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aywebster's reviews
22 reviews
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters
Did not finish book.
Did not finish book.
2.0
This book was a bit of a miserable read and it did not seem like it would ever end. Before I was halfway through, I thought about making it a DNF, but I wanted to try and persevere instead. Then, another 5 or 10% later, I decided to check some reviews to see if any of my feelings about this were shared by others, and they were. Maybe this book just isn't for me, but I didn't find myself the least bit affected or captivated by the stories being told. Give it a try if you want, but I found this book to be a big disappointment after hearing a lot of hype.
Heartburn by Nora Ephron
5.0
As a fan of the films Ephron has written/directed, I knew I would probably like this as well. However, I did not expect to find myself quite as engaged or entertained as I was. Aside from the heavy use of a certain homophobic slur towards the end (1983 was a different time, after all), I feel like this was perfectly well-crafted with a story that is simple at it's core, but never bogged down by its flashbacks and personal anecdotes. I saw others point out how heavily autobiographical this- as someone who loves to hear other people's real life stories, I didn't mind how thinly veiled the autobiographical quality is. It has a witty voice that I can easily hear coming from the likes of Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks, but listening to the audiobook narrated by Meryl Streep was probably the best possible format I could've chosen to take in this book. I can't wait to read more books by Nora Ephron, as this is probably my favorite read of the year.
Parakeet by Marie-Helene Bertino
2.0
The style of this book just may not be for me, but I had a couple of big problems with it. The biggest of which is the dialogue- every character seems to speak the same way as the protagonist’s inner dialogue, which means mostly in metaphors and extensions of the protagonist’s own thoughts. I understand that this book is centered on the protagonist reflecting on who she really is and what she wants or doesn’t want out of life, so this is almost definitely done purposely for the introspective tone- but that doesn’t make me like it. This book feels almost poetic and I’ve never been a fan of poetry, so it simply isn’t for me. Would recommend for people who enjoy living in a character’s head, nearly-Lynchian vignettes, and not being able to tell what did or didn’t really happen in the story.
Lawn Boy by Jonathan Evison
4.0
This is a great coming-of-age story. I read it to begin my "Challenged Books Challenge," as it was the 7th most challenged book in the United States and the most challenged book in the state of Arizona for its "sexually explicit" LGBTQ content. As someone who values intellectual freedom and the freedom to read, I hate the idea of the quality story in this book being inaccessible to teens and adolescents who need to hear it because some fascists have decided that LGBTQ content is inappropriate for everyone. I would never restrict my child from reading this book, in fact, I would recommend this book for anyone who finds themselves stuck in a transitional period in life. Fuck the fascists, read Lawn Boy!