A review by bratatouille
Jawbone by Mónica Ojeda

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

There is an incredibly niche sub-genre of book that I enjoy, which I lovingly refer to as “crooked girlhood.” These are stories that clearly display the diabolical, perverse, and primal side of a feminine childhood. The unseen oddities of growing up in a panopticon of gender. Jawbone is, perhaps, the clearest example of this that I have found to date. It is feral and horrifying but, also, simply a group of schoolgirls. The story itself jumps between timelines and POVS, which I am not typically a fan of. I struggled with the character names for a good third of the book but this was likely because I was listening as opposed to reading. Ojeda paints unsettling scenarios that have little motive behind them, not to the fault of the author, but because young girls act on whim: there doesn’t need to be more reason than the desire to do it. The story begins with a girl waking tied up, having been kidnapped by her teacher. We follow the stories of both teacher and student that led us here. I found the relationships in this to be incredibly well depicted, but something about the lack of true consequence in any scenario leaves something to be desired. Although the ending is interesting, it didn’t go far enough in either direction of cathartic or appalling for me to feel satisfied. I do think I would read this again, but I wasn’t wowed.