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Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Acephobia/Arophobia, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Cultural appropriation, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, Deportation
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Gaslighting
Moderate: Bullying, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Blood, Grief, Death of parent
The only reason I finished this book was because it is my Book Club novel. I fought and sweated my way through page by page because it’s just so bad. It’s part of the trend for authors to try to make their books “deeper” by flooding every character with trauma. Pain Porn if you prefer.
The author thought that by giving each character a single-defining struggle she is making them less one-dimensional but because of that they felt almost like cartoon characters. Cleo - beautiful, thin, talented, young BUT WAIT she is depressed and has both mummy and daddy issues; Frank - beautiful, “manly”, successful, rich and older BUT WAIT he had mummy issues and is an alcoholic, Zoe - beautiful, thin, talented BUT WAIT she has seizures, Quentin - beautiful, thin, rich “snarky gay best friend” BUT WAIT he can’t come out of the closet because of his homophobic Polish family (fuck you for that Coc, enforcing Polish stereotypes) and is a drug addict, Anders - beautiful, thin, rich fuckboy BUT WAIT his step-son doesn’t like him anymore and his parents don’t visit him in the US. You see what I mean? The only half-decent characters are Eleanor and Santiago, just because they are not awful to other people, but they rarely are given voice and in the end are pushed into the role of “I can fix him” girl for Frank and “losing weight will let you find love”, respectively. Nauseating. TikTok girlies, wake up, this is not literary fiction you claim it to be.
The book obviously features a lot of content warnings - wouldn’t be a pain porn without it - but I’m not sure if it’s handled even passably well.
This book angered me on so many levels. It was the superficial depth, wannabe literary fiction, over sexualisation of everything (Zoe saying that she is “a real girl” now, after climaxing, nauseated me), disrespectful treatment of a lot of extremely heavy issues and -how could I forget - BLATANT plagiarism of other media (yes, I’m looking at you ripped-off Fleabag dinner scene). Awful
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Chronic illness, Deadnaming, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Antisemitism, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Classism
If I were to rate the characters in terms of likability for me, it would go from top to bottom: Eleanor, Santiago, Zoe, Frank, Cleo, Anders, Quentin 🫠
I did find the switch from third person to first person narratives difficult but also enjoyable. Eleanor really became my favourite through her dry and sarcastic humour that was masking her love 🥲
The relationships were SO HUMAN. So flawed, so messy and yet in all of that, so stunning. I couldn’t stop weeping at one point 🥹
4 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Death, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Abandonment
Moderate: Homophobia
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug use, Fatphobia, Mental illness, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Addiction, Animal death, Body shaming, Bullying, Cursing, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Death of parent, Gaslighting
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Toxic friendship
Moderate: Bullying, Death, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Blood, Grief, Classism
Minor: Cultural appropriation