Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.87 AVERAGE
3.87 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Medical content, Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury
I know everyone loves this book, but I just couldn't like these characters! The family dynamic is so twisted. It just broke my heart as one after another thing happens to the characters.
dark
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
One of the most bizarre and unsettling, yet compelling, books I've read a in a good while. It is a strange world that Ms. Dunn has created and a willful suspension of disbelief is needed to get into the meat of the plot but once you get past that hurdle it's an enthralling read. She makes you genuinely care about even the most sidelined characters and draws you into a world you wish you lived in. Highly recommended assuming you don't mind a little weird in your literature.
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I give this book one star not because it was poorly written or boring, but because almost all the elements included in the story left me feeling very creeped out and I found none of the characters very relatable, or even very likable. Some people adore this book, I did not.
Wow where to begin? So this book is often very dark, grisly, and disturbing so honestly if you are not in a good place, stay away from this one. That being said, I really like how it challenged basic assumptions and dared the reader to look away or place judgement. I was often bothered, saddened, and upset by this book but I feel that it is an important piece of magical realist fiction and there's a lot to discuss and learn from it. It's not difficult reading but it is challenging in a lot of other ways. I read it as an audiobook and the reader was fantastic.
Over the past years my star rating has metamorphed from "this is a fantastic book in all ways" to "this book will stick with me a long, long time and has no major issues."
Geek Love is definitely in that "long, long, time" category for stylistic and subject matter reasons. Whoa. Not a book to be read lightly or on a long, winter's comfy night all nestled in your afghan.
This is challenging. It isn't often that I read a book where all of the main characters make bad choices, are abrasive, and cause horrifying physical and emotional damage to each other, and yet still come off a sympathetic.
Don't be fooled by the title-- this is not a light, nerd-centric romance. This is "geek" in its original, sideshow freak meaning of "performer who bites the heads off chickens."
Specifically, the book is about the Binewski family. Al and Lily Binewski experimented with drugs each time Lily was pregnant in order to craft their children into their livelihood. The result is a family, each uniquely shaped, each derisive of "norms", and focused obsessively on the emotional control of Arty, the oldest living brother (who suffers from phocomelia-- causing his legs and arms to be atrophied and flipper like).
Love in this book seems to indicate obsessive interest and submission. The characters are often verbally, as well as emotionally abusive, and the power Arty has over their lives is sometimes unbelievable. Dunn does not shrink away from the uncomfortable topic of what "normalcy" is, and how and why it should be treated. One of the most disturbing things in this book is Arty's cult, an all-too close to reality depiction of people obsessed with elective amputation or with fetishisized erotic images of the Binewskis.
Sometimes the prose was a bit obtuse, and sometimes it was lyrical:
(on describing the main character, Oly's blossoming sexuality)
"I suspect that even if I had begun as a norm, the saw-toothed yearning that whirls in me would bend me and spin me colorless, shrink me, scorch every hair from my body, and all invisibly so only my red eyes would blink out glimpses of the furnace thing inside."
This is a visceral book on many levels, and the biggest reason for the 5 stars for me was that it forced me into a completely different view of the world in a horrible, fascinating way.
Geek Love is definitely in that "long, long, time" category for stylistic and subject matter reasons. Whoa. Not a book to be read lightly or on a long, winter's comfy night all nestled in your afghan.
This is challenging. It isn't often that I read a book where all of the main characters make bad choices, are abrasive, and cause horrifying physical and emotional damage to each other, and yet still come off a sympathetic.
Don't be fooled by the title-- this is not a light, nerd-centric romance. This is "geek" in its original, sideshow freak meaning of "performer who bites the heads off chickens."
Specifically, the book is about the Binewski family. Al and Lily Binewski experimented with drugs each time Lily was pregnant in order to craft their children into their livelihood. The result is a family, each uniquely shaped, each derisive of "norms", and focused obsessively on the emotional control of Arty, the oldest living brother (who suffers from phocomelia-- causing his legs and arms to be atrophied and flipper like).
Love in this book seems to indicate obsessive interest and submission. The characters are often verbally, as well as emotionally abusive, and the power Arty has over their lives is sometimes unbelievable. Dunn does not shrink away from the uncomfortable topic of what "normalcy" is, and how and why it should be treated. One of the most disturbing things in this book is Arty's cult, an all-too close to reality depiction of people obsessed with elective amputation or with fetishisized erotic images of the Binewskis.
Sometimes the prose was a bit obtuse, and sometimes it was lyrical:
(on describing the main character, Oly's blossoming sexuality)
"I suspect that even if I had begun as a norm, the saw-toothed yearning that whirls in me would bend me and spin me colorless, shrink me, scorch every hair from my body, and all invisibly so only my red eyes would blink out glimpses of the furnace thing inside."
This is a visceral book on many levels, and the biggest reason for the 5 stars for me was that it forced me into a completely different view of the world in a horrible, fascinating way.
adventurous
dark
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Apparently you need to be 14-18 to really love this book.