A review by thecolourblue
A Girl Is a Half-formed Thing by Eimear McBride

challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Quite a hard book to give a rating or a review to. I actually really admire the neomodernist experimentation with writing and form that McBride does here. I've seen some reviewers say that it's unreadable, but I don't think it is. It's challenging, but if you stop trying to read it like normal sentences and read it more as verse or stream-of-thought it becomes actually a quite clear and effective expression of the main character's state of mind. 

The story itself is a distorted fever dream of abuse and misery. It's certainly not enjoyable to read. Could be classed as tragedy porn if not for the disjointed writing taking away any air of sensationalism. I'm also not sure how I felt about the depiction of the brother's brain injury and disability. The character of the brother never really seemed to have any agency or presence outside of his impact on the main characters life (though that could be true of any presence in this book - the focus is very much on the single titular Girl), and I would be interested in how disabled folks feel about this book given how much of a key point disability and illness is in it. 
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