A review by shamelesslyintroverted
Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

Did not finish book. Stopped at 50%.

I'm glad I borrowed the audiobook from the library. 

This will probably get me blocked by a lot of die hard readers out there, but I did not like this debut. Everyone is raving about how amazing it is and I don't understand the hype. 

There are tons of historical fiction books with feminist themes that I adored... but Lessons in Chemistry just took it too far.

She stabs a damn pencil into a guy's body (up to the eraser). Like... come on.

 

In addition to the feminist scenes being too strong, I didn't love the ick. There were multiple scenes that had me cringing like I was reading a horror novel. 

Every scene involving Ms. Sloane's husband had me gagging. The porno mags with a side of cum and the way he rubbed his naked belly while watching Zott across the way... just. No.

I was vastly uncomfortable the entire time I was listening. 

Again, probably going to get a lot of hate for this (I'm glad my following is pretty much nonexistent), but I felt like this novel was too hard on men. I'm a feminist, so I appreciate the message... but every guy in this book is ugly, a wife-beater, a disgusting man whore, or a combination of the three. 

The two things I liked... 

All of that being said, I did like the discussion and the message. These are important topics to discuss and I'm glad that we have modern literature that prompts these conversations. I just wasn't a fan of the execution. 

Six-Thirty. He was the shining star and my favorite part of this book. I held on for the dog. One of the things I didn't like about the book (there's loads to choose from, I guess) was the writing style. I didn't like the omniscient third person point of view. 

We see things from multiple minds and it makes the writing feel dry, in my opinion. The only exception to this was the bits we got from Six-Thirty's mind.