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mactammonty's review against another edition
1.0
More like a treatise on how media and the general public treat those who have been wrongly accused of a crime. It is a discourse on mass shootings in the USA and the usual cycle it goes through.
In a word boring. Really not a story.
In a word boring. Really not a story.
mirandaleighreads's review against another edition
DNF. I was about halfway through and I just couldn’t do it anymore. The writing is dreadful. I felt like the story never progressed. I feel like the author was trying to MAKE A STATEMENT but it got so lost. 0/5, do not recommend.
kairakaira's review against another edition
3.0
The tone of this book was hard to follow. Sometimes it seemed serious and sometimes sarcastic — it was hard pin down. I’d be interested to see how the audiobook sounds, as a book it felt lacking.
hcothran's review against another edition
3.0
The writing is really strong and interesting in this short novel, but the mixture of tones and genres was too distracting to ignore. One scene will be serious, realistic, and poignant, and then it will be followed by a satirical scene full of fantasy and dark humor. I was never quite sure if I was supposed to be taking the plight of the main character seriously or not, and that kept taking me out of the story.
davenash's review against another edition
2.0
If Franny Glass lived today in a small Pennsylvania town instead of the world of JD Salinger, she might be like Anna Crawford, protagonist and narrator of How to Be Safe. It's interesting that both male authors choose a unreliable, socially dysfunctional female narrator, to expose society's sanctimony.
What makes this book marketable and trendy is it's examination of gun culture through the eyes of the people living in the hinterlands. Of course it's written by an east coast elite.
What makes this book interesting is the main character's nonconformity. Like Salinger, there's sharp humor directed at the conventional ways and popular culture of the time.
On building a moment to the school shooting:
"They felt delighted to commemorate the worse moment in their town's history."
On unreliability:
"It's hard to say whether I was lying then or if I am lying now."
On dignity:
"I had to make a choice, leave calmly with my dignity or continue to shout as they dragged me away.
Dignity is overrated."
On truth:
"Adults should always lie to their kids. Kids should have the luxury of not knowing their parents"
On mothers:
"Children love their mothers even if their mothers don't love them. It's a structural defect."
Anna has already lost her job before the shooting. She's not leaving her house until the FBI drags her away. After they let her go, reputation and home ruined, she enters into a shallow relationship with a man-child. Eventually she moves on.
How to Be Safe is more about the hypocrisy, or as Salinger would say the phonies, of a small town life than examining gun violence. How To Be Safe achieves emotional release through comedy not examination.
What makes this book marketable and trendy is it's examination of gun culture through the eyes of the people living in the hinterlands. Of course it's written by an east coast elite.
What makes this book interesting is the main character's nonconformity. Like Salinger, there's sharp humor directed at the conventional ways and popular culture of the time.
On building a moment to the school shooting:
"They felt delighted to commemorate the worse moment in their town's history."
On unreliability:
"It's hard to say whether I was lying then or if I am lying now."
On dignity:
"I had to make a choice, leave calmly with my dignity or continue to shout as they dragged me away.
Dignity is overrated."
On truth:
"Adults should always lie to their kids. Kids should have the luxury of not knowing their parents"
On mothers:
"Children love their mothers even if their mothers don't love them. It's a structural defect."
Anna has already lost her job before the shooting. She's not leaving her house until the FBI drags her away. After they let her go, reputation and home ruined, she enters into a shallow relationship with a man-child. Eventually she moves on.
How to Be Safe is more about the hypocrisy, or as Salinger would say the phonies, of a small town life than examining gun violence. How To Be Safe achieves emotional release through comedy not examination.
an_enthusiastic_reader's review against another edition
5.0
With writing that is reminiscent of Don DeLillo and AM Holmes and maybe a touch of Tom Perotta, this novel encapsulates our current culture and its violence and dread. The main character is a depressed and terrified woman and the novel shows her inner thoughts about being a woman in a world that doesn't know how to accept women as human, about the proliferation of guns and shootings and meaningless memorials to the dead, about the futility of institutions to ward off the worst of our inclinations. I can't say to every person I know Hey, you should read this novel. It won't appeal to most readers, and it's triggering and bleak. But it is representative our world. This is us.
shelleyann01's review against another edition
3.0
3.5 Stars What a timely tale, I enjoyed this book. Dark and funny while being insightful.