A review by crywithclaire
How to Be Human by Paula Cocozza

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

2.0

it would be one star but i give it two because the prose wasn’t horrible. everything else was though. this seems like one of those books the author wrote just deliberately to make the reader uncomfortable, but why? what was the point? also, very tired of the “woman gets broken up with and goes crazy” trope. every single character was extremely unlikable, and i didn’t know anything about the protagonist at all by the end of the book, except for the fact that she is terribly annoying. everyone in this book was either whiny, a creep, or both. the author could have done a lot of interesting things with this book like foray into magical realism or explore the fox’s perspective more with the stream of consciousness stuff she does near the beginning of the book, but she doesn’t. instead, she just writes weird af scenes that bordered on pedophilia and bestiality when there is no plot add other than “look how crazy this woman is going”. was i supposed to empathize with mary at all? was i supposed to want it to work out with the fox? cause i sure as hell didn’t. if the authors only goal was to write a disturbing book, she succeeded. but again, why? what was the point? overall, not good, don’t recommend.
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