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0802kelley's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- 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
This book was very interesting to me. As someone with a Bachelors in Creative Writing and Literature, this read like something that I would read for class-- that is to say, it makes you think about the process of writing, of humanity, of mental illness. This was a very different read for me and I have MANY trigger warnings that I will list. But overall, this book is gritty, dirty, at times absolutely disgusting. It shows the lives of those who want to live more freely, but also are under capitalism. Can I say I "enjoyed it" per say? Not really, but its not a book that I believe is meant to be "enjoyed" I did however feel like I got a peak into a life that I never would have seen and I feel different because of it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fatphobia, Suicide attempt, Mental illness, Body shaming, and Self harm
Moderate: Eating disorder, Sexual assault, and Violence
Minor: Child death
synapticneuron's review
challenging
dark
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- 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
I've recently become a fan of books that bring stories, characters, and unique perspectives to light, and thusly stumbled into Toad.
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.
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.
Content Warnings
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
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Fatphobia, and Suicide attempt
jcinf's review
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- 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
Some parts I really enjoyed reading. Other parts I found myself wondering what the point was. Gross descriptions for lots of sections — specially regarding her eating and unnecessary hurt of animals.
(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.
(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.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Death, Excrement, Fatphobia, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, and Blood
Moderate: Child death
kristinamj's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-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? Yes
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Self harm and Suicide attempt
gabedon's review
dark
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
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
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
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? Yes
4.0
Gritty w/ some SUPER infuriating characters. Lots of trigger warnings.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Eating disorder, Suicide attempt, Misogyny, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Animal death, and Self harm
owlribbon's review
dark
funny
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Animal cruelty, Fatphobia, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide attempt
emily_stimmel's review
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- 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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide attempt, Child death, and Animal death
Moderate: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Fatphobia, and Animal cruelty
peggyd's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
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? Yes
4.5
As a HUGE fan of Geek Love, I worried that I might be putting too much pressure on Toad to live up to those impossible expectations. But mostly I think Toad is just as much a success, albeit in a different, quieter way.
Where Geek Love is large-scale, fantastical love and brutality, Toad is personal, more realistic brutality (I did not find much love here beyond the longing for it and the performance of it). Both are about those on the fringes, those we judge as "out there" or "not normal" and we get to see their interiority and therefore their utter normality, just expressed in more extreme, less acceptable ways.
In Toad, this is all accomplished through Sally, basically a hermit living alone by choice and reflecting on how she got to this place. We bounce between this present with Sally's small house, her jug of goldfish swimming as a table centerpiece and her fat Toad burbling in the backyard, and her past in a small college-town in Oregon where she gets drawn into her neighbor's Sam bohemian and increasingly unhinged lifestyle. Dunn kills it in her descriptions: so many bodily fluids and just gross griminess that I was nearly passing out--I could smell the overwhelming cat piss scenting Sam's house, the body odors of people who wash infrequently all mingling together, the pot and cigarette smoke, all of it. Dunn is the best at setting these scenes and just making them the foundation of her characters' lives. Sally's snot could be its own character, I swear. And Rennell's constant grabbing and adjusting of himself in his leather pants, well, it got to be a bit much.
But she also is exceptionally good at capturing the bleakest parts of ourselves and our experiences. Sally loathes herself--her body, her needs, her clinginess to men who don't truly care for or need her. But she can also see the posturing and insecurities of others and gives them a lot of forgiveness for the bad things they do in service of those insecurities. It's harrowing stuff. There's a description of a horrible tragedy where Sam's girlfriend/wife Carlotta reacts in such a horrific but understandable way that I seriously had to put the book down and breathe for a bit. Shit gets bleak.
Still, the writing drew me in and kept me coming back, turning the pages, sometimes wanting to cover my eyes and sometimes wanting to sit at Sally's table and munch on cookies with her and the goldfish. There's a chapter on Sally's obsession with Volcano Bars (a candy bar) that is told in such exquisite detail I was in awe. Perfect writing, perfect chapter. I knew this world. I understood this world. I was often horrified by this world. And Dunn captures it all perfectly.
Where Geek Love is large-scale, fantastical love and brutality, Toad is personal, more realistic brutality (I did not find much love here beyond the longing for it and the performance of it). Both are about those on the fringes, those we judge as "out there" or "not normal" and we get to see their interiority and therefore their utter normality, just expressed in more extreme, less acceptable ways.
In Toad, this is all accomplished through Sally, basically a hermit living alone by choice and reflecting on how she got to this place. We bounce between this present with Sally's small house, her jug of goldfish swimming as a table centerpiece and her fat Toad burbling in the backyard, and her past in a small college-town in Oregon where she gets drawn into her neighbor's Sam bohemian and increasingly unhinged lifestyle. Dunn kills it in her descriptions: so many bodily fluids and just gross griminess that I was nearly passing out--I could smell the overwhelming cat piss scenting Sam's house, the body odors of people who wash infrequently all mingling together, the pot and cigarette smoke, all of it. Dunn is the best at setting these scenes and just making them the foundation of her characters' lives. Sally's snot could be its own character, I swear. And Rennell's constant grabbing and adjusting of himself in his leather pants, well, it got to be a bit much.
But she also is exceptionally good at capturing the bleakest parts of ourselves and our experiences. Sally loathes herself--her body, her needs, her clinginess to men who don't truly care for or need her. But she can also see the posturing and insecurities of others and gives them a lot of forgiveness for the bad things they do in service of those insecurities. It's harrowing stuff. There's a description of a horrible tragedy where Sam's girlfriend/wife Carlotta reacts in such a horrific but understandable way that I seriously had to put the book down and breathe for a bit. Shit gets bleak.
Still, the writing drew me in and kept me coming back, turning the pages, sometimes wanting to cover my eyes and sometimes wanting to sit at Sally's table and munch on cookies with her and the goldfish. There's a chapter on Sally's obsession with Volcano Bars (a candy bar) that is told in such exquisite detail I was in awe. Perfect writing, perfect chapter. I knew this world. I understood this world. I was often horrified by this world. And Dunn captures it all perfectly.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal cruelty and Suicide attempt
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