A review by ellieb_reads
I Have Some Questions for You by Rebecca Makkai

3.5

I am torn on this rating, but I’m settling on 3.5. I enjoyed the book, but my primary feeling upon finishing it was “wow that was really long.” And relatively little happened, given its 435 pages. There are one or two subplots that I thought weren’t totally necessary, and I felt impatient to return to the main story whenever the narrative turned to them. Maybe if those were absent, this would be a solid 4 because I did enjoy the main storyline, most of the characters, and the book’s commentary on violence against women and the failure of the criminal justice system (and society) to address it. The book includes random mentions of anonymized crimes, with the narrator unable to remember which one she saw on the news. “It was the one where the director covered it up. Actually no, it was the one where the attacker was a promising athlete. Or was it the one where the police didn’t believe her story.” Paraphrasing there, but you get the idea. Basically highlighting (in a way I found compelling) how we are bombarded with stories of violence so often that we can refer to them like the titles of Friends episodes and society just moves on. Oof.