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The characters are so diverse! From a gay Polish man (trans woman?) to a woman who’s best friend is her mom, from British young broke depressed girl to older rich alcoholic. They are all unique and literally jump out through the page.
Mellors write unlikeablility so well—I really hated some of the characters!
The writing also isn’t just in one form but is refreshing and changes throughout out.
I stunned, mindblown, and speechless. I can’t wait to read Blue Sisters (her new book) and will read anything she posts—even her shopping lists.
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Suicide attempt, Alcohol
Minor: Transphobia
Graphic: Addiction, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Cursing, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Xenophobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Sexual harassment
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Racism, Forced institutionalization, Blood
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, Alcohol
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment
Moderate: Animal death, Drug use, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship
Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Infidelity
Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Grief, Suicide attempt
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