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annanas1864 's review for:
Everyone I Know is Dying
by Emily Slapper
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
N/A
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I loved the language, how poetic it was… BUT. Even though I think I did understand some of what Iris was going through, having myself been depressed and detached from the world for many years, her character was just so tedious, so self-absorbed and hypocritical that I almost left the book midway through. The male characters were as idealistic as the female ones were awful. I hate that the women there were mostly shown as shallow and pretentious which didn’t seem true for men there. Anyway, it seemed to me that both male and female characters were lacking depth but that was maybe because it was seen through Iris’ lense. Her depression also struck me as a “privileged” one - hardly anyone could get away with all the shit she pulled off and afford to not have a job for so long.
I do think the book overall was an interesting read and it did make me feel desperate and hopeless the way Iris was feeling for most of it. If that was the point, to show the struggle of depression and envelop the reader in the same terrifying nothingness, good (and cruel). I still wish there was more balance in the representation of characters and perhaps less despair (and mind you, I read “A Little Life” twice, I delight in prose that rips me open). Unlike Yanagihara’s novel, this one could’ve been a bit shorter, imho.
I do think the book overall was an interesting read and it did make me feel desperate and hopeless the way Iris was feeling for most of it. If that was the point, to show the struggle of depression and envelop the reader in the same terrifying nothingness, good (and cruel). I still wish there was more balance in the representation of characters and perhaps less despair (and mind you, I read “A Little Life” twice, I delight in prose that rips me open). Unlike Yanagihara’s novel, this one could’ve been a bit shorter, imho.