A review by abrooklynbookshelf
Impersonation by Heidi Pitlor

2.0

To be quite honest, this whole book kind of reads as a self-conscious assertion that the author is on the right side of every single divisive hot topic (race, class, feminism, the me too movement, politics, etc.) and yet so much of this—especially race—is handled pretty poorly. If we’re going to set that aside, then the bigger issue is that Allie is an insufferable character who whines 100% of the time, has no ability to set or respect boundaries, and also blames literally everyone else for problems that she herself causes. And nobody else is much better. Most notably, Lana, who receives all of this weird adoration simply because she is an immigrant and campaigning for women’s equality, as if this inherently cancels out all of her very shitty qualities.

This book dives into far too much, has no discernible interesting plot (it is truly just a daily deluge of Allie’s various anxieties and problems), and is a chore to get through.

Would be happy to fight (read: emphatically go deeper) about any of these thoughts, because I’m honestly surprised that this review seems to be so wildly different from everyone else’s.