A review by louisemaymosley
Gunk by Saba Sams

challenging emotional inspiring reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

This book got me my out of a reading slump. Although not a memoir, it feels so very real. Sam’s shows the raw, chaotic nature of girlhood, capturing moments that often go unspoken. Although I’m vegan, I loved the fried egg on the cover. It perfectly depicts the gritty, British, hangover breakfast whilst gently winking the theme of fertility anxiety and unexpected pregnancy. The complexities of young motherhood are explored through the book, infact, the book starts at the end of the story and goes back. Which I think is what made it such a page turner. Love that it was set in Brighton, you could feel the queerness through the pages even when both Jules, and Nim’s sexualities are explicitly spoke about, I like that it’s ambiguous. Brighton is the perfect setting for the book. I’d say it’s a queer novel, there’s a lot of desire, “I want to breathe her in and breathe her in”. A lot of the book is Jules trying to read Nim and figure out what she’s thinking- and I loved that. It’s so relative of the queer experience, messy, but hot, when Nim is giving birth, there was a quote that hasn’t left my mind, she describes Nim’s identity as evaporating, “the condensation dripping from the big windows”. I loved that she doesn’t sentimentalise motherhood as it reimagines what parenting looks like beyond conventional binaries. Progressive, intimate and queer af. I loved the ending too. Sick of books not rounding things up. Thanks Saba Sam’s, for giving the girls what they want!! I also wanted to cry when Jules said the baby has Nim’s snore.