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A review by emilyisliterate
Berlin by Bea Setton
- Diverse cast of characters? No
2.5
for me, this is an underwhelming entry into the wonderful canon of weird girl fiction.
daphne does all the things that Weird Gross Girls do: she reads sylvia plath and donna tartt and feels like an alien in her own skin and is objectively unlikeable (all great things). however, despite the novel's focus on daphne's inner thoughts, her actual self-dissection is lackluster. she acknowledges her issues but never interrogates them. trust me, i LOVE unhinged women, but daphne was giving highkey pick-me republican girl vibes. unfortunately, i never felt she broke her internal monologue of misogynistic/classist/antisemitic/manipulative thinking, nor did her lack of character development feel like a good story in itself.
don't get me wrong, BERLIN is a page-turner, but i find myself frustrated with it after the fact. nonetheless, i'm interested in what bea setton does next.
daphne does all the things that Weird Gross Girls do: she reads sylvia plath and donna tartt and feels like an alien in her own skin and is objectively unlikeable (all great things). however, despite the novel's focus on daphne's inner thoughts, her actual self-dissection is lackluster. she acknowledges her issues but never interrogates them. trust me, i LOVE unhinged women, but daphne was giving highkey pick-me republican girl vibes. unfortunately, i never felt she broke her internal monologue of misogynistic/classist/antisemitic/manipulative thinking, nor did her lack of character development feel like a good story in itself.
don't get me wrong, BERLIN is a page-turner, but i find myself frustrated with it after the fact. nonetheless, i'm interested in what bea setton does next.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Eating disorder