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ameliaelliott's review against another edition
dark
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
casparb's review
ma demanded I read this one & glad she did ... I'm going to avoid making the obvious comparisons, . this is very good & I"m genuinely impressed !! with how Eimear keeps that form UP keeps it going & an excellent symptom of this is that one adjusts to the weird. it's brilliantly written semi-experimental prose and I'd rec absolutely, ,, I actually feel most ambivalent about the title which doesn't seem to convey how explosive & restless this text is,,,, unless it's there to reel in the unsuspecting Generereal Public (gasp 9() in which case ok!
also I shou
ld say! very heavy & thematically diffic too! right after Dorothy I am not living with the jollies
also I shou
ld say! very heavy & thematically diffic too! right after Dorothy I am not living with the jollies
leilorenzo's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
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
4.75
This is the most heartbreaking book I've ever read.
It is also necessary.
It's difficult to call it beautiful when it took so long to get through given the dmany breaks needed scattered throughout in order to... You know, still feel ok.
The narration is from the girl's perspective, some kind of "stream of thought", except it is full of breaking points, repetitions and quite nonsensical, so the girl's stream of thought is something else entirely, and it reflects, I believe, how broken she feels.
It is a trigger warning in itself, so be mindful of that. Very graphic many times.
It is also necessary.
It's difficult to call it beautiful when it took so long to get through given the dmany breaks needed scattered throughout in order to... You know, still feel ok.
The narration is from the girl's perspective, some kind of "stream of thought", except it is full of breaking points, repetitions and quite nonsensical, so the girl's stream of thought is something else entirely, and it reflects, I believe, how broken she feels.
It is a trigger warning in itself, so be mindful of that. Very graphic many times.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Terminal illness, Violence, Blood, and Sexual harassment
Moderate: Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Grief
sarahjanekennedy's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-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
3.5
li22ie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
slow-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
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Death, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail
alice_speilburg's review against another edition
3.0
The prose read more like poetry, and once I adjusted, was quite beautiful. If the plot or the logic was at times difficult to grasp, the emotion was raw and it was easy to connect to the girl, despite her many flaws. This book opens another window to how society affects our girls, how we turn the other way or accuse instead of help or encourage.
dimminglight's review against another edition
5.0
At first i was confused about the writing style but to me it read like poetry and simply touching.
kyrajade's review against another edition
3.0
Appreciate how experimentative the form is but it's honestly pretty dull to read something so incomprehensible and my eyes just kept running over and not taking anything in. I also feel like you can't form a connection with a character who you can't understand. I didn't get her motives for anything, the story isn't fleshed out enough to properly portray her character development. Considering it's pretty much just a cluster of thoughts on every page I had no idea what she was thinking most of the time. Events which were supposed to be sad were kind of cheapened by the form and just passed by without much thought. I think my main problem is that if the form is supposed to represent the character's consciousness it should have become more legible as she got older and only descended into madness when her brother is diagnosed/passes. Realistically even when she is 13-16 it should have gained some consistent clarity. Also I mean people don't even really think in these kinds of thought patterns anyway. I think the plot is so interesting but I would have been more engaged if I actually could get to grips with what was going on and why the protag is acting this way.
fionac326's review against another edition
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
janetmf3's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-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? It's complicated
4.0
In scathing, furious, unforgettable prose, Eimear McBride tells the story of a young girl's devastating adolescence as she and her brother, who suffers from a brain tumor, struggle for a semblance of normalcy in the shadow of sexual abuse, denial, and chaos at home.
This stream of consciousness novel explores an Irish girl's relationship with her disabled brother, religious mother, and her own troubled sexuality.
McBride's experimental style "forgoes quotation marks and elides verbiage for sense, sound and sheer appearance on the page. For emphasis it occasionally wreaks havoc on capitals and reverses letter order."
'A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing' is an example of an author mirroring the style and structure of the story with the subject material of which it is concerned. McBride seems to have carefully considered even the decision of not naming her narrator
– a decision which further enforces her state of being half-formed, as the title suggests. The story’s unique prose and dual plot-line combine to create a suggested series of images that seems not so much an account, but a mental framework of the story’s protagonist.
I read this in college almost ten years ago and I always remember it having such a huge impact on me. I absolutely adored its dark, gripping themes and unusual writing style. Having listened to the audiobook now, it didn't have the same kind of impact, I'm not sure if that is because it has been so long since I last read it and I have romanticed the novel, or if it's because I listened to it this time when I read it the last time, but the story still had that kind of shocking impact because of the themes, images, characters etc.
I do think that this book won't be for everyone. Like many people hate how Sally Rooney doesn't use quotation marks, this is much worse, with using stream of consciousness, fragmented sentences. However, there is something about the way that it is written that leaves a bigger impact when discussing really dark themes. Everyone in the book is anonymised and even the location, apart from the obvious Irish background, is unknown. It's almost like anyone could read themselves into the story and become the narrator through the process.
The ending has stayed with me for the last 10 years and I have given this book to people in the past as gifts because of the mark it left on me when I first read it. I would love to physically read this book again, but Eimear McBride herself did a fantastic job of reading the audiobook. I don't think anyone else could have emphasised the power behind the message in this novel like she has.
This stream of consciousness novel explores an Irish girl's relationship with her disabled brother, religious mother, and her own troubled sexuality.
McBride's experimental style "forgoes quotation marks and elides verbiage for sense, sound and sheer appearance on the page. For emphasis it occasionally wreaks havoc on capitals and reverses letter order."
'A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing' is an example of an author mirroring the style and structure of the story with the subject material of which it is concerned. McBride seems to have carefully considered even the decision of not naming her narrator
– a decision which further enforces her state of being half-formed, as the title suggests. The story’s unique prose and dual plot-line combine to create a suggested series of images that seems not so much an account, but a mental framework of the story’s protagonist.
I read this in college almost ten years ago and I always remember it having such a huge impact on me. I absolutely adored its dark, gripping themes and unusual writing style. Having listened to the audiobook now, it didn't have the same kind of impact, I'm not sure if that is because it has been so long since I last read it and I have romanticed the novel, or if it's because I listened to it this time when I read it the last time, but the story still had that kind of shocking impact because of the themes, images, characters etc.
I do think that this book won't be for everyone. Like many people hate how Sally Rooney doesn't use quotation marks, this is much worse, with using stream of consciousness, fragmented sentences. However, there is something about the way that it is written that leaves a bigger impact when discussing really dark themes. Everyone in the book is anonymised and even the location, apart from the obvious Irish background, is unknown. It's almost like anyone could read themselves into the story and become the narrator through the process.
The ending has stayed with me for the last 10 years and I have given this book to people in the past as gifts because of the mark it left on me when I first read it. I would love to physically read this book again, but Eimear McBride herself did a fantastic job of reading the audiobook. I don't think anyone else could have emphasised the power behind the message in this novel like she has.