A review by hypocrisis
Assembly by Natasha Brown

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

4.0

hard to stomach, in a good way.
more like poetry than a novel, really enjoyed the style. natasha brown knows people and how to cut to their core quickly.
there are many great quotes from this book, yet this one found its way into this unfairly brief review simply because i opened my notes app immediately upon reading it, starting the collection of quotations from assembly.

p.21
"Victimhood is a choice," Rach said. Part opinion, part mantra.

while the narrator is describing her best friend here, as the book unfolds it becomes apparent that - although they are not affected in the same way and navigate this differently - both women repress their true feelings, in the narrator's case going so for as to alter her personality, to survive an inhospitable environment (until she chooses to stop surviving).

edit: I still find myself thinking a lot about this book and i don't think it was entirely random of me to elaborate on this particular quote, though it must've been subconscious at the time which I'm slightly embarrassed about. Only now do i realise how much of the protagonists' perspective is revealed within those sentences and how they literally foreshadow the plot.


I can't do this book justice... but if you're thinking about reading it you really should!
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