A review by lilhill
Shut Up You're Pretty by Téa Mutonji

Did not finish book. Stopped at 44%.
The writing felt too neurotypical for me, it seemed like there was a lot of subtext I wasn't understanding. It's something I encounter from time to time, but with this book I felt confused the whole time.
The other thing that caused me to lose interest was how much focus was placed on the white girls in Loli's life. I think the point was that she was preoccupied with them to the point of losing herself, but for me as the reader I wasn't interested in reading about the multiple white friends.
I also felt uncomfortable reading about such explicit sex between literal children, especially since there was often adults of unspecified ages involved. 
The things I enjoyed about this book were that it felt very real, I kept having to remind myself it was short stories and not a memoir. And the bits about the community of Galloway were very moving.
All in all, this book wasn't for me and I feel readers should proceed with caution because it is a very heavy and disturbing read.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings