Reviews tagging 'Alcoholism'

Like Water by Rebecca Podos

1 review

courtneyfalling's review

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challenging emotional sad tense slow-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

3.5

I have such mixed feelings on this book!!! Did I enjoy reading it? Yes. But did it take me a surprisingly long time to read it because of how slow and deliberate the opening few chapters felt (and, really, most of the book)? Also yes. Did I really love Vanni at points and appreciate the careful construction of Huntington's Disease in her life? Yes. And did I have some serious issues with other elements of representation in this book, especially with the main relationship between Vanni and Leigh? Oh man, yes.

Let's start with what I thought this book did well:
  • The relationship between Vanni and her dad was never a primary part of this book, we get a lot more of Vanni's interior thoughts and reactions, but I really liked the final conversation between them. It was the main part of this book that made me finally, solidly tear up, in a good way. 
  • I'm really glad that this book never told us directly what Vanni's test results were. I really didn't want "proof of disability!" or "proof of nondisability!" to be the point, but instead to let this sit as a more dynamic story about having a disabled parent and having to accept your own physical vulnerability and mortality as a temporarily able-bodied young person, as you're figuring everything else out, too. And that's exactly what it got to sit as.

Now, a nitpicky complaint:
  • I was gonna include a whole rant on how Division II schools aren't that common and most of the distinction involves Division I vs. Division III, then I realized that's mostly a regional complaint and I am wrong. But I spent too much of the book annoyed by, yet again, a shallow understanding of the college admissions process for me to not include a point about it. This has no real bearing on whether you should read this book or not but it bothered me because I am a bitch. 

And the ~really messed up~ stuff: 
  • Leigh getting into a fistfight at Vanni's friend's party was concerning, but with trepidation, I could accept her anger at the lesbophobic guy who she fought. She definitely escalated the situation well beyond how violent it needed to get, especially when we later learn that she needed to be dragged out so she'd stop beating the shit out of him, but she was not initially at fault and it's not fair to totally place the onus on her for responding poorly to oppressive BS she shouldn't have had to deal with in the first place. But. Oh boy. Kicking a table and breaking a whole set of someone else's important items, having that extreme of a violent outburst, while fighting with your girlfriend is really bad. Like, immediate abuse red flag bad. It's not love and it's not healthy. And it's unfortunately not challenged well on the page, where we get a lot of sympathy for Leigh's anger issues but almost no engagement with how she inappropriately channels her anger into harm or danger for those around her, especially Vanni. Those both can be true at once and those both should be true at once.
  • There's some... problematic biphobic comments that never get fully unpacked. I use "problematic" in its stricter definition, along the lines of "questionable," because the comments do get partially addressed, and a central part of Vanni's story involves coming out to herself and others as bi, which is overall handled well. But Leigh's initial reaction when Vanni first kisses her is to basically accuse Vanni of being a straight girl having a phase who's going to run straight back to hooking up with lots of boys, combining some good ol' biphobia and slutshaming together in a terrible mix. And then you can compare this to how well Vanni reacted when Leigh came out as genderqueer near the end of the book and a) get even more frustrated at Leigh, who is a genuinely crappy partner, and b) get frustrated with the writing of this book and the author for not having Leigh explicitly apologize/address her biphobic comments/not have frickin' made those comments in the first place! Like, look: you can absolutely write characters' saying or doing problematic things in YA, it's actually sometimes helpful to show YA readers how to recognize problematic actions and how they should expect friends to apologize or how they themselves should apologize if they realize they've done something problematic. But you need to include that second part to make the problematic content take on a dynamic and helpful role in the story, rather than potentially reinforcing its presence or isolating readers! Or you need to address how the characters could have apologized and what the consequences are if/when they don't change! This is a big part of how YA and adult fiction really differ, or should differ, in their handling of "problematic" content. And I can absolutely tell that this novel was trying to run that line, was trying to represent bisexuality and coming out as bisexual well, but I am just not sure it totally succeeded, especially between Leigh and Vanni as a couple.
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