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knightofswords's review against another edition
4.0
Fantastic metafictional mashup of a queer autobiography/"fictional memoir", pre-apocalyptic sci-fi and a coming of age novel - also, it's funny as hell.
emschi's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
baeriscorner's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
booksarentbinary's review against another edition
4.0
detach/rewind/fast forward/a death
There is a sense of wading through as the reader, awash with the disturbed, swallowed by lapping timelines and reaching for something tried, something true.
Black Wave recognises the overriding themes of anxiety and dread as surging, prevalent yet often misplaced. The reality of end times brings a washing sense of relief, an emotional reaction to grief customarily somewhat unspoken.
Coming to the close of the book, Tea in her signature hands us a beacon, radical openness to near futures, a thought to where we are headed; lesser burdens.
There is a sense of wading through as the reader, awash with the disturbed, swallowed by lapping timelines and reaching for something tried, something true.
Black Wave recognises the overriding themes of anxiety and dread as surging, prevalent yet often misplaced. The reality of end times brings a washing sense of relief, an emotional reaction to grief customarily somewhat unspoken.
Coming to the close of the book, Tea in her signature hands us a beacon, radical openness to near futures, a thought to where we are headed; lesser burdens.
caty_murray's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
4.5
piierrote's review against another edition
i found the global warming based dystopia a little to overwhelming and anxiety inducing. just couldn’t push through for a story i wasn’t all that invested in
ridgewaygirl's review against another edition
3.0
Plans led to disappointment, to regret, to chain-smoking and sadness. Michelle refused to be tragic. She would resist having plans.
Michelle is a young lesbian living in a run-down apartment in San Francisco during the 1990s, and also as the world is ending. She works in a bookstore, but she wrote a book once, and so she's collecting experiences for her next book, which mainly means she drinks a lot and takes whatever drugs are offered to her. In the name of artistic experience, of course, she's not an addict or anything.
Their hard drinking was a sort of lifestyle performance, like the artist who wore only red for a year, then only blue, then yellow. They were playing the parts of hardened females, embodying a sort of Hunter S. Thompson persona, a deeply feminist stance for a couple of girls to take. They were too self-aware to be alcoholics. Real alcoholics didn't know they could even be alcoholics, they just drank and drank and ruined their lives and didn't have any fun and were men.
The first half of Black Wave follows Michelle and her compatriots as they carouse around the dying city. It's a self-destructive artist novel in the style of the many published during the nineties, from Suicide Blonde to The Story of Junk. I read a slew of them back then and the story remains the same, although the characters always believe they are forging new ground.
The second half of the novel is an entirely different animal. Here, Michelle Tea makes the dystopian end-of-the-world theme explicit, while also going meta and becoming a novel about the writing of the novel, where what is happening in Michelle-the-character's life becomes a topic of debate. Tea also makes the decision to have Every Thing That Michelle Says Capitalized and has everyone else speak in italics. I had thought that I was fairly open to stylistic quirks, but this annoyed me to the point that I couldn't concentrate on what Tea was doing, or even what was going on in the story.
With Black Wave, author Michelle Tea takes big risks. That they don't entirely work means that the book doesn't hold together the way it might had she played it safe. But I can't help but admire her courage.
Michelle is a young lesbian living in a run-down apartment in San Francisco during the 1990s, and also as the world is ending. She works in a bookstore, but she wrote a book once, and so she's collecting experiences for her next book, which mainly means she drinks a lot and takes whatever drugs are offered to her. In the name of artistic experience, of course, she's not an addict or anything.
Their hard drinking was a sort of lifestyle performance, like the artist who wore only red for a year, then only blue, then yellow. They were playing the parts of hardened females, embodying a sort of Hunter S. Thompson persona, a deeply feminist stance for a couple of girls to take. They were too self-aware to be alcoholics. Real alcoholics didn't know they could even be alcoholics, they just drank and drank and ruined their lives and didn't have any fun and were men.
The first half of Black Wave follows Michelle and her compatriots as they carouse around the dying city. It's a self-destructive artist novel in the style of the many published during the nineties, from Suicide Blonde to The Story of Junk. I read a slew of them back then and the story remains the same, although the characters always believe they are forging new ground.
The second half of the novel is an entirely different animal. Here, Michelle Tea makes the dystopian end-of-the-world theme explicit, while also going meta and becoming a novel about the writing of the novel, where what is happening in Michelle-the-character's life becomes a topic of debate. Tea also makes the decision to have Every Thing That Michelle Says Capitalized and has everyone else speak in italics. I had thought that I was fairly open to stylistic quirks, but this annoyed me to the point that I couldn't concentrate on what Tea was doing, or even what was going on in the story.
With Black Wave, author Michelle Tea takes big risks. That they don't entirely work means that the book doesn't hold together the way it might had she played it safe. But I can't help but admire her courage.
schray32's review against another edition
2.0
I don't know what I am missing based on other reviews. I didn't like the main character at all. The author has some very original ideas and humor. I finished just to see how Matt Dillon came into play.
meghan111's review against another edition
4.0
3.75. Michelle Tea's fiction tends to read like memoir, and this is fiction where the protagonist is named Michelle and her life is the same as the author's life, but also it's 1999 and the world is ending - as in, environmental collapse has somehow way accelerated from our actual world.
At times I muttered to myself about how setting the end of the world over 15 years ago betrays a lack of imagination. Can't she write about a fictional future, or anything not based on her own lived experience? About halfway through, though, things get meta, and it picked up for me. I didn't care for the lack of accurate detailing of extinction and pollution, although it's consistent with the character Michelle - living disconnected from the mainstream and most people in general, struggling with addiction - to maybe not read the news or follow the story of how the world is ending, just a general all the trees and animals are gone and the ocean is somehow super super polluted, but food supply for most of the book isn't a concern at all except for mentions of sushi. I guess maybe I'm of the opinion that writers setting a story in an apocalyptic scenario have a duty to not contradict the actual science of ecological system collapse.
The end of the book worked for me the best out of the whole novel, and I was left feeling a bit hopeful.
At times I muttered to myself about how setting the end of the world over 15 years ago betrays a lack of imagination. Can't she write about a fictional future, or anything not based on her own lived experience? About halfway through, though, things get meta, and it picked up for me. I didn't care for the lack of accurate detailing of extinction and pollution, although it's consistent with the character Michelle - living disconnected from the mainstream and most people in general, struggling with addiction - to maybe not read the news or follow the story of how the world is ending, just a general all the trees and animals are gone and the ocean is somehow super super polluted, but food supply for most of the book isn't a concern at all except for mentions of sushi. I guess maybe I'm of the opinion that writers setting a story in an apocalyptic scenario have a duty to not contradict the actual science of ecological system collapse.
The end of the book worked for me the best out of the whole novel, and I was left feeling a bit hopeful.
martinelecorff's review against another edition
5.0
one thing i didn't know before reading this is how much i needed a queer apocalyptical memoir fiction