A review by zarap
Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

dark funny mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Tl;dr: Definitely glad I read it, probably won't reread it, am eager to see what Samantha Allen writes next.

This was a deeply weird book (and I love deeply weird books). I feel like the first half could've been shorter, and/or maybe the second half longer? Room for pacing improvement anyway, but I really enjoyed it overall.

I liked that all the contestants are complicated and at least a little problematic, but that Casey is also problematic in her broad-strokes, cynical criticism of the contestants as a whole.


The characters could have been a little more fleshed out generally in my opinion, but having just read books by Ann Leckie and Martha Wells and having Libba Bray in mind - all of whom have written several to a bunch of novels, whereas this is the author's debut novel - I am perhaps comparing unfairly, if unavoidably. (Libba Bray because this book immediately made me think of Beauty Queens.) 

Also, I love to read a horror book where the only character from the main group who survives is the Black bisexual woman.
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