Review by kalisaur - Lessons in Chemistry

kalisaur 's review for:

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus

3.5

Strong character development: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

While very readable, I found certain parts of this cringey. Do you have to make sexual assault so prevalent to show the strength of patriarchy within mid-century society? No. Do chemists actually refer to water and salt by their chemical names in their daily life? I doubt it. Must a woman be stiff and socially inept simply because she is intelligent? Of course not. The story ended with a nice happy bow on it, which I never favor. Perhaps due to its popularity I expected more out of the novel but it was merely okay to me. Also I felt the rowing was shoehorned in simply because it seemed to be the only thing related to the author, who is neither a chemist nor a chef.

Content Warnings