A review by fatigue
No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

dark emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

One almost viscerally feels the emotional whiplash between the first and second parts of the book. The book is written in short disconnected paragraphs, quintessential of our Twitter ADD age, and is in equal parts an ode to this time and a satire of this time. The very-online narrator, an accidental influencer for what could easily have been a throwaway post (β€œCan a dog be twins?”), looks at the state of things through a social media lens, with the wit and wry that goes with it. On the "portal" β€” a term that encompasses all the social media platforms β€” she examines US politics, the state of her own life, her relationship with her husband, and memes natch. 

Even a spate of sternly worded articles called "Guess What: Tech has an Ethics Problem" was not making tech have less of an ethics problem. Oh man. If _that_ wasn't doing it, what would?? 

why should I care what the founding fathers intended when none of them ever heard a saxophone


In the second part of the book, though, real life catches up as her pregnant sister's baby develops a fatal condition. The narrator drops everything to spend time with her family leaving the portal behind, and we see the tragedy unfold. 
 

The whiplash from a humorous satirical first part to a heartbreaking second is severe. In the hands of someone else, this could come across as gimmicky or shallow, but here, it works. The snark, the humour, the non-sequiturs. 
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