Scan barcode
A review by logarithms
New Animal by Ella Baxter
2.0
ok this is what the book club i just joined is reading but tbh i wouldnt have picked up this book otherwise
im gonna need a doesthedogdie.com/categories/does-the-mum-die page for this shit i keep accidentally picking up books where the mum dies and u know....i cannot Take It....
this book was a pretty weird exploration of grief, which im sure could appeal to certain ppl, but not meeee. personally i found the whole thing very performative and not genuine (and honestly that might be the goal since the main character was constantly thinking about how others should see her grief, so maybe she played up the drama and imagination to make her grief a more engaging performance? tbh i dont know) and all the characters were so FLAT idk even the main character somehow there was no substancial 'personhood' i could read into any of them? this is especially reflected in the dialogue - it doesnt sound like ppl talking to each other, its so scripted/staged/PERFORMMEED (and im australian so this isnt a cultural shift problem ok)
i thought...the baby at the end was gonna be revealed to be hers lmao....idk why i just expected a random plot twist thrown in
i liked the imagery of her stress dream where her mum pulls out her heart and they sit in a pool of blood....not to be a total weeb but all i pictured in my head was a cross between end of eva and sarazanmai...
(pelase understand:)
(if any of u were taking this review seriously i hope the addition of anime screencaps has convinced u that my opinions r not valid)
the severely differing experience of grief here kinda makes me wanna write my own book tho (thousand grains of salt w this one i could never write something cohesive)....like have u ever had a breakdown because u were sweeping ur parents bathroom and found strands of ur dead mums hair which u couldnt stop thinking about after u threw it out because what if tmr its announced that theres a new technology that lets u bring ppl back to life from dna and u just threw out the last of ur mums, huh? what then? what if they discovered a cure for cancer the day after she died from it? hold up i shouldnt be putting this in a goodreads review
SIDENOTE i read this on international asexuality day which made everything REALLY FUNNY>. like sorry mate im no two headed beast im just one of many bugs crawling under this log
im gonna need a doesthedogdie.com/categories/does-the-mum-die page for this shit i keep accidentally picking up books where the mum dies and u know....i cannot Take It....
this book was a pretty weird exploration of grief, which im sure could appeal to certain ppl, but not meeee. personally i found the whole thing very performative and not genuine (and honestly that might be the goal since the main character was constantly thinking about how others should see her grief, so maybe she played up the drama and imagination to make her grief a more engaging performance? tbh i dont know) and all the characters were so FLAT idk even the main character somehow there was no substancial 'personhood' i could read into any of them? this is especially reflected in the dialogue - it doesnt sound like ppl talking to each other, its so scripted/staged/PERFORMMEED (and im australian so this isnt a cultural shift problem ok)
i thought...the baby at the end was gonna be revealed to be hers lmao....idk why i just expected a random plot twist thrown in
i liked the imagery of her stress dream where her mum pulls out her heart and they sit in a pool of blood....not to be a total weeb but all i pictured in my head was a cross between end of eva and sarazanmai...
(pelase understand:)
(if any of u were taking this review seriously i hope the addition of anime screencaps has convinced u that my opinions r not valid)
the severely differing experience of grief here kinda makes me wanna write my own book tho (thousand grains of salt w this one i could never write something cohesive)....like have u ever had a breakdown because u were sweeping ur parents bathroom and found strands of ur dead mums hair which u couldnt stop thinking about after u threw it out because what if tmr its announced that theres a new technology that lets u bring ppl back to life from dna and u just threw out the last of ur mums, huh? what then? what if they discovered a cure for cancer the day after she died from it? hold up i shouldnt be putting this in a goodreads review
SIDENOTE i read this on international asexuality day which made everything REALLY FUNNY>. like sorry mate im no two headed beast im just one of many bugs crawling under this log