A review by emilyinlibraryland
Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood

2.0

I truly hated this book. It was disjointed and meandering and I couldn’t tell when anything was happening. Everyone in the book is barely even a cardboard cutout of a character. Basically the book only exists because the author’s husband had to have eye surgery and they had to move back in with her parents, but over the course of 300+ pages all I learned about him was his name and the eye thing. Ok, so I guess the book is about her family...but they never come to seem like real people either. I think I’m supposed to see their humanity? But this book just made me hate them. Speaking of which, horrible bombshells would occasionally drop, but then barely matter and never be mentioned again? Like, oh yeah there was that time I tried to kill myself, my dad told me I ruined his day, I got my stomach pumped, and now here’s a *hilarious* story about how my sister is actually a panther, haha!

When this book came out, there was so much buzz about it and I kept hearing how funny it was, but I really did not get that. There are jokes and what I would class as an over-reliance on exaggeration for comedic effect, but it all had an uncomfortable air of desperation.

I left feeling sad for the author because she seems pretty not OK and her family is hot garbage, and now me and a bunch of other people read all about it.