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cocoreads02's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-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
5.0
Unreliable character, story written in a parable, owl baby
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Mental illness, Injury/Injury detail, and Death
samsearle's review
adventurous
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence, Animal death, and Ableism
bibliophilecrocodile's review against another edition
challenging
dark
tense
fast-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
4.25
Wow, I don't know what the f I just read but that it's unexpected and grotesquely beautiful. The way motherhood was described here is just very different and phenomenal. Totally recommend reading. Great start to a new year for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gore, Blood, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Violence, and Excrement
Moderate: Sexual content
Minor: Vomit
ctrl_shift_dlt's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
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? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Moderate: Medical trauma and Murder
Minor: Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Physical abuse, Vomit, and Cannibalism
marymagsalin's review
dark
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Throughout the last week I enjoyed this book right from the first line. The pacing, the imagery, the language were all so compelling that I could barely believe this was Oshetsky’s debut novel. I agree with Marchpane’s take: I also appreciate the author’s restraint from the kind of hackneyed and romantic treatises on motherhood that I see mostly in media and there were moments in this book that reminded me of Plath’s Metaphors.
What I really liked about Chouette was that it wasn’t really about motherhood itself, it’s about being strange and more importantly being abject while being a mother. A lot of the alienation and inner conflict Tiny (the mother and narrator) feels she didn’t just begin to feel right after she was pregnant, but throughout her entire childhood. Her own father stigmatizes her femininity by fetishizing her as a trophy to present to his guy friends while hiding his chronically ill wife away, and going on to tell Tiny that she must repress everything in her that is “wild” after she tries to defend herself.
In that way, after giving birth to a daughter people only see as a deformity, Tiny sees herself in her and promises that she will do all she can to defend her from the rest of society and grant her the freedoms she wasn’t given herself.
It seems Oshetsky simultaneously makes two arguments: that motherhood is consumptive and alienating in that it’s not just the act of raising a child, not just the duty—it eats away at every aspect of her life and identity as an artist, woman, and as a person until motherhood is her identity; but also that since womanhood itself is a role that is subject to much alienation and abjecthood, motherhood ironically provides a source of catharsis and freedom, as grueling and lonely as it can be.
And in the second half of the book as Chouette grows up, we see how the mother loves and champions her, not merely in spite of, because her nonconformity, to the chagrin of her husband and the rest of her family. There are so many moments in this book where in raising Chouette she bemoans that she’ll never quite understand her own child; but there also other moments where being with Chouette grants her a freedom and perspective that she wouldn’t have had if not for her.
Needless to say, by the end when Tiny finally learns to say goodbye to Chouette and set her free, I found myself in a mess of tears.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence
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