stories about neurodivergent folks written by members of that community. Otherwise, it too often comes across as exploitative.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Child abuse, Car accident, Grief, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Ableism, and Bullying
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