A review by willowbiblio
No One Is Talking about This by Patricia Lockwood

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

5.0

“What do you mean you’ve been spying on me, with this thing in my hand that is an eye?”
——————-
This book was so unique and its style. I felt like Lockwood saw right through to the essence of what life is like today, especially the essence of being so online that your references and reality become a segment all their own. 

The prose captures the absurdity of life and society, but also the earnestness – how can you not be moved by stories of loss of complete strangers, delivered in under two minutes? 

The tone of this book and the narrator shifts to something devastatingly serious. Lockwood addresses the legislation around pregnancies and women’s bodies through what appears to be a deeply personal lens. The main character’s father represents many men who believe they *must* know better and more than women and then are confronted with the consequences of their beliefs and no longer want to stand behind them when it is too late. 

The way Lockwood wrote about loving and grieving a child who was wanted, but brought into the world to live only assisted and in struggle felt like such an immense emotional experience to witness. This pivotal experience, this re-ordering of priorities and perspective, left her disconnected from the Portal and her previous self. 

What does any of it matter when you experience something so profoundly altering? Hilarious, zany, sad and thought-provoking. An excellent book.