A review by bargainbinkazbrekker
Hurt You by Marie Myung-Ok Lee

3.25

I knew i wasn’t going to necessarily enjoy this book going into it but i still read it because i was interested to see how the author would tackle a book like Steinbeck’s Of mice and men. It’s one of those books that thousands have had to read and it holds a place as one of those infamous yet deeply problematic classics. Tackling a classic that’s over arching theme and plot is based in ableism and borderline eugenics is a challenge in if itself, by itself, and that’s where this book lost me. It was tackling so much in so few pages: Ableism, Gun violence, Gun control, School shootings, White Supremacy in spaces and communities of color, Familial strain, violences against disabled people, and advocacy. I was getting whiplash from trying to understand what the author was trying to say about each and every social issue but there was just not enough time and pages to get a fully fleshed out understanding of the authors full message. 

The novel did manage to handle its disabled character with so much more respect and autonomy than the original text and Georgia is an excellent main character to follow, even if i was iffy about following an able bodied protagonist who basically speaks for our disabled character, Leo. But it’s handled respectfully and you can feel how much Georgia loves and cares for Leo, and how she takes time to understand him and his commutation style, etc.

I think this would’ve have been a fantastic novel for me had the author either limited the amount of social issues they attempted to address or hand more pages to expand on each of them to give them the nuance and time they deserve.

I’m sitting at a solid 3 to 3.25 out of 5 stars. It’s good, but I have a couple qualms.