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waluigii 's review for:
Little Rabbit
by Alyssa Songsiridej
I got this from the library after reading Songsiridej’s excellent review of Past Lives.
I understood the book intellectually, but found it hard to access the characters emotionally.
It seems like the author started with a bunch of concepts she wanted to explore, and then tried to fit all of these into a cohesive story.
I get the sense that this book was trying to be different, but at the end of the day the characters felt like roles handed out to exemplify a certain societal trope. It was like, here’s White Rich Queer Best Friend, and here’s White Rich Straight Male Older Lover. Let’s see what happens there!
The characters were unlikable and not in the way of My Year of Rest and Relaxation where you still want to root for them. The narrator had little agency and few opinions in a self-deprecating way I didn’t like, and the choreographer was just bad.
only Annie, the protagonist’s roommate, had some good lines of dialogue and actions that revealed her character subtly.
I did appreciate the Somerville references (the narrator & Annie so Painfully fit the Somerville girly stereotype) AND ANNIE DEFINITELY WORKS FOR GRUB STREET I laughed aloud when I first read her job description.
I was drawn to this as both a writer & a dancer and I did appreciate the lines about making art inside vs outside the body, but again, it felt too pointed. She kinda reduced the choreographer to his role—he was just there to stage, direct, and command.
I think Songsiridej is a great writer, I’m just waiting for a story that feels natural rather than constructed.
I understood the book intellectually, but found it hard to access the characters emotionally.
It seems like the author started with a bunch of concepts she wanted to explore, and then tried to fit all of these into a cohesive story.
I get the sense that this book was trying to be different, but at the end of the day the characters felt like roles handed out to exemplify a certain societal trope. It was like, here’s White Rich Queer Best Friend, and here’s White Rich Straight Male Older Lover. Let’s see what happens there!
The characters were unlikable and not in the way of My Year of Rest and Relaxation where you still want to root for them. The narrator had little agency and few opinions in a self-deprecating way I didn’t like, and the choreographer was just bad.
only Annie, the protagonist’s roommate, had some good lines of dialogue and actions that revealed her character subtly.
I did appreciate the Somerville references (the narrator & Annie so Painfully fit the Somerville girly stereotype) AND ANNIE DEFINITELY WORKS FOR GRUB STREET I laughed aloud when I first read her job description.
I was drawn to this as both a writer & a dancer and I did appreciate the lines about making art inside vs outside the body, but again, it felt too pointed. She kinda reduced the choreographer to his role—he was just there to stage, direct, and command.
I think Songsiridej is a great writer, I’m just waiting for a story that feels natural rather than constructed.