ave_reviews 's review for:

The Smash-Up by Ali Benjamin

2.0

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Thank you to @NetGalley and Quercus for a complimentary ARC in exchange for an honest review. 

Yikes. I have never hate-read something so quickly. I think "The Smash-Up" is supposed to be some sort of satire of our modern political climate, but it lacks the necessary nuance and clever commentary. 

Instead, it's page after page of desperately unlikeable characters and stereotypes: The husband is a "good guy" because he didn't *actively* harass anyone while founding a successful company; and his activist wife is the modern-day "Feminazi" in all but name. Oh, and there's the seductive but entitled Millennial nanny thrown in for good measure.

If you're going to make readers relive the Kavanaugh hearings and #MeToo headlines, there'd better be a good reason. I didn't find one here.

With that out of my system... the few positives that warrant 2 stars instead of 1: genuinely enjoyed the writing and narration style, and found it very easy to read. I was also genuinely moved by the ending, though unlike many Goodreads reviewers, I don't think it redeemed the rest of the book.