Reviews with content warning for Ableism - No One Is Talking About This

The further we progress into the age--and eventual decline--of social media, the more we'll see and need books like this. Four stars because I felt there was just that little something that was missing.

Also...I'm really glad I quit Twitter in 2018. My poor mental health needed the cutoff badly.

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jouljet's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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connieischill's review against another edition

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emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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bookwormreflections's review against another edition

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challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

50 pages in, I posted on Instagram “please do not sleep on this book”. No One is Talking About This follows an unnamed protagonist who is obsessed with the “portal” and is constantly looking at social media, what’s going on in the world, what everyone else is doing and it's just so overwhelming. The structure mimics this in chunks of text that hop from one subject to another.

In the second part of the book it completely changes into autofiction and there is a linear structure even though it's still in those same easy to read chunks of paragraphs. It draws you in deeper to form connections with the characters as it weaves a heartbreaking plot.

I'm only giving it four stars because in the first part nothing really happens. It's little spots of plot mixed in with powerful concepts and bizarre streams of consciousness. However, the second half slows down and becomes more sensical, highlighting all of the things we're missing by being plugged in all the time and how you really only realise what you're missing when something goes wrong. Tiny moments we take for granted like the sound of music, or feeling the sun on your face, or being kissed by dog. These simple things are so much more important than the collective hivemind of social media and memes.

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queermath's review against another edition

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emotional reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

this book captures so well what it feels like to be Extremely Online TM in the years 2019-2021.

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definebookish's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

At times, No One Is Talking About This reads like an essay, or memoir. At others, prose-poetry. It’s about a woman who is deeply online, known for her viral social media posts, a frequent speaker on the topic until a crisis in her offline life forces her to take some time out.

I sticky tabbed the hell out of the first half, which is full of these acutely observed sideways jibes at this online existence of ours. I demanded my wife listen to fragments I found particularly genius as I read them aloud. Then I started to doubt either the book or myself, imagining each neon sticker a mere throwaway analogue ‘like’ at exactly the point when the narrative began to shift focus, anyway.

The second half surprised me – the family crisis at the book’s heart unfolding with a kind of purity and tenderness the first half didn’t lead me to expect. For the most part, I think the contrast works; it’s hard to reconcile the two halves, but that disconnect is kind of the point.

Overall, I think it’s insightful and elegant and poignant. The observations about online life resonated deeply with me. However, where the fragmented nature of the narrative works in the first half because it feels like scrolling, for me the second half only worked in spite of that.

Content Warnings

alylentz's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was absolutely engrossing in the first half, and then an absolute gut punch in the second that I was completely unprepared for in the best way. It felt like being an alien introduced to social media, where things are vaguely recognizable but also incomprehensible. Every time I turned to Twitter while reading this I felt detached and a little nauseated, but I think in a really healthy way. And I wept at the end. This book manages to be funny, deeply moving, has a totally unique voice, and got me to assess habits I don't always think about. This is the second work of Patricia Lockwood's I've loved: it was eagerly anticipated, completely unexpected, and exceeded my expectations.

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