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babyitsallright's reviews
168 reviews
In It for the Long Run: Breaking records and getting FKT by Damian Hall
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
medium-paced
4.75
Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan
funny
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
Hailed as the medicinal replacement for all of us longing for the new Sally Rooney novel, desperately trying to befriend someone with a lucky golden proof copy, Exciting Times sees Ava, a teacher in Hong Kong caught between Julian, a banker who likes to spend money on her and lets her live in his spare room and Edith, a lawyer Ava meets while Julian is away, who actually wants to date her, as opposed to whatever it is that Julian is offering.
Not a lot happens in this book but I didn’t really mind. It was a enjoyable read, sharply narrated and heartfelt, read fast but slow paced in structure. It captured that desperate longing for someone when the emotions and power dynamics between you are unclear and those moments of feeling completely lost in the world, unsure of where you are or where you’re heading.
Generally, I didn’t always feel the insights many hailed as entirely fresh and previously unwritten felt particularly new, but one moment did stand out for me:
‘You could tell who’d been through it and who hadn’t because when you told someone who hadn’t, they were hungry for details. They’d say ir was so they could experience their moral outrage with a loftier precision. They were liars and we hated them.’
‘You could tell who’d been through it and who hadn’t because when you told someone who hadn’t, they were hungry for details. They’d say ir was so they could experience their moral outrage with a loftier precision. They were liars and we hated them.’
This was something that really did strike me as something I’d often felt but never quite managed to articulate.
Sometimes I felt like I’d missed some of the sparkle a lot of other people felt for this book, because it didn’t always feel completely new to me, but I think its just that I’ve read a lot of contemporary female confessional writing that now I’m maybe a bit more critical. It was good and I would recommend it but my mind remained unblown.
Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
tense
medium-paced
4.0
This book is utterly wild. I absolutely loved Convenience Store Woman and this book didn’t disappoint either.
At times horribly uncomfortable and unsettling, at its heart it’s a book about how characters respond to trauma but it remains darkly entertaining, utterly bizarre and a fun if incredibly weird read.
At times horribly uncomfortable and unsettling, at its heart it’s a book about how characters respond to trauma but it remains darkly entertaining, utterly bizarre and a fun if incredibly weird read.
In at the Deep End by Kate Davies
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
4.0
I really enjoyed this book but feel it’s completely misrepresented by the blurb and review quotes.
I went into this novel expecting a sexy queer bridget jones style novel but the book is really about an abusive relationship. The sex scenes become uncomfortable and the novel becomes quite upsetting as we see the main character falling deeper into the controlling relationship.
That being said I really did love this book and thought it was a poignant portrayal that was funny in parts and entirely original. I really can’t wait to see what Davies writes next I just wish I had more of a clue of what I was getting into as it suddenly became quite triggering at times.
I went into this novel expecting a sexy queer bridget jones style novel but the book is really about an abusive relationship. The sex scenes become uncomfortable and the novel becomes quite upsetting as we see the main character falling deeper into the controlling relationship.
That being said I really did love this book and thought it was a poignant portrayal that was funny in parts and entirely original. I really can’t wait to see what Davies writes next I just wish I had more of a clue of what I was getting into as it suddenly became quite triggering at times.
Death in Her Hands by Ottessa Moshfegh
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
3.0
Already a fan of Moshfegh’s work, I recently picked up this novel from The Book Hive in Norwich and was instantly hooked from the enticing blurb.
I found Death in Her Hands to be an intensely insular and gripping read that blurred the lines between reality and the protagonist’s (Vesta) personal fiction. I loved Vesta’s imagination as it took a winding road theorising who Magda was and why she ended up dead, entirely exacerbated by her loneliness following a recent move. Her slow loss of grip on reality, had the similar haunt of previous works but personally left much to be desired. The original grip the novel had on me weakened by the end and wrapped up not necessarily to nothing, but to nothing that lingered on with a uncomfortability that I’ve felt in her previous works, particularly, My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
It wasn’t necessarily that the anticlimax of the slow murder mystery winding up having no real mystery is where I felt it fell short but rather that what was left didn’t feel substantial enough; like pulling away a curtain to reveal not something you necessarily expected but not something you were shocked by. The realisations of regret for her life and disdain for her late husband were fascinating and left me wanting more because that is what Moshfegh really excels at and could have led to that almost sickening ending I was hoping for.
Another dislike with the novel was the jarring fatphobia, which features often in her work. It feels out of place, like the author is bleeding through. Vesta as a character has contempt for a lot of different people throughout, there’s most forms of bigotry at one point or another, creating a highly judegmental and unlikeable character, but the fatphobic passages are harsher and repetitive of previous novels. It always feels like a cheap and lazy shot at being subversive or provocative.
There’s no doubt in my mind still that Moshfegh is an incredible writer, with a distinctive and affecting style but Death in Her Hands is, for me, far from the magic of MYORAR or Homesick for Another World.
I found Death in Her Hands to be an intensely insular and gripping read that blurred the lines between reality and the protagonist’s (Vesta) personal fiction. I loved Vesta’s imagination as it took a winding road theorising who Magda was and why she ended up dead, entirely exacerbated by her loneliness following a recent move. Her slow loss of grip on reality, had the similar haunt of previous works but personally left much to be desired. The original grip the novel had on me weakened by the end and wrapped up not necessarily to nothing, but to nothing that lingered on with a uncomfortability that I’ve felt in her previous works, particularly, My Year of Rest and Relaxation.
It wasn’t necessarily that the anticlimax of the slow murder mystery winding up having no real mystery is where I felt it fell short but rather that what was left didn’t feel substantial enough; like pulling away a curtain to reveal not something you necessarily expected but not something you were shocked by. The realisations of regret for her life and disdain for her late husband were fascinating and left me wanting more because that is what Moshfegh really excels at and could have led to that almost sickening ending I was hoping for.
Another dislike with the novel was the jarring fatphobia, which features often in her work. It feels out of place, like the author is bleeding through. Vesta as a character has contempt for a lot of different people throughout, there’s most forms of bigotry at one point or another, creating a highly judegmental and unlikeable character, but the fatphobic passages are harsher and repetitive of previous novels. It always feels like a cheap and lazy shot at being subversive or provocative.
There’s no doubt in my mind still that Moshfegh is an incredible writer, with a distinctive and affecting style but Death in Her Hands is, for me, far from the magic of MYORAR or Homesick for Another World.
In the Garden Essays on Nature and Growing by Paul Mendez, Victoria Adukwei Bulley, Elizabeth -Jane Burnett, Nigel Slater, Penelope Lively, Kerri ní Dochartaigh, Claire Lowdon, Jon Day, Francesca Wade, Daisy Lafarge, Jamaica Kincaid, Caroline Craig, Zing Tsjeng, Niellah Arboine
informative
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
4.0