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3.4 AVERAGE
3.4 AVERAGE
This is essentially a novel of short stories... there's an over-arching plot that pulls things together. It feels like Chuck had a lot of ideas that worked in a short format, not not a full novel. And these do work (well, mostly). They're sick in that way that you love for Chuck to be sick. Not the Palahniuk gateway-drug, but if you're a fan, you'll like this. A bit weak as it nears the end, but pretty satisfying all-around.
So, obviously this is kind of a gross book. That aside, I did have trouble getting into it for like the first 2/3rds. This wasn't because of the gross stuff...it was more because I thought it was so stupid. People don't work like this, logic doesn't work like this, the world doesn't work like this. I got hung up on wondering whether Chuck P actually believed this is how things are.
This was exasperated by the fact that there are like 16 main characters, and I found their voices and personalities pretty indistinguishable. It felt like Chuck P was using these puppets to make the same stupid points over and over.
But the last 1/3rd of the book, imo, made his kafka-adjacent logic more obviously purposeful. It helped that the themes of haunting, storytelling, and performance were spelled out for dumdums like me. I loved the ending of this book.
That being said, even though I was tempted to rate this 4 stars, I went with 3.75 because I am fresh off this novel and worried that l was being biased by a spectacular ending tacked onto a so-so book.
Also I hated the poetry. Gd, did I hate the poetry.
This isn't a boring book, by any means. I just found it frustrating in the beginning. I did think the
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Torture, Transphobia, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Cannibalism, Murder, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Sexual violence, Violence, Medical content, Kidnapping, Pregnancy