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

emotional funny inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I actually found out about this book in a Radiohead forum. It mentions a part in the book where Thom Yorke is singing the song Creep at a song during the Meeting People Is Easy documentary and he's holding the microphone out to the crowd in a bored way. After a bit he sort of smiles, as if he realizes it isn't actually so bad after all. 

That part of the book didn't show up until much later, and besides the Radiohead mention, I went into completely blind. I'm glad I did now because it made the emotional impact much greater when the book does a 180 degree turn halfway through. 

I loved the beginning of the book where the narrator discusses various bits of internet culture, such as the trend a few years ago of saying "ahahaha" instead of "hahaha" and how eating ass came from seemingly nowhere, but maybe it was a ploy by our enemies to distract us and while our guard is down because everyone is busy eating ass, they attack us. 

Halfway through the book the narrator's sister finds out she's pregnant and the fetus has a chromosome abnormality that will result in severe disability called Proteus syndrome. The battle for the right for women to choose becomes the main story from this point on. The baby is born and lives a short life and ultimately dies, surrounded by her devastated family. 

While the story is fictional, it is based on events that happened in the author's life. Since I went into the story not knowing anything about it, I was blindsided but the rapid change in tone.

I lost a sibling who was a baby when I was a child, and the book became difficult for me to read from this part on. I'm very glad I did, because it's a wonderful book, but it brought back a lot of memories that are hard for me even now, decades later. Remembering sitting in the hospital, the sick feeling when I was told what had happened, and similar to a scene described in the book, I also had a fleeting moment where I believed I would be told that a mistake had been made and we would all sigh with relief over the close call. That didn't happen of course. 

Because of this, I related a great deal to the second half of the book. I would be unable to give any kind of objective review of the book because so much of it was so relatable that I really have no idea if other people would like this book or not. 

I would recommend it for people who have dealt with grief or loss, of course, and also people interested in internet culture, but I have a feeling some of the ones who come for one of the above might take issue with the other. 

Luckily I clicked with both, the internet culture commentary first part of the book as well as the second part of the book dealing with the loss of her niece, and I absolutely loved this book.
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