Review by shapeshiftwithme - Tell Me I'm Worthless

shapeshiftwithme 's review for:

Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

2.0

challenging dark tense

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

firstly noting my rating isn't because of the presence of the rougher topics, especially as this book kicks off with a content warning.

i really, really wanted to like this book. i've heard nothing but praise for it and the concept is killer. the multi-page comment from a fetish forum was nauseating and i liked parts of the nearly run-on, nightmarish stream of consciousness chapter at the end. (and, of course, i'm a trans horror type with an attachment to the first paragraph of the haunting of hill house)

but, i'm honestly lost on where the praised 'nuance' is. the hill house riff largely shows in repeatedly wheeling out that intro paragraph, the writing is rough and on-the-nose and occasionally outright states its own themes (sometimes after otherwise fine sentences already establishing the same thing), and simultaneously doesn't really land or trips on its own feet regarding them.

while timeskip endings aren't at all unheard of, here it just kind of happens

. that stating in particular leaves so much of the book feeling like an early draft with some polished one-liners and generic placeholder dialogue. this concept might have worked better as a short story, honestly.

it is a debut novel, and to some degree it's also just not my thing personally. (this style is drenched with a very specific corner of 'online' for one, granted it's obviously the point for a large part of it). i might check out her second book.

Content Warnings