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0802kelley's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Self harm
Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Violence
Minor: Child death
synapticneuron's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
This book certainly fills all those roles, but not in the way I had hoped. The more I read this dark, intriguing, slice-of-life/memoir, the more I hated it.
The characters all are unsightly people who make sure the world knows how bitter or blind they are to it. I felt almost no pity or remorse for the plight that they constantly dove into. They make decisions that want to make you rip your hair out, close the book, and perhaps even burn it.
That being said, I kept reading.
Moreso to hold alight this morbidly interestingly life that the late Kathrine Dunn procured in her brain. A story once lost, but unearthed post-death to live a new life. She has such a way with words, and it's captivating power would keep taking me by surprise with it's intricate and intimate prose.
But more often that power was used to twist the reader's vision into the mud. You get to know it's taste and textures, and who's boot has last been in it. Maybe too familiar.
I think that gritty familiarity, as bitter as it is, just may help you understand the people you pass by, and world you walk in.
I felt torn in the usefulness of the tagged content warnings. How these elements were used, and is a driving reason I would not recommend this book.
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child death, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Animal death, and Self harm
Moderate: Gore, Body shaming, Eating disorder, Medical trauma, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, and Excrement
Minor: Toxic relationship and Toxic friendship
machete0s's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Graphic: Child death, Fatphobia, and Suicide attempt
jcinf's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
(TW on animal abuse.)
About halfway through I skipped 15 pages or so bc she spent so much time talking about eating. For no reason.
Sally was really not likeable to me… at all. She was rude and nasty to people she called her friends. I mean we can all be rude sometimes, but I found myself wondering if she even liked her friends at all. And she went on bullying someone for 3-4 pages. It was cruel and made me not root for her. That said, I didn’t care what happened to her. It was Carlotta I cared about most.
Not great, but I pushed through because I didn’t want my first book of the year to be DNF.
Overall, I can see why people enjoyed it, but it was largely a miss for me.
Really well written in places, though. Very descriptive — for better or for worse lol.
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Excrement, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood
Moderate: Child death
gabedon's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Child death, Fatphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Mental illness, and Drug use
Moderate: Suicide attempt, Excrement, Self harm, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Minor: Vomit
paperknotbooks's review
- 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? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Animal death, and Self harm
owlribbon's review
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
emily_stimmel's review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child death, and Animal death
Moderate: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Animal cruelty
margyreads's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Dunn gives power to ugliness and outcasts and people living on the fringe, which I adore. It is, however, tender to always have fatness tied to otherness, like fat people can’t also be pretty and desirable and funny and gentle.
That major critique aside, I adore Dunn’s control of language, enjoyed the imagery, and am grateful we all are able to experience her work in new ways even after her death. This story was not quite as powerful as Geek Love, but was obviously influenced by Dunn’s life, and was the book she needed to write when she did. The introduction adds delightful depth to the book.
Graphic: Body shaming, Child death, and Fatphobia
Moderate: Animal death