A review by historicalmaterialgirl
You Exist Too Much by Zaina Arafat

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

With all the bisexual chaos of You Made Death a Fool With Your Beauty, and all the hilariously weird energy of Big Swiss, You Exist Too Much delivers a story of a young writer trying to resolve her addiction to sex. The novel's plot dissolves into fractured memories, non-linear and sometimes confusing. The protagonist is unlikeable, and there's a lot of unsatisfying, dead-ended subplots. Though usually all of these elements don't work for me, the writing itself was so good, it did this time. This is how memory is affect after trauma. This is how sexuality, desire and love are after trauma. There are no giant healing conversations between the mother and daughter, no essays written to undo the pain, just attempts and failures to be better. 

All that being said..... idk how y'all liked Big Swiss and not this. This was so much better.....
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