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A review by fornia
All about Evie by Cathy Lamb
4.0
okay so first of all i don't know who made the cover but it makes this book look like a thriller when it's distinctly not
this is one of those books that's great when you've just finished with a horrible book or you're stuck in a bit of a rut-- pacy and fun, funny but also with some real weight behind the themes to invoke an emotional response-- the kind of book that feels like a guaranteed happy ending
i can't exactly pinpoint why i loved this so much other than a few things:
strong side characters! i'm such a sucker for strong side characters
✨family✨
a few really great turns of phrase
there's more than that but i can't think of it rn
also i appreciated the common thread of how men who've never been told "no" see women as something they're owed to own and use as they will-- assault, imbalanced power dynamics in penal institutions that're full of people who don't really need to be there, white men in government wielding what power they have with blunt-force trauma, etc
this book is incredibly satisfying because the issues presented are real and not dumbed-down or declawed, but you somehow have faith that they'll be resolved by the essential goodness of [nearly] all the characters in the book. this book says yes, the world sucks and men are monsters sometimes and our justice system is fatally flawed, but I Really Do Believe that there is more good than bad in the sum of our parts, and the Good will coalesce around those who need help, and together we can make this world a safer and happier place for those who come after.
one minor gripe: the constant justifying of food [e.g. pecan pie is healthy because pecans are a nut and nuts are a protein] took me out of the narrative every time i heard it because it brought back bad memories of disordered eating patterns. it might not bother another reader but it really fuckin screwed with my head and it felt completely unnecessary as a device to prove that evie's quirky or some shit like that
this is one of those books that's great when you've just finished with a horrible book or you're stuck in a bit of a rut-- pacy and fun, funny but also with some real weight behind the themes to invoke an emotional response-- the kind of book that feels like a guaranteed happy ending
i can't exactly pinpoint why i loved this so much other than a few things:
strong side characters! i'm such a sucker for strong side characters
✨family✨
a few really great turns of phrase
there's more than that but i can't think of it rn
also i appreciated the common thread of how men who've never been told "no" see women as something they're owed to own and use as they will-- assault, imbalanced power dynamics in penal institutions that're full of people who don't really need to be there, white men in government wielding what power they have with blunt-force trauma, etc
this book is incredibly satisfying because the issues presented are real and not dumbed-down or declawed, but you somehow have faith that they'll be resolved by the essential goodness of [nearly] all the characters in the book. this book says yes, the world sucks and men are monsters sometimes and our justice system is fatally flawed, but I Really Do Believe that there is more good than bad in the sum of our parts, and the Good will coalesce around those who need help, and together we can make this world a safer and happier place for those who come after.
one minor gripe: the constant justifying of food [e.g. pecan pie is healthy because pecans are a nut and nuts are a protein] took me out of the narrative every time i heard it because it brought back bad memories of disordered eating patterns. it might not bother another reader but it really fuckin screwed with my head and it felt completely unnecessary as a device to prove that evie's quirky or some shit like that