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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
i think about the girl with the green ribbon round her neck a lot
dark
emotional
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
None of these stories really grabbed me or want to re read them. But some of the writing was really great. So 3.5 it is
I LOVED some of the stories, and some of the other stories didn't resonate with me as deeply or were maybe too vague for me to feel a lot about. Definitely need to re-read this sometime in the future to see how my perception of these stories change!
My favorites were The Husband Stitch, Inventory, Especially Heinous, and The Resident.
My favorites were The Husband Stitch, Inventory, Especially Heinous, and The Resident.
I've been reading Carmen Maria Machado's writing since at least 2010. I've always enjoyed the fact that her stories are always a little unusual, either in structure or because of some plot twist I never saw coming. I was really excited to read Her Body and Other Parties, her first collection, and especially eager to read the few stories I hadn't encountered before. I wasn't disappointed. This collection, which opens with The Husband Stitch (a story that scratches so many raised-in-the-1990s itches for me), is scary and sexy and queer (so delightfully queer!) and weird. I've been recommending it to a lot of people lately.
weird, experimental, queer, feminist and enjoyable
I really like Mothers, and Inventory, but also found Especially Heinous a bit tedious.
Funny quotes:
Mothers: “Back in Bad's bed, in the good bed, as she slid her hand into me, and I pulled and she gave and I opened and she came without touching herself, and I responded by losing all speech, I thought, Thank god we cannot make a baby.”
Especially Heinous: “Stabler has determined that he is not even a little bit gay. He swallows his disappointment.”
Eight Bites: “I remember that my daughter is in her late twenties and lives in Portland with a roommate who is not really her roommate and she will not tell me and I don't know why.”
From The Resident: “He sounded like a drinker, and possibly a homo-sexual. I took an immediate liking to him.”
I really like Mothers, and Inventory, but also found Especially Heinous a bit tedious.
Funny quotes:
Mothers: “Back in Bad's bed, in the good bed, as she slid her hand into me, and I pulled and she gave and I opened and she came without touching herself, and I responded by losing all speech, I thought, Thank god we cannot make a baby.”
Especially Heinous: “Stabler has determined that he is not even a little bit gay. He swallows his disappointment.”
Eight Bites: “I remember that my daughter is in her late twenties and lives in Portland with a roommate who is not really her roommate and she will not tell me and I don't know why.”
From The Resident: “He sounded like a drinker, and possibly a homo-sexual. I took an immediate liking to him.”
It made me feel like I was 13, and suddenly I am 18 then 20 and just so aware of how much I relate to these women and how I see so many of the most important women in my life staring at me but the more I look at them the less I see them and the more I see myself. A truly amazing collection of short stories, the writing style felt like velvet.
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
fast-paced
challenging
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes