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amyvl93's reviews
902 reviews
The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr.
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
This is a really tricky one to review. There were moments where this book was truly beautiful, and other moments where it felt slightly baffling.
<i>The Prophets</i> follows Isaiah and Samuel, two slaves who have developed a deeply romantic relationship, and a sense of safety with each other amongst the hardship of the Halifax plantation- and explores how their relationship inspires and threatens others around them. It also explores topics of masculinity, fertility and the history of slavery more broadly.
Whilst the narrative is technically about Isaiah and Samuel, the story is told from numerous perspectives - including other slaves - both in the fields and in the house, the slave who has taken the role of spreading Christianity within the plantation, and the plantation owners themselves. Some of these perspectives felt more successful than others - I would echo other reviews that some of the characters felt like slightly repetitive archetypes.
There's a lot of very powerful writing in here, the narrative of people being removed from Africa and forced into slavery in the US was incredibly moving, and there are passages of real beauty and pain in describing the lives of the characters.
However, there were other moments when I felt the writing was just writing for the sake of it - and there are attempts at magical realism in the style of Toni Morrison which I don't think quite landed. This meant that there were times when I just didn't really want to pick this up, not because the subject matter was so unsettling, but because it felt like I was forcing myself through this.
<i>The Prophets</i> follows Isaiah and Samuel, two slaves who have developed a deeply romantic relationship, and a sense of safety with each other amongst the hardship of the Halifax plantation- and explores how their relationship inspires and threatens others around them. It also explores topics of masculinity, fertility and the history of slavery more broadly.
Whilst the narrative is technically about Isaiah and Samuel, the story is told from numerous perspectives - including other slaves - both in the fields and in the house, the slave who has taken the role of spreading Christianity within the plantation, and the plantation owners themselves. Some of these perspectives felt more successful than others - I would echo other reviews that some of the characters felt like slightly repetitive archetypes.
There's a lot of very powerful writing in here, the narrative of people being removed from Africa and forced into slavery in the US was incredibly moving, and there are passages of real beauty and pain in describing the lives of the characters.
However, there were other moments when I felt the writing was just writing for the sake of it - and there are attempts at magical realism in the style of Toni Morrison which I don't think quite landed. This meant that there were times when I just didn't really want to pick this up, not because the subject matter was so unsettling, but because it felt like I was forcing myself through this.
We Are All Birds of Uganda by Hafsa Zayyan
emotional
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
I feel like a bit of a Debbie Downer with this review, as Birds of Uganda appears to be really well loved on here, but it did not really work for me (slight spoilers ahead).
Sameer, in his mid-20s, is doing very well for himself in his job as a corporate lawyer in London, and is thrilled to receive an offer to be part of the team opening the company's new office in Singapore. However, this goes directly against his parents wishes for him to return home to run the family business and after his friend is attacked and he has his first brushes with racism at work - Sameer heads to trace his family history in Uganda - and it all goes a bit Eat, Pray, Love from there.
Zayyan was the first winner of the Merky imprint's new writers prize, set-up between Penguin and Stormzy to find new voices in British writing, and I will say that initially I was very engaged in Sameer's story of living and working in London; and I felt Zayyan's writing was at its best when she was describing Uganda - the places and particularly the food really jumped off the page.
I also knew very little about the Asian expulsion from Uganda, or about how extensive migration was to African countries in the British Empire from South Asia. It was interesting to learn more about this here, and about how colonial attitudes became ingrained even within different minorities. However, this information is given to us in sporadic letters between Hasan, Sameer's grandfather who had built a retail empire in Uganda, and his deceased first wife - meaning we got a whole lot of exposition. I couldn't help but feel these events would have more impact if they were told in the moment.
The story also derailed a bit for me when we got into Sameer essentially 'finding himself' in Uganda - in the space of two weeks he has a complete u-turn on his career, what is important to him and also falls in love with a woman ten years older than him because she's...modest? It's quite strange to read, and whilst I found his reconnection to his faith interesting a lot of the rest of it had me a little bit confused. His parents are definitely antagonists in this novel I nearly threw the book across the room when his Dad rang his legal office and told them he'd be resigning but I couldn't help but feel a bit for them and his sister for expressing some quite reasonable concerns about him wanting to move country's for someone he hardly knows. It definitely felt quite...young adult in development (including a scene where he accidentally sees Maryam, his love interest, wet in a white top and black bra tehe) and I struggled to really care all that much for the central romance. There were some descriptions in here of women generally, and particularly women in larger bodies, that made me feel quite surprised that Zayyan is herself a woman - I'd like to generously say she was making a point about her male characters.
Sameer, in his mid-20s, is doing very well for himself in his job as a corporate lawyer in London, and is thrilled to receive an offer to be part of the team opening the company's new office in Singapore. However, this goes directly against his parents wishes for him to return home to run the family business and after his friend is attacked and he has his first brushes with racism at work - Sameer heads to trace his family history in Uganda - and it all goes a bit Eat, Pray, Love from there.
Zayyan was the first winner of the Merky imprint's new writers prize, set-up between Penguin and Stormzy to find new voices in British writing, and I will say that initially I was very engaged in Sameer's story of living and working in London; and I felt Zayyan's writing was at its best when she was describing Uganda - the places and particularly the food really jumped off the page.
I also knew very little about the Asian expulsion from Uganda, or about how extensive migration was to African countries in the British Empire from South Asia. It was interesting to learn more about this here, and about how colonial attitudes became ingrained even within different minorities. However, this information is given to us in sporadic letters between Hasan, Sameer's grandfather who had built a retail empire in Uganda, and his deceased first wife - meaning we got a whole lot of exposition. I couldn't help but feel these events would have more impact if they were told in the moment.
The story also derailed a bit for me when we got into Sameer essentially 'finding himself' in Uganda - in the space of two weeks he has a complete u-turn on his career, what is important to him and also falls in love with a woman ten years older than him because she's...modest? It's quite strange to read, and whilst I found his reconnection to his faith interesting a lot of the rest of it had me a little bit confused. His parents are definitely antagonists in this novel
Other People's Clothes by Calla Henkel
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
<i>Other People's Clothes</i> entered my life via the Books That Matter subscription, without which I probably wouldn't have picked it up, and it was an interesting read. Set in Berlin in the mid-2000s, it follows Zoe Beech who is reeling from the unsolved murder of her best friend, Ivy, as well as a break-up and is desperate to find herself on her year abroad from art school in Berlin. She is thrown together with Hailey Mader, a much more privileged fellow student whose main obsession appears to be simply being famous (her art is 'conceptual'). When the become convinced that they are being watched by the author whose apartment they are subletting, they begin to go to increasingly extreme lengths to 'further the plot'.
Despite this quite exciting premise, <i>Other People's Clothes</i> is definitely a slow burn. We spend the majority of the book following Zoe and Hailey as they try and work out how not to freeze in their apartment, go to clubs (or don't go to clubs - this novel almost pre-empts the numerous TikToks I've had of people dressing to get into Berghain), hang out with other largely irritating students, in Zoe's case getting a job nannying for a wealthy couple in written stereotypes (she - one time legal highflyer constantly on her bluetooth headset, he - professional rich creep) and, as the novel progresses, begin to throw increasingly unhinged parties in the flat they're renting to give the author they believe is watching them a storyline.
The novel is narrated from Zoe's point of view, who is a surprisingly maddening cypher. After the death of her best friend she begins wearing her clothes, dyes her hair to match and dates Ivy's high school boyfriend. She (rightly) dislikes a lot of the people she comes into contact with in Berlin, but hangs out with them anyway. Hailey is mean but entertaining. There's some heavy plot signposting with constant references to both Law & Order: SVU and the Amanda Knox case - and when the plot does kick up a notch in the final few pages it does all go a bit...Law & Order, with an extended sequence in a psychiatric hospital and some conveniently located bits of paper. There's also some incredibly overwraught metaphors used throughout - Zoe describing herself as coming unexpectedly during sex as being 'like a SWAT team', which I'm not sure I'll forget in a hurry.
Points for a very unsettling last line, and the nostalgia hit of the mid-00s tabloid culture!
Despite this quite exciting premise, <i>Other People's Clothes</i> is definitely a slow burn. We spend the majority of the book following Zoe and Hailey as they try and work out how not to freeze in their apartment, go to clubs (or don't go to clubs - this novel almost pre-empts the numerous TikToks I've had of people dressing to get into Berghain), hang out with other largely irritating students, in Zoe's case getting a job nannying for a wealthy couple in written stereotypes (she - one time legal highflyer constantly on her bluetooth headset, he - professional rich creep) and, as the novel progresses, begin to throw increasingly unhinged parties in the flat they're renting to give the author they believe is watching them a storyline.
The novel is narrated from Zoe's point of view, who is a surprisingly maddening cypher. After the death of her best friend she begins wearing her clothes, dyes her hair to match and dates Ivy's high school boyfriend. She (rightly) dislikes a lot of the people she comes into contact with in Berlin, but hangs out with them anyway. Hailey is mean but entertaining. There's some heavy plot signposting with constant references to both Law & Order: SVU and the Amanda Knox case - and when the plot does kick up a notch in the final few pages it does all go a bit...Law & Order, with an extended sequence in a psychiatric hospital and some conveniently located bits of paper. There's also some incredibly overwraught metaphors used throughout - Zoe describing herself as coming unexpectedly during sex as being 'like a SWAT team', which I'm not sure I'll forget in a hurry.
Points for a very unsettling last line, and the nostalgia hit of the mid-00s tabloid culture!
My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell
challenging
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This was my latest book club pick and I was both dubious and excited to pick this up as I remember it being The book a couple of years ago. <i>My Dark Vanessa</i> picks up in the present(ish) day when her former English teacher Jacob Strane is publicly accused of abuse in the aftermath of the #MeToo movement by one of his students, leaving her reflecting on the relationship she has with him, that she views as a consensual romance - and so we fall back into the past to her teenage years at her boarding school and her interactions with Strane.
As a reader, it is clear that this story is one of grooming and abuse - Strane's actions are by the book grooming, making Vanessa feel special, highlighting her special differences to other teenagers, giving her gifts and also making her question her version of events and experiences. But the novel asks us to really think about how this experience could feel for Vanessa, how what feels like obvious abuse could also be desired attention for a girl who feels lonely and separate from other students, and how disrupting that experience could unwittingly cast Vanessa in a role - as victim, as survivor, that she wants to resist - in part, because Strane has convinced her that she is not a victim, that she held and continues to hold the power in their relationship.
I found the time we spent close to Vanessa to be a really fascinating character study- her grappling with her past from the present, and her teenage self oscillating between desiring Strane's attention and also being disgusted by him; and her constant spotting of teenage girls, of viewing them with a mixture of desire, jealousy and also a need to protect them (again, all influenced by years of Strane's influence).
I did feel that there were places in this novel where the pacing really lagged, as we had mini lessons on Nabakov and Lolita as if the parallels weren't already quite obvious, or we went into detail that felt a bit like padding - after events see Vanessa in a different school, I could have probably done without pages describing her bunking off school, and then when she gets to college there's a second relationship with an English professor which I think is supposed to parallel the one with Strane but wasn't quite developed enough and left me feeling a bit confused as to what we were supposed to take away from this it felt a little like we were supposed to view Henry as 'as bad as' Strane for not telling Vanessa he had a wife which felt like a stretch . There's also some toying with how the media chased stories at the detriment of the women who were coming forward, but that feels quite secondary.
All in all though, <i>My Dark Vanessa</i> is a read which asks you to spend time with someone you will find challenging and is very much worth a read. I'll be interested to see what Russell produces next.
As a reader, it is clear that this story is one of grooming and abuse - Strane's actions are by the book grooming, making Vanessa feel special, highlighting her special differences to other teenagers, giving her gifts and also making her question her version of events and experiences. But the novel asks us to really think about how this experience could feel for Vanessa, how what feels like obvious abuse could also be desired attention for a girl who feels lonely and separate from other students, and how disrupting that experience could unwittingly cast Vanessa in a role - as victim, as survivor, that she wants to resist - in part, because Strane has convinced her that she is not a victim, that she held and continues to hold the power in their relationship.
I found the time we spent close to Vanessa to be a really fascinating character study- her grappling with her past from the present, and her teenage self oscillating between desiring Strane's attention and also being disgusted by him; and her constant spotting of teenage girls, of viewing them with a mixture of desire, jealousy and also a need to protect them (again, all influenced by years of Strane's influence).
I did feel that there were places in this novel where the pacing really lagged, as we had mini lessons on Nabakov and Lolita as if the parallels weren't already quite obvious, or we went into detail that felt a bit like padding - after events see Vanessa in a different school, I could have probably done without pages describing her bunking off school, and then when she gets to college there's a second relationship with an English professor which I think is supposed to parallel the one with Strane but wasn't quite developed enough and left me feeling a bit confused as to what we were supposed to take away from this
All in all though, <i>My Dark Vanessa</i> is a read which asks you to spend time with someone you will find challenging and is very much worth a read. I'll be interested to see what Russell produces next.
The Secret Lives of Church Ladies by Deesha Philyaw
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I was so excited when this came in my Books That Matter subscription as after seeing super positive reviews from Rincey and Mercedes on YouTube this was high on my wishlist.
A series of short stories, some slightly linked others completely independent, these tell the stories of, as the name suggests, the secrets that women in tight-knit religious communities are carrying. These could be stories of hidden sexuality, secret parentage or just of longing for freedom. Philyaw does an amazing job of constructing fully realised characters within just a few pages. I'm excited to read whatever she does next.
A series of short stories, some slightly linked others completely independent, these tell the stories of, as the name suggests, the secrets that women in tight-knit religious communities are carrying. These could be stories of hidden sexuality, secret parentage or just of longing for freedom. Philyaw does an amazing job of constructing fully realised characters within just a few pages. I'm excited to read whatever she does next.
The Forty Rules of Love by Elif Shafak
hopeful
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
his was I think just not for me. I loved <i>The Island of Missing Trees</i> when I read it earlier this year and this had been highly recommended - and I just found it a bit of a slog.
The novel opens with Ella, a middle-aged woman whose married to a man who has been having affairs for years and is the mother to three children - one in college and two in high school. She's just got a job with a literary agent, introducing the split narrative - one that takes us back to the 1200s and the story of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. We flick between the two stories as Ella also begins to form a relationship with Aziz, the author of the book she is reading.
Overall, this felt like quite a heavy handed introduction to Sufism and the titular Forty Rules - there are numerous moments where Shams will just announce 'that is one of the rules' and than recite it regardless of what might be going around him. The parallels between Ella and Aziz in the present and Rumi and Shams in the past also felt like being hit over the head as well. I found the historical storyline far more compelling, and Shafak really vividly created all of the places that Shams travelled through. However, the 1200s did feel very...modern, both in terms of outlook of the characters and the way that they spoke. I also felt like a ready we were supposed to be rooting for Rumi and Shams, but I found the latter in particular to be incredibly self-absorbed and certainly not someone I would dedicate my life to following.
I was a bit gutted after this experience - I think I do want to give Daughters of Eve a whirl, maybe Shafak's more religious-inspired novels just aren't for me.
The novel opens with Ella, a middle-aged woman whose married to a man who has been having affairs for years and is the mother to three children - one in college and two in high school. She's just got a job with a literary agent, introducing the split narrative - one that takes us back to the 1200s and the story of Rumi and Shams of Tabriz. We flick between the two stories as Ella also begins to form a relationship with Aziz, the author of the book she is reading.
Overall, this felt like quite a heavy handed introduction to Sufism and the titular Forty Rules - there are numerous moments where Shams will just announce 'that is one of the rules' and than recite it regardless of what might be going around him. The parallels between Ella and Aziz in the present and Rumi and Shams in the past also felt like being hit over the head as well. I found the historical storyline far more compelling, and Shafak really vividly created all of the places that Shams travelled through. However, the 1200s did feel very...modern, both in terms of outlook of the characters and the way that they spoke. I also felt like a ready we were supposed to be rooting for Rumi and Shams, but I found the latter in particular to be incredibly self-absorbed and certainly not someone I would dedicate my life to following.
I was a bit gutted after this experience - I think I do want to give Daughters of Eve a whirl, maybe Shafak's more religious-inspired novels just aren't for me.
Can't Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation by Anne Helen Petersen
informative
medium-paced
2.5
I've really enjoyed reading Anne Helen Peterson newsletters and she's a great follow on Twitter for all things culture and work - so <i>Can't Even</i> felt like a must read for me and it didn't quite meet the expectations I had.
<i>Can't Even</i> is incredibly US focused, like, all of the examples in this book are based on research, studies and interviews with people who are American. This was a bit of a shame as whilst a lot of the US's approaches to work and life have been exported globally it felt like this was a missed opportunity to share how other cultures experience burnout and the changing demands on the different types of workforce.
<i>Can't Even</i> is incredibly US focused, like, all of the examples in this book are based on research, studies and interviews with people who are American. This was a bit of a shame as whilst a lot of the US's approaches to work and life have been exported globally it felt like this was a missed opportunity to share how other cultures experience burnout and the changing demands on the different types of workforce.
Love in Colour: Mythical Tales from Around the World, Retold by Bolu Babalola
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
I've followed Babalola for ages on Twitter, so was excited to read her short story collection. In the introduction she talks about how much she loves romance in all its forms, and this short story collection takes various global myths and centres the love and romance within them, in addition to a few contemporary original tales of her own.
I wasn't necessarily familiar with all of the sources of the stories in here; but I felt that Babalola was excellent at almost instantly creating little worlds for each of her protagonists to live in; it always felt like we were joining really well established characters and places in all of these stories.
Whilst I did get swept up in the gooey romance of these stories - they did start getting a tad repetitive as the story progressed; strong female character who has cut herself off from love for reasons that will be disclosed being swept of her feet in many cases from a love at first sight encounter with an impossibly attractive man (there is one sapphic romance in here as well - whose plot around the romance I loved). There were also many where I wanted to read more about the world and the characters and what happens next - so I'm looking forward to reading <i>Honey & Spice</i> her debut novel to really get a sense of that!
I wasn't necessarily familiar with all of the sources of the stories in here; but I felt that Babalola was excellent at almost instantly creating little worlds for each of her protagonists to live in; it always felt like we were joining really well established characters and places in all of these stories.
Whilst I did get swept up in the gooey romance of these stories - they did start getting a tad repetitive as the story progressed; strong female character who has cut herself off from love for reasons that will be disclosed being swept of her feet in many cases from a love at first sight encounter with an impossibly attractive man (there is one sapphic romance in here as well - whose plot around the romance I loved). There were also many where I wanted to read more about the world and the characters and what happens next - so I'm looking forward to reading <i>Honey & Spice</i> her debut novel to really get a sense of that!
Summer by Ali Smith
informative
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Summer is the final piece in the Seasonal quartet, and it pulls together strands from her previous novels to create a nice ending (sort of - if we ignore Companion Piece) to this great state of the nation series.
In this novel we meet Sacha, a teenage girl who passionately cares about the climate crisis who lives with her brother Robert (a victim of cyber bulling who has an obsession with scientific theories and being a devil's advocate) and her mother, an unsuccessful actress who voted for Brexit and honestly just isn't very political. Her dad and his new girlfriend live next door. A chance encounter sees them meet Art and Charlotte on a beach - working on their nature website. We are also reunited with Daniel, whilst he reflects on his experiences of internment in England during World War 2.
This is a novel written in the shadow of and then experience of Covid-19, with all of the appropriate anxiety and isolation that you would expect. Smith pulls in numerous references, including the Black Lives Matter movement, Greta Thurnberg, call backs to Barbara Hepworth and the Italian artist Lorenza Mazzetti - as well as Shakespeare, Chaplin and probably many others I wasn't cultured enough to pick up on!
When I started reading this quartet I felt like I was perhaps not smart enough to engage with Smith's writing, but as the quartet has gone I've found myself more and more engaged in them. My ranking is probably 1) Spring, 2) Winter, 3) Summer & 4) Autumn. I would highly recommend picking these up.
In this novel we meet Sacha, a teenage girl who passionately cares about the climate crisis who lives with her brother Robert (a victim of cyber bulling who has an obsession with scientific theories and being a devil's advocate) and her mother, an unsuccessful actress who voted for Brexit and honestly just isn't very political. Her dad and his new girlfriend live next door. A chance encounter sees them meet Art and Charlotte on a beach - working on their nature website. We are also reunited with Daniel, whilst he reflects on his experiences of internment in England during World War 2.
This is a novel written in the shadow of and then experience of Covid-19, with all of the appropriate anxiety and isolation that you would expect. Smith pulls in numerous references, including the Black Lives Matter movement, Greta Thurnberg, call backs to Barbara Hepworth and the Italian artist Lorenza Mazzetti - as well as Shakespeare, Chaplin and probably many others I wasn't cultured enough to pick up on!
When I started reading this quartet I felt like I was perhaps not smart enough to engage with Smith's writing, but as the quartet has gone I've found myself more and more engaged in them. My ranking is probably 1) Spring, 2) Winter, 3) Summer & 4) Autumn. I would highly recommend picking these up.
Free: Coming of Age at the End of History by Lea Ypi
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.0
<i>Free</i> was a chosen read by my book club and was definitely an eye-opener. Albania is not a country whose history I know a whole lot about and Ypi's memoir was a really interesting insight into life both pre-and-post the communist regime.
As a child Ypi was taught like other children to idealise their leaders and a version of history which taught the evils of both the West and the USSR in its imperialist views. She struggles with the fact they share a surname with a disgraced former politician, that her grandmother insists on speaking French in the house, that her family don't have a picture up of their leader Enver Hoxha like others and that any question about her parents past is shrugged away with the word 'biography'. So her world view is thrown into turmoil when protests lead to an almost overnight shift in how the country is run and numerous revelations about her family coming to life.
Reading about the transition through the eyes of a child was fascinating - the confusion over religion, once allowed then banned now allowed again and whether we should or should not believe in God. Her parents both becoming increasingly politically active, although from slightly differing sides of the political sphere. And then there are the darker sides - the fleeing to Italy of migrants crowding onto boats desperate to be let in only to be turned away again, an undercurrent of violence on the streets and the civil war after the collapse of the numerous pyramid schemes propping up the economy in 1997 which Ypi uses her teenage diary entries to narrrate.
On the whole this was a really interesting read - Ypi's writing is often very evocative (loved the sections about tourists smelling like suncream) if at times getting a little lost in the philosophy of it all (but as she is an academic in this area this is understandable).
As a child Ypi was taught like other children to idealise their leaders and a version of history which taught the evils of both the West and the USSR in its imperialist views. She struggles with the fact they share a surname with a disgraced former politician, that her grandmother insists on speaking French in the house, that her family don't have a picture up of their leader Enver Hoxha like others and that any question about her parents past is shrugged away with the word 'biography'. So her world view is thrown into turmoil when protests lead to an almost overnight shift in how the country is run and numerous revelations about her family coming to life.
Reading about the transition through the eyes of a child was fascinating - the confusion over religion, once allowed then banned now allowed again and whether we should or should not believe in God. Her parents both becoming increasingly politically active, although from slightly differing sides of the political sphere. And then there are the darker sides - the fleeing to Italy of migrants crowding onto boats desperate to be let in only to be turned away again, an undercurrent of violence on the streets and the civil war after the collapse of the numerous pyramid schemes propping up the economy in 1997 which Ypi uses her teenage diary entries to narrrate.
On the whole this was a really interesting read - Ypi's writing is often very evocative (loved the sections about tourists smelling like suncream) if at times getting a little lost in the philosophy of it all (but as she is an academic in this area this is understandable).