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A review by litwithleigh
How to Be Safe by Tom McAllister
2.0
Found this book at Canadian Tj Maxx for $5 so said YOLO. I really struggled rating this.
Writing: unique/5 | Plot: missing in action/5 | Ending: maybe his free trial of microsoft word finished so he had to pretend it ended there/5
THE PLOT
Literally nonexistent. There was a school shooting, a fired teacher was accused then exonerated, and then said teacher rambled on a lot about guns and sexism.
MY OPINION
Originally I wrote: Imagine if you dropped acid right as you watched some YouTube clips about sandy hook and then decided to write a book about mass shootings in America while tripping. That's how I imagine this book was written.
but tbh this was more like: imagine if you went to Joshua Tree and ate a bunch of shrooms, watched a Sandy Hook doc and then decided the world needed to hear your (mostly banal) take on mass shootings and sexism.
I did enjoy some of the "insights" provided by our whackadoodle narrator, but a lot of it was like saying "the sky is blue." Because there was legit no plot, nor character development, it felt like I was reading a catalogue of NYT letters to the editor after tragic events.
I gave this 2 stars because this was the best take on feminism from a male author I've read recently and I appreciated the unique prose. It's not for everyone but at least it was different than closed caption or dear diary ass writing. There were also some funny parts. But the narrator was a mishmash of contrasting ideologies and beliefs, making it tough to understand them. I couldn't connect with this reconstructed barbie doll with a ken head and lego arms.
PROS AND CONS
Pros: unique prose, I enjoyed the prologue from the shooter's POV, some insightful commentary, sometimes funny, didn't come off too mansplain-y when tackling sexism
Cons: no plot, no character development (or identity tbh), banal points, rambling, sometimes made me feel like I was on a date with a guy who thinks liking records is a personality trait
Writing: unique/5 | Plot: missing in action/5 | Ending: maybe his free trial of microsoft word finished so he had to pretend it ended there/5
THE PLOT
Literally nonexistent. There was a school shooting, a fired teacher was accused then exonerated, and then said teacher rambled on a lot about guns and sexism.
MY OPINION
Originally I wrote: Imagine if you dropped acid right as you watched some YouTube clips about sandy hook and then decided to write a book about mass shootings in America while tripping. That's how I imagine this book was written.
but tbh this was more like: imagine if you went to Joshua Tree and ate a bunch of shrooms, watched a Sandy Hook doc and then decided the world needed to hear your (mostly banal) take on mass shootings and sexism.
I did enjoy some of the "insights" provided by our whackadoodle narrator, but a lot of it was like saying "the sky is blue." Because there was legit no plot, nor character development, it felt like I was reading a catalogue of NYT letters to the editor after tragic events.
I gave this 2 stars because this was the best take on feminism from a male author I've read recently and I appreciated the unique prose. It's not for everyone but at least it was different than closed caption or dear diary ass writing. There were also some funny parts. But the narrator was a mishmash of contrasting ideologies and beliefs, making it tough to understand them. I couldn't connect with this reconstructed barbie doll with a ken head and lego arms.
PROS AND CONS
Pros: unique prose, I enjoyed the prologue from the shooter's POV, some insightful commentary, sometimes funny, didn't come off too mansplain-y when tackling sexism
Cons: no plot, no character development (or identity tbh), banal points, rambling, sometimes made me feel like I was on a date with a guy who thinks liking records is a personality trait