Reviews

So glad this was the first novel I read this year (2018). Davis does a wonder here, where their prose feels quiet and deeply anxious at once. It's a small/intimate story, about a queer couple's (bea and k) relationship (and the conflict that has arisen there) in the Bay area.

All the while, the possibility of the Big One (the big earthquake due from the Cascadia Subduction Zone) looms over the book like a dark cloud. Alongside the uncertain possibility of the earthquake, there also runs interruptions in the text of click-bait headlines about earthquakes and politics (very T****-era) etc. that really help create the conditions of a text that is at once intimate and globally worried—which I think is the way that many of our over-connected lives look these days. But these aspects are not at all overstated in the text, they are just there, tweaking and re-anchoring the novel's tone.

Davis accomplishes a hell of a lot with relatively small decisions like these interrupting headlines, as well as through the chapter titles (most of which repeat themselves on different chapters throughout, like "SORE" and "THE BIG ONE") and the scarcity of capitalization. It is a bit of a shock that this is Davis' first novel, but I'm all here for it. Excited to see where they go next.

youreadtoomuch's review

Go to review page

3.0

Okay, I think I'm ready for this review.

First, the block text style was not doing this book any favors. I mean I did read it quite quickly but did not grasp anything. Capital letters are used sparingly and quotation marks don't exist. Not my favorite style, definitely reminded me of a poem.

Quick synopsis: k has given her girlfriend, bea, herpes and feels so guilty she emotionally and physically distances herself from bea even though bea is now in the clear and on medication. k even goes as far as to solicit strangers online to infect her with herpes because bea refuses to treat k the same way. along the way, bea is obsessed with natural disaster given that they live in a dystopian-waiting for the Big One- Oakland and k is finding the life of monogamy different than what she is used to.

Really didn't enjoy this book, a lot to take in and nothing felt "handled" or cleared up. The ending is very open but not in the "reader take what you will" but more like "so this is it?" The books tagline is Queer love is healing but I couldn't see this in k and bea's relationship. It wasn't until my book club meeting that I realized that I didn't take the time to think of healing on an individual level. For k, queer love is healing and that after struggling with her gender identity she was easily able to just exist as she is with bea. And for bea the healing comes from being in this loving relationship after questioning if her sexuality arises from trauma or just from within, who she is.

Plot wise I was pleasantly surprised to read about STDs in wlw relationships. It's usually a given when it's a story about homosexual men and often straight pairings, but homosexual women are rarely given that storyline. So it was refreshing to see this go down although it could have been handled much better. The whole time I felt like the herpes was the punchline of this book.

Wouldn't really recommend this book though.

zedohee's review

Go to review page

too much vibe work just write

harri_w's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad 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

4.5

bookwyrmm's review

Go to review page

4.0

I read this in November 2021, when omicron was just discovered. I don't think Davis knew a plague was coming, but the feeling that the world could Just End persists. Queer Love is Healing, so you should probably learn to communicate in relationships.