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mtherobot's Reviews (865)
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
adventurous
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
tense
slow-paced
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
a really enjoyable read, oscillating somewhere between the intensity of Challengers and the hazy grief of Euphoria. my only gripe: I never really got Liv, narrator Mack's teammate and maybe lover. she never receives much characterization outside of her basketball talents and her repressive home life, which is a shame because she takes up so much narrative weight -- other, far more minor characters (especially Mack's friends Grayson and Katrina) are more evocatively drawn and compelling to read about. nonetheless, it's nice to read a book that deserves the hype it's getting, and I'm excited to read more from Crane in the future.
thank you netgalley for the arc!
thank you netgalley for the arc!
dark
emotional
hopeful
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Man, I really thought I was going to love this one. Von Blanckensee sets up some really compelling conflicts for her protagonist: Hannah loves but also feels alienated from her homophobic family, who she ditches in favor of an imagined queer community that she can't quite connect with, and reluctantly takes up sex work under pressure from her girlfriend Sam (a character I can only describe as detestable) and the looming threat of poverty and homelessness. The only people she can really connect with are her grandmother and Sam, but these connections are no relief to her—she can't admit anything to her grandmother, who is dying of cancer , and Sam is controlling, judgemental, a social butterfly and a chronic cheater who takes naturally to everything Hannah struggles with.
But none of those conflicts come to much of anything. Hannah's family and abandoned best friend forgive her easily when she reconnects with them, and she and Sam end the story as best friends again with only the barest acknowledgement of how terrible Sam has been. (Seriously, she does maybe one nice thing the whole book, and it's in the last fifty pages!) Despite everyone's warnings, nothing bad happens to Hannah in the tough neighborhood she lives in, the slum lord she rents from is nice if slightly condescending, and the walk-in closet sized apartment is clean and cozy. Feeling awkward and embarrassed is about as it gets for her stripping, and she conveniently finds a a fulfilling above-minimum-wage job as soon as the escorting situation with butch sugar daddy Chris falls out (and, even more conveniently, this job provides her with the cool gay friends she's been searching for). I'm reminded a little of another ARC I read recently, Woodworking by Emily St James, which I had a similar complaint about. It's hard for me to feel satisfied by a book that brings up all these heavy topics but doesn't dig into them—it just feels a little defanged.
Another aspect that didn't quite sit right with me was the depiction of Chris, who is portrayed as pathetic, even disgusting. Part of the problem is that she's awkward and dishonest and twice Hannah's age, and part of the problem is that she thinks she knows Hannah far more intimately than she really does—but part of the problem, too, is that she's butch and working class and that she struggles with addiction. (To be fair to von Blanckensee, Hannah's eventual love interest is also butch and working class, and she's portrayed very positively though she doesn't take up nearly as much of the narrative as Chris does.)Chris also sexually assaults Hannah, which is not depicted graphically but is dealt with only minimally. She owns up to it and apologizes in a short conversation, and it is mentioned maybe once or twice otherwise. Maybe that wouldn't bother other people, but it did bother me.
Nonetheless, while it was a little disappointing, I did enjoy reading this. The first hundred pages or so (when the aforementioned really compelling conflicts were set up) were really great, and I read the whole thing in maybe two days. I found the prose very smooth, nothing to complain about. Some of the relationships—with April and with Bubbe, for example—were sensitively and movingly handled. And, as with Woodworking, for some people the un-gritty-ness may be a plus. Could be a good read for people who have moved on from purely feel-good YA novels and cozy romance reads but aren't ready for or interested, say, in Michelle Tea or Sarah Schulman.
Anyways, thnx to netgalley and the publishes for the arc! Mwah!
But none of those conflicts come to much of anything. Hannah's family and abandoned best friend forgive her easily when she reconnects with them, and she and Sam end the story as best friends again with only the barest acknowledgement of how terrible Sam has been. (Seriously, she does maybe one nice thing the whole book, and it's in the last fifty pages!) Despite everyone's warnings, nothing bad happens to Hannah in the tough neighborhood she lives in, the slum lord she rents from is nice if slightly condescending, and the walk-in closet sized apartment is clean and cozy. Feeling awkward and embarrassed is about as it gets for her stripping, and she conveniently finds a a fulfilling above-minimum-wage job as soon as the escorting situation with butch sugar daddy Chris falls out (and, even more conveniently, this job provides her with the cool gay friends she's been searching for). I'm reminded a little of another ARC I read recently, Woodworking by Emily St James, which I had a similar complaint about. It's hard for me to feel satisfied by a book that brings up all these heavy topics but doesn't dig into them—it just feels a little defanged.
Another aspect that didn't quite sit right with me was the depiction of Chris, who is portrayed as pathetic, even disgusting. Part of the problem is that she's awkward and dishonest and twice Hannah's age, and part of the problem is that she thinks she knows Hannah far more intimately than she really does—but part of the problem, too, is that she's butch and working class and that she struggles with addiction. (To be fair to von Blanckensee, Hannah's eventual love interest is also butch and working class, and she's portrayed very positively though she doesn't take up nearly as much of the narrative as Chris does.)
Nonetheless, while it was a little disappointing, I did enjoy reading this. The first hundred pages or so (when the aforementioned really compelling conflicts were set up) were really great, and I read the whole thing in maybe two days. I found the prose very smooth, nothing to complain about. Some of the relationships—with April and with Bubbe, for example—were sensitively and movingly handled. And, as with Woodworking, for some people the un-gritty-ness may be a plus. Could be a good read for people who have moved on from purely feel-good YA novels and cozy romance reads but aren't ready for or interested, say, in Michelle Tea or Sarah Schulman.
Anyways, thnx to netgalley and the publishes for the arc! Mwah!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
It's so hard to review books that are actually good. I'm fighting the urge to reach for comparisons to other, less successful books -- really, there are too many to name; complicated romantic relationships are the bread and butter of mediocre litfic -- to explain, by contrast, this book's virtues. Sometimes you read a book and you can see what it's trying to do, and you can also see the ways in which it falls short of that vision. Maybe the characters are too one-note, or the ending is too pat, or the themes are too heavy handed. It's a little bit like seeing through an optical illusion. You can't un-see that it's a contrivance on part of the author.
But there's no gap here. Disappoint Me is the book other books want to be when they grow up. Dinan's contrivances are so artfully executed that they all but disappear. There's a spark of life, a sense that the narrative is not exhaustive, that the world extends beyond the frame. Also, it made me cry, which never happens.
thnx so much for the arc netgalley I owe you my life !!
But there's no gap here. Disappoint Me is the book other books want to be when they grow up. Dinan's contrivances are so artfully executed that they all but disappear. There's a spark of life, a sense that the narrative is not exhaustive, that the world extends beyond the frame. Also, it made me cry, which never happens.
thnx so much for the arc netgalley I owe you my life !!
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A book that I imagine will have a lot of appeal to people who aren't me. It felt a little bit like watching one of those teen comedy movies with a poppy soundtrack and snarky voice overs -- which is fitting enough for Abigail, the teenage protagonist, but not so much for Erica, who is thirty five and has a job. That isn't to say that St. James doesn't tackle serious topics -- in fact, in terms of subject matter, it's one serious topic after another, and aside a few moments that didn't land quite right for me, it's all pretty deftly handled -- but there's a certain lightness to the writing itself that left me less than totally satisfied. I never had any real doubt that all would be right for our protagonists in the end, and while Erica and Abigail both experience a bingo card of "trans in 2016 South Dakota" suffering, none of it is dwelt on for more than a page or two at a time. For a lot of people, those are both desirable qualities in a book, but unfortunately for me I prefer the literary equivalent of unseasoned broccoli.
s/o netgalley for the arc I love you netgalley
s/o netgalley for the arc I love you netgalley
challenging
dark
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
<blockquote><i>"Lisen's was an insult that jerks a laugh from your person at the shock of it being just so."</i></blockquote>
Torrey Peters is my perfect no-skip writer. Where other authors pull their punches, Peters goes after her characters with a steel chair. Like sinners in the hands of a mean-spirited (but nonetheless very funny) god, they can escape neither their worst fears nor their most dearly held desires, and too bad for them because I love to read about it.
thanks for the arc netgalley i love you forever xoxo
Torrey Peters is my perfect no-skip writer. Where other authors pull their punches, Peters goes after her characters with a steel chair. Like sinners in the hands of a mean-spirited (but nonetheless very funny) god, they can escape neither their worst fears nor their most dearly held desires, and too bad for them because I love to read about it.
thanks for the arc netgalley i love you forever xoxo