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dark
funny
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Do not read this book if you have literally any triggers. Most people know about the pool scene, but there's also horrific transphobia, child abuse, and animal death. Proceed with caution.
So, obviously this is kind of a gross book. That aside, I did have trouble getting into it for like the first 2/3rds. This wasn't because of the gross stuff...it was more because I thought it was so stupid. People don't work like this, logic doesn't work like this, the world doesn't work like this. I got hung up on wondering whether Chuck P actually believed this is how things are.
This was exasperated by the fact that there are like 16 main characters, and I found their voices and personalities pretty indistinguishable. It felt like Chuck P was using these puppets to make the same stupid points over and over.
But the last 1/3rd of the book, imo, made his kafka-adjacent logic more obviously purposeful. It helped that the themes of haunting, storytelling, and performance were spelled out for dumdums like me. I loved the ending of this book.
That being said, even though I was tempted to rate this 4 stars, I went with 3.75 because I am fresh off this novel and worried that l was being biased by a spectacular ending tacked onto a so-so book.
Also I hated the poetry. Gd, did I hate the poetry.
This isn't a boring book, by any means. I just found it frustrating in the beginning. I did think thefoot job stuff was hilarious.
So, obviously this is kind of a gross book. That aside, I did have trouble getting into it for like the first 2/3rds. This wasn't because of the gross stuff...it was more because I thought it was so stupid. People don't work like this, logic doesn't work like this, the world doesn't work like this. I got hung up on wondering whether Chuck P actually believed this is how things are.
This was exasperated by the fact that there are like 16 main characters, and I found their voices and personalities pretty indistinguishable. It felt like Chuck P was using these puppets to make the same stupid points over and over.
But the last 1/3rd of the book, imo, made his kafka-adjacent logic more obviously purposeful. It helped that the themes of haunting, storytelling, and performance were spelled out for dumdums like me. I loved the ending of this book.
That being said, even though I was tempted to rate this 4 stars, I went with 3.75 because I am fresh off this novel and worried that l was being biased by a spectacular ending tacked onto a so-so book.
Also I hated the poetry. Gd, did I hate the poetry.
This isn't a boring book, by any means. I just found it frustrating in the beginning. I did think the
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Outing, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail