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jamie_macdonald's review
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
1.0
If it hadnt been a book club read Bellies would have ended up in a dnf pile. A mixture of stunted, awkward prose and predictable, YA-style melodrama made this a really difficult book for me to get through.
I know that a lot of readers love this book and usually that's enough for me to find something to be excited about. In the case of Bellies, though, reading was nothing short of a chore. Boring, ill-realised characters; clumsy prose; weird sexual moralising; and tell dont show therapy speak dialogue make for a tough read.
Ultimately this is a book that just isn't for me. That's ok. Bellies is a sort of queer repackage of the Sally Rooney thing. There are queer characters and relationships sure; but that's really where the queerness stops. When a book is described as irresistibly queer on the cover, I expect/want that queerness to spread at least somewhat to form and style. Instead Bellies is just a pretty standard post-YA romance novel. You might love this book if you're into that, but it really isn't for me. Between that and kind of shoddy writing, it earns its one-star rating :(
I know that a lot of readers love this book and usually that's enough for me to find something to be excited about. In the case of Bellies, though, reading was nothing short of a chore. Boring, ill-realised characters; clumsy prose; weird sexual moralising; and tell dont show therapy speak dialogue make for a tough read.
Ultimately this is a book that just isn't for me. That's ok. Bellies is a sort of queer repackage of the Sally Rooney thing. There are queer characters and relationships sure; but that's really where the queerness stops. When a book is described as irresistibly queer on the cover, I expect/want that queerness to spread at least somewhat to form and style. Instead Bellies is just a pretty standard post-YA romance novel. You might love this book if you're into that, but it really isn't for me. Between that and kind of shoddy writing, it earns its one-star rating :(
Content Warnings
Graphic: Dysphoria and Transphobia
Moderate: Racism and Eating disorder
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