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A review by marleyrollins
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
4.0
What a truly WEIRD trip. Went into this novel totally blind, not knowing what to expect, the summaries I had read keeping it quite vague, and this was obviously for very good reason, because this book is jam packed full of strange and shocking twists and turns.
The unhinged women genre is fast turning out to be my favourite- it turns out I can’t get enough of books about strange, creepy women doing completely deplorable things.
The way this book explores sex and power and gender and class stereotypes is so smart and raucous and hilarious, and there were so many times when the observations felt absolutely bang on, particularly around her experience with dating men as well as going to a pretentious, arty university.
The fact that the narrator is a well-off, beautiful, intellectual woman, and completely abuses her facade as a seemingly innocent and powerless sex symbol to manipulate the people around her is so well written, and a great send up of how the inherent power structures of society keep the most rich and powerful people from ever receiving punishment for their bad behaviour. Also, not strictly related, but I love a book with a female psychopath. Give me more of these please.
This is almost like American Psycho meets Skins meets Eileen meets Under the Skin meets god knows what else, and I loved it. I loved that the ending is so ambiguous too, so we can never truly tell if the narrator has lost her grip on reality, or if she really has gone off the deep end (hope that doesn’t spoil anything!)
Also, totally biased here, but absolutely buzzing to read a book from a young, talented Geordie lass. Up the toon.
The unhinged women genre is fast turning out to be my favourite- it turns out I can’t get enough of books about strange, creepy women doing completely deplorable things.
The way this book explores sex and power and gender and class stereotypes is so smart and raucous and hilarious, and there were so many times when the observations felt absolutely bang on, particularly around her experience with dating men as well as going to a pretentious, arty university.
The fact that the narrator is a well-off, beautiful, intellectual woman, and completely abuses her facade as a seemingly innocent and powerless sex symbol to manipulate the people around her is so well written, and a great send up of how the inherent power structures of society keep the most rich and powerful people from ever receiving punishment for their bad behaviour. Also, not strictly related, but I love a book with a female psychopath. Give me more of these please.
This is almost like American Psycho meets Skins meets Eileen meets Under the Skin meets god knows what else, and I loved it. I loved that the ending is so ambiguous too, so we can never truly tell if the narrator has lost her grip on reality, or if she really has gone off the deep end (hope that doesn’t spoil anything!)
Also, totally biased here, but absolutely buzzing to read a book from a young, talented Geordie lass. Up the toon.