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A review by ellethinks
Self-Portrait with Boy by Rachel Lyon
2.0
If this book had been tended to more, given more love and labor and editing, it could have been great.
What I liked:
- The prose, at times, was beautiful.
- The plot line was unique.
- The novel is deeply seeded in consciousness, so the lack of quotations worked for me.
What I did not like:
- The writing was inconsistent. When it was at it's best, it was airy and light. However, when it strayed from that, it strayed far.
- The book stars off in the future, and she looks back to this year in her life. I didn't feel like that added much, if anything, and when sporadically through the book you went back to the frame story, of sorts, it felt out of place.
- The themes of the book were all over the place. The book, at it's heart, is about a young woman making a decision and dealing with the consequences of it. It deals with her guilt, her friendships, her poorness, her sleepness, among other things. But then, in the last 40ish pages, some love nonsense is added in, which quite honestly just felt like a way to make the book more diverse. It wasn't built up to, it wasn't discussed, we never saw these thoughts in Lu's head. It was like reading a thriller novel with a nonsensical plot twist.
- Lu. I didn't mind her as a character. Some other reviewers found her unlikable, but there are plenty of unlikable people in the world so that doesn't bother me. What bothered me were the inconsistencies in her insights into others. Most of the time, she seemed to have no understanding of people's intentions, behaviors, thought processes, or other normal human things (like showing up to your shifts when your scheduled..) However, there were some moments, where she just seemed to get someone, what they were thinking and feeling. And as a reader, you knew she was correct in her "intuitions." But it was inconsistent to her character. It felt more like the author needed to give us some information, but didn't know how since it was a first person narrative. And, instead of using that framestory Lu, the one who had an understanding of how juvenile she was in this time of her life, she decided to use 26 year old Lu, who's quite clueless.
- The magical element was not well enough infused in the narrative to work for the author's purposes.
Never have I had such a tumultuous reading experience. I would go from loving to hating it in the scope of a chapter. And the last line made me angry. I don't want to say it read like a debut novel, because I've read some amazing debuts, but it read like it needed a few more rounds of editing.
Will I ever pick up another Rachel Lyon book? Maybe if I read reviews that the kinks of her writing style here was mended.
What I liked:
- The prose, at times, was beautiful.
- The plot line was unique.
- The novel is deeply seeded in consciousness, so the lack of quotations worked for me.
What I did not like:
- The writing was inconsistent. When it was at it's best, it was airy and light. However, when it strayed from that, it strayed far.
- The book stars off in the future, and she looks back to this year in her life. I didn't feel like that added much, if anything, and when sporadically through the book you went back to the frame story, of sorts, it felt out of place.
- The themes of the book were all over the place. The book, at it's heart, is about a young woman making a decision and dealing with the consequences of it. It deals with her guilt, her friendships, her poorness, her sleepness, among other things. But then, in the last 40ish pages, some love nonsense is added in, which quite honestly just felt like a way to make the book more diverse. It wasn't built up to, it wasn't discussed, we never saw these thoughts in Lu's head. It was like reading a thriller novel with a nonsensical plot twist.
- Lu. I didn't mind her as a character. Some other reviewers found her unlikable, but there are plenty of unlikable people in the world so that doesn't bother me. What bothered me were the inconsistencies in her insights into others. Most of the time, she seemed to have no understanding of people's intentions, behaviors, thought processes, or other normal human things (like showing up to your shifts when your scheduled..) However, there were some moments, where she just seemed to get someone, what they were thinking and feeling. And as a reader, you knew she was correct in her "intuitions." But it was inconsistent to her character. It felt more like the author needed to give us some information, but didn't know how since it was a first person narrative. And, instead of using that framestory Lu, the one who had an understanding of how juvenile she was in this time of her life, she decided to use 26 year old Lu, who's quite clueless.
- The magical element was not well enough infused in the narrative to work for the author's purposes.
Never have I had such a tumultuous reading experience. I would go from loving to hating it in the scope of a chapter. And the last line made me angry. I don't want to say it read like a debut novel, because I've read some amazing debuts, but it read like it needed a few more rounds of editing.
Will I ever pick up another Rachel Lyon book? Maybe if I read reviews that the kinks of her writing style here was mended.