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mtherobot's Reviews (866)
emotional
funny
lighthearted
tense
medium-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 fun read. Blakley-Cartwright is a talented writer, on a prose level and in terms of story-telling. I think a lot of writers struggle to create character-driven conflict without making one character the good guy and one character the bad guy -- but all three of the central characters here are well-formed, sympathetic even when they're behaving badly. The resolution is a little pat -- my advice: skip the last chapter -- but otherwise there's a lot to enjoy here.
Womp womp. I didn't like this. It was likely watching a kid play with dolls -- things certainly...happen, I guess? But there's no sense of interiority or experiential reality. Simply very boring.
thnx anyway netgalley!
thnx anyway netgalley!
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
This didn't do it for me. Most of the stories started strong, but they never expanded past the first idea. They felt underdeveloped, artificially padded out—which is saying something, considering how short most of them are. I can see fans of the author liking them, especially if they're not big readers of short fiction, but in general, I wouldn't recommend.
(thnx anyway NetGalley!)
(thnx anyway NetGalley!)
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
dark
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
"Gee, this sure reminds me of that High Femme Camp Antics essay I read a couple years ago!" -- me, an idiot, halfway through the first chapter of this book
I was scrolling through tiktok the other day when I came across a recommendation for a forthcoming debut novel about a group of funny, emotionally fraught lesbians spending the holidays together. I thought to myself, Wait a minute! I've seen that hideous cover before! and promptly requested it from NetGalley (thnx NetGalley!! XOXO). Then I thought, Wait a minute! I've read that hideous, self-absorbed, pathetically cruel attitude about lesbian gender relations before! and promptly scrolled through my digital folder of longform essays and articles.
Full disclosure -- I did not enjoy High Femme Camp Antics, Davis's 2020 essay, parts of which are inserted here wholesale but for the change from first to third person. Or maybe it would be truer to say that I didn't like Davis, as she presented herself in that essay -- she came across, I thought, as simultaneously pathetic and cruel, self-conscious but not at all self-aware. A nasty piece of work, I thought! The worst girl you know! It sounded like something a character in a Torrey Peters story would write. And yet -- I quite liked this and even found myself rooting for Sasha, the central character and presumed author avatar. I'm not sure I can articulate why -- Sasha is just as pretty and mean-spirited as Davis seems in HFCA, if not more so. But, my god, I just felt so bad for her! Everyone, from her partner to the universe at large, seems so determined to misunderstand her and frustrate her desires, awful as those desires may be. It's like she's stuck in kind of moral-emotional America's Funniest Home Videos, sometimes actually funny but more often painfully cringe-inducing.
All of that is to say that I liked this way more than I thought I would, and expect a lot of people -- especially the Otessa Moshfegh dark comedy set, or the lesbian auto-fiction set -- would like it as well, or at the very least have a lot of thoughts about it.
I was scrolling through tiktok the other day when I came across a recommendation for a forthcoming debut novel about a group of funny, emotionally fraught lesbians spending the holidays together. I thought to myself, Wait a minute! I've seen that hideous cover before! and promptly requested it from NetGalley (thnx NetGalley!! XOXO). Then I thought, Wait a minute! I've read that hideous, self-absorbed, pathetically cruel attitude about lesbian gender relations before! and promptly scrolled through my digital folder of longform essays and articles.
Full disclosure -- I did not enjoy High Femme Camp Antics, Davis's 2020 essay, parts of which are inserted here wholesale but for the change from first to third person. Or maybe it would be truer to say that I didn't like Davis, as she presented herself in that essay -- she came across, I thought, as simultaneously pathetic and cruel, self-conscious but not at all self-aware. A nasty piece of work, I thought! The worst girl you know! It sounded like something a character in a Torrey Peters story would write. And yet -- I quite liked this and even found myself rooting for Sasha, the central character and presumed author avatar. I'm not sure I can articulate why -- Sasha is just as pretty and mean-spirited as Davis seems in HFCA, if not more so. But, my god, I just felt so bad for her! Everyone, from her partner to the universe at large, seems so determined to misunderstand her and frustrate her desires, awful as those desires may be. It's like she's stuck in kind of moral-emotional America's Funniest Home Videos, sometimes actually funny but more often painfully cringe-inducing.
All of that is to say that I liked this way more than I thought I would, and expect a lot of people -- especially the Otessa Moshfegh dark comedy set, or the lesbian auto-fiction set -- would like it as well, or at the very least have a lot of thoughts about it.
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
When I first requested this on NetGalley, I assumed I wouldn't get it, considering it's an author whose name I know—I'd heard her a recommendation of her debut Exciting Times for fans of Sally Rooney and consequently had not read it. And yet! Here we are.
This was a fun, fast read. I finished in one day, and one day in which I was really busy with other things, no less. It's not quite substantial enough to be a beach read, I think, but it could make a nice pool read if you're looking for something just slightly tougher than pure fluff. I can't imagine almost anyone having a bad time reading this.
As for the Sally Rooney comparison—other than the Irish-ness and eye-roll-inducing depictions of bisexuality (a bunch of cheaters who really actually only care about men, probably, but what can you do) I don't see the resemblance.
This was a fun, fast read. I finished in one day, and one day in which I was really busy with other things, no less. It's not quite substantial enough to be a beach read, I think, but it could make a nice pool read if you're looking for something just slightly tougher than pure fluff. I can't imagine almost anyone having a bad time reading this.
As for the Sally Rooney comparison—other than the Irish-ness and eye-roll-inducing depictions of bisexuality (a bunch of cheaters who really actually only care about men, probably, but what can you do) I don't see the resemblance.
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I quite liked this, despite what I think could fairly be described as significant flaws. The plot is thin and uneven, and the way the relationships between the central characters resolved felt unsatisfying and unfair. I also think it's pretty misleading to label this as an LGBT novel—or, worse, a specifically lesbian one. The relationship between Sophie and Maggie is the only same-sex relationship even mentioned, and in addition to being short-lived, it's frequently described as being not really romantic or sexual in comparison to the relationships both characters have with men, which not only receive described sex scenes and declarations of love and meaningfulness but also an amount of time and narrative weight that is mostly absent in the Sophie/Maggie relationship.
That said, I do think there's a lot to like here. The characters are specific and well-formed, and—frankly—they made me feel things. Things being, sometimes, rage, but what can you do. While the prose style is quite different, I can see this appealing to fans of Sally Rooney-type stories, where the cool but not quite likable characters and vague philosophical musings take precedence over plot. The prose style itself was also interesting to me—kind of hazily cinematic and meandering, following sometimes a kind of dream-logic.
I also think this would also be popular with people who, like me, feel nostalgic for a now bygone era of semi-ironic hipster-isms and twee quirkiness. The narrative style (and narrator Sophie) embody a sincerity and innocence that remind me of the books and movies I loved of as a teenager—Rookie Magazine, Joe Meno novels, Greta Gerwig's Frances Ha. Despite its flaws, I found it very charming.
That said, I do think there's a lot to like here. The characters are specific and well-formed, and—frankly—they made me feel things. Things being, sometimes, rage, but what can you do. While the prose style is quite different, I can see this appealing to fans of Sally Rooney-type stories, where the cool but not quite likable characters and vague philosophical musings take precedence over plot. The prose style itself was also interesting to me—kind of hazily cinematic and meandering, following sometimes a kind of dream-logic.
I also think this would also be popular with people who, like me, feel nostalgic for a now bygone era of semi-ironic hipster-isms and twee quirkiness. The narrative style (and narrator Sophie) embody a sincerity and innocence that remind me of the books and movies I loved of as a teenager—Rookie Magazine, Joe Meno novels, Greta Gerwig's Frances Ha. Despite its flaws, I found it very charming.