Reviews - Sex & Rage | The StoryGraph

1.43k reviews for:

Sex & Rage

Eve Babitz

3.61 AVERAGE

peytonsurp's review against another edition

2.5

medium-paced

luisaveronica_'s review against another edition

5.0

reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

lucyrose1608's review against another edition

3.0

hopeful reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

ichundelaine4711's review against another edition

3.5

lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Reading Sex and Rage felt like stepping into a sun-drenched, gin-soaked mirage—beautiful, fleeting, and impossible to grasp. Eve Babitz’s prose is effortlessly intoxicating, the kind that makes you feel cooler just by reading it. She captures the languid chaos of LA and the glossy grit of New York with a sharp, almost accidental brilliance, as if she’s simply tossing out perfect sentences while lounging by the pool.

But if you asked me what Sex and Rage is actually about, I’d have no clue. There’s a woman named Jacaranda, an artist, a writer (kind of?), who floats through parties, love affairs, and existential crises, drifting between cities and men in a haze of cigarettes and champagne. Things happen, but they don’t necessarily build toward anything. The plot—if you can call it that—feels more like a series of beautiful, disconnected vignettes, strung together by Babitz’s effortless cool rather than any real sense of direction.

And yet, I loved it. Not because I understood it, but because it made me feel like I was eavesdropping on a world where people are effortlessly glamorous and recklessly self-destructive, where wit and beauty can momentarily transcend the mess of life. Maybe that’s the point—Sex and Rage isn’t a book you follow; it’s a book you sink into, letting Babitz’s prose wash over you like the Pacific tide Jacaranda keeps drifting away from.