Reviews

Black Wave by Michelle Tea

historyofjess's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I was more fascinated by this book than I really enjoyed it. Tea plays with her narrative by experimenting with her very personal stories by adding in science fiction and fantasy elements (including the end of the world), as well as breaking the fourth wall by pointing when things aren't written as they actually happened in an effort to protect the people in her life that might not want to be a part of her story anymore. It's kind messy and wild and, again, fascinating, but I was more impressed by it than anything. I think there were some really interesting ideas in here, but it generally kind of a scattered book.

impurus's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

literarycrushes's review against another edition

4.0

Black Wave by Michelle Tea is many things: an anti-memoir, an existential manifesto, and a sci-fi-tinged, apocalyptic novel. It read a lot like a retelling of Michelle’s first memoir, Valencia, about coming of age in the queer, drug-fueled bars and alleyways of San Francisco’s Mission District in the late 90s, through the lens of a present day/sober Michelle who knew she would make it out alive. The first half of the novel takes place on the cusp on the new millennium and Michelle (the main character & authors share a name) is deeply involved with heroin, speed and alcohol. There is a small but growing part of her that knows if she doesn’t make it out of San Francisco soon, she will likely die there. So, she hatches a plan to move to Los Angeles where she can write her screenplay and finally get sober. She mostly uses this as an excuse to go on a bender during her last month where she loses most of her long-term friends and has a heroin-fueled affair with a married androgynous “being” named Quinn.
The second half of the novel takes place in LA where Michelle is somewhat miraculously able to cut out drugs almost immediately but starts filling her nights with binge-drinking. “Jugs of wine, ones meant for a large Italian family to sip over a Sunday dinner. She brought it home and consumed the entirety of it. Each time she considered stopping- That’s it, that was the last glass, time to go to bed- a feeling like heartbreak washed through her body. It was the saddest feeling in the world, the feeling of going to bed, of ending the drinking. You can drink again tomorrow, Michelle promised herself. God to bed. But she couldn’t.”
Michelle Tea is one of the most talented and insightful writers about the subject of addiction. I wouldn’t really call this is a novel about getting sober since pretty much the entire book is about doing all the things, all the time, but I do think this is a powerful story of a writer taking control and gaining authority over her past through writing about it.

**4 stars only because the nosedive into the apocalyptic end of the world metaphor at the end sort of lost me.

alexture's review against another edition

i am so sick and tired of books about people being drugged messes and I don't know why they keep popping up in my toRead list 

carterjj's review against another edition

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

lizawall's review against another edition

5.0

Too real!

piercer43's review

dark emotional funny reflective fast-paced

4.5

Michelle Tea’s Black Wave is about writing about something that someone you love has expressively forbidden you to write about. Tea tells you as much in the first meta-fictional turn the novel takes, following a break-neck, self-pastiche first leg, which situates the reader in Tea’s life of dykes and drug use in San Francisco. A minor but extremely striking character is revealed as the subject, and recurs only in bits and pieces of narrative commentary. These are timed to great effect. The reader is caught up in the action, only to be whipped out of it. Despite the scattering of the subject into a handful or two of other characters, we’re left with an immense amount of pathos and empathy for both that absent yet omnipresent character, and the ones displaced by their omnipresence. 

At points, I felt as though I were reading Dennis Cooper’s The Sluts for lesbians. I would highly recommend this book. 

sleepingsaha's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny 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? Yes

4.5

I enjoyed reading this fun and weird novel! I think Tea did a great job building out Michelle's worlds, both in SF and LA, to the point where I was fully inhabiting her life. Tea also has a great sense of character and I loved the incisive emotional interiority of even the side characters. I did feel that the end was a little rushed and I would have been excited to more fully explore the magical realism elements. 

amaiso's review

adventurous funny fast-paced

3.25

What a kooky time. Got very meta in the second half which I didn’t expect and absolutely loved. I’ll definitely be keeping tabs on Michelle Tea’s future work 

liamistrending's review

dark mysterious sad 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

2.0