Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Trust Exercise

Gaps, twists, elisions, and warped reflections make up the meat of this nostalgic, lonely, alone-feeling book. You might be fooled by the plain and only occasionally lovely writing, but a strong authorial hand is controlling the text. This book is like a single piece of paper you flip over again and again, but keep seeing new information on, as if there are two dozen pages folded accordion-like inside this one sheet. Great sex writing also, from the rapturous to the nauseating.

Content Warnings

melchong's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

1.5

i wanted to dnf this book so badly, but it was short enough that i saw it through. i didn’t love the long, meandering sentences, but that’s just personal preference. i think the concept of this book is interesting and compelling. it very well captures

the self-absorbed perspectives of high schoolers, an unreliable narrator, how we draw the lines between fact and fiction, and the exploitation of young generations, especially women and across generations.

in fact if it was approached differently i might have actually loved it.

my biggest issue is that there is just far too much gratuitous underage sexual content that feels so icky!! i understand that’s part of the point -

these kids have been exploited and abused while coming into their own

, but i just don’t think it needed to be this explicit, detailed, or frequent. because of that, it doesn’t matter how interesting the overall concept was, i would never recommend this book to anyone.

Content Warnings

erickaonpaper's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-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

4.5

you will be thinking. of this book, during this book, after this book. susan choi makes sure of that. i applaud all of the care, the thought, and the possibilities this book offers. i'm so excited to reread this!

Content Warnings

tragicdramatic23's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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mandi_lea's review against another edition

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mysterious sad 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

3.0

Content Warnings

travisppe's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

The format of this book is going to stick with me for a long time. Very cool.

Content Warnings

tracey1981's review

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challenging 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

3.25

There’s a lot going on in this book and it would make for a great book club selection with much to discuss. I haven’t decided fully yet how I felt about it but I have definitely thought about it a lot while reading and since finishing and probably will for awhile yet. I think this book wanted to provoke conversation and shed light on the harms done by sexual predators in schools and I think it succeeded at that but as many reviewers have said it’s also a challenging, confusing, maybe somewhat elitist read that I read two articles about after to make sure I’d understood it. So I dunno. I’d suggest checking the content warnings, and also deciding if you’re up for a unique somewhat challenging structure, before picking this one up…

Content Warnings

levc's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective 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

4.25

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