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A review by dobbsthedog
The Reeds by Arjun Basu
1.0
Received from NetGalley, thanks!
This book was terrible. The casual aphobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and ethnic erasure was really awful to read.
This isn’t the sort of book that I would normally pick up, but the blurb sounded interesting, it’s published by an Canadian Indie publisher who tends to publish stories I enjoy, so I thought I would give it a go. I have learned my lesson. I really wanted to DNF it, and I probably should have.
The book is about the Reed family, a culturally diverse family who sounded like every white suburban family I’ve ever read. The father is white and Latine, the mother is Japanese, the daughter was adopted from India, and the son was adopted from Ghana (I think? I feel terrible that I’m unsure of the country, but it was mentioned in such a offhand way that it didn’t really stick in my memory). I really don’t understand why the author would choose to make this family so diverse, but for that diversity to have zero impact on the story, other than at one point a side character asks Abby (the son) which of his parents is Black and he says neither, he’s adopted. Seriously, that is the most that is said about any of their ethnicities/cultures in the entire book. I think more is said about the next door neighbours being Jewish than is said about the family itself (the neighbours won’t come over for dinner, because the Reeds refuse to cook kosher, which, uh… 😬).
I’m not even going to bother going into the plot of the book, because it’s like any other litfic family drama I’ve ever read. It was just incredibly boring, with a whole lot of telling and not showing. There is an authors note at the end that talks about the book being such a mess when the author brought it to the publisher and how he was so thankful to all the wonderful people who made it a better book. Sorry, but this book is still a fucking mess, I shudder to think what it was like to begin with.
Anyway, 1/5 stars, do not recommend.
This book was terrible. The casual aphobia, homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, and ethnic erasure was really awful to read.
This isn’t the sort of book that I would normally pick up, but the blurb sounded interesting, it’s published by an Canadian Indie publisher who tends to publish stories I enjoy, so I thought I would give it a go. I have learned my lesson. I really wanted to DNF it, and I probably should have.
The book is about the Reed family, a culturally diverse family who sounded like every white suburban family I’ve ever read. The father is white and Latine, the mother is Japanese, the daughter was adopted from India, and the son was adopted from Ghana (I think? I feel terrible that I’m unsure of the country, but it was mentioned in such a offhand way that it didn’t really stick in my memory). I really don’t understand why the author would choose to make this family so diverse, but for that diversity to have zero impact on the story, other than at one point a side character asks Abby (the son) which of his parents is Black and he says neither, he’s adopted. Seriously, that is the most that is said about any of their ethnicities/cultures in the entire book. I think more is said about the next door neighbours being Jewish than is said about the family itself (the neighbours won’t come over for dinner, because the Reeds refuse to cook kosher, which, uh… 😬).
I’m not even going to bother going into the plot of the book, because it’s like any other litfic family drama I’ve ever read. It was just incredibly boring, with a whole lot of telling and not showing. There is an authors note at the end that talks about the book being such a mess when the author brought it to the publisher and how he was so thankful to all the wonderful people who made it a better book. Sorry, but this book is still a fucking mess, I shudder to think what it was like to begin with.
Anyway, 1/5 stars, do not recommend.