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A review by krys_kilz
Seek You: A Journey Through American Loneliness by Kristen Radtke
emotional
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.5
The art in this book is gorgeous. The use of color, layout, and text style all really enhanced the book for me.
I found the topic really interesting and the author takes a very informative and researched based approach. I also liked the different vignettes that comprised the book - they did not feel scattered to me. The strongest parts of the book for me were the memoir where the author explored her own experiences with loneliness particularly around family, romantic relationships, and growing up and the social critique on America's obsession with individualism and freedom and how those are very gendered. The aspect I struggled most with was the framing of this book as an exploration of the universal experience of loneliness. The story is not universal, as nothing truly is, so that felt like a major weak point for me. I also felt the author's opinion on guns was deeply rooted in white womanhood. It is a luxury not to need to consider community self-defense.
STRONG trigger warning for animal abuse, animal cruelty, and experiments on animals in this book. She explores Harry Harlow's experiments on monkeys in depth and the details are often quite graphic.
I found the topic really interesting and the author takes a very informative and researched based approach. I also liked the different vignettes that comprised the book - they did not feel scattered to me. The strongest parts of the book for me were the memoir where the author explored her own experiences with loneliness particularly around family, romantic relationships, and growing up and the social critique on America's obsession with individualism and freedom and how those are very gendered. The aspect I struggled most with was the framing of this book as an exploration of the universal experience of loneliness. The story is not universal, as nothing truly is, so that felt like a major weak point for me. I also felt the author's opinion on guns was deeply rooted in white womanhood. It is a luxury not to need to consider community self-defense.
STRONG trigger warning for animal abuse, animal cruelty, and experiments on animals in this book. She explores Harry Harlow's experiments on monkeys in depth and the details are often quite graphic.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Animal death
Moderate: Death, Grief, and Mass/school shootings
Minor: Cancer