Reviews tagging 'Infidelity'

Everything Is Awful and You're a Terrible Person by Daniel Zomparelli

1 review

cheye13's review against another edition

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dark mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

"It feels like all we ever do in this world is break each others' hearts."

This might be 5 stars on a reread, I'm mostly (pleasantly) stunned and confused. I picked this up expecting a short story anthology and instead got a fictionalized memoir-poem. I loved it, but I did actually want to read short stories, and this didn't quite scratch that itch.

It starts with absurdist stories in traditional form (Ghosts Can Be Boyfriends Too, Craig Has Very Nice Skin, etc), split regularly with some vignettes of grindr dates (Date: [username]). Around halfway through, the structure begins to dissolve – the "Date" interludes are sparser, stories begin to blend and merge, poetry verses interrupt prose. Yet it's in this inversion that I made more sense of what I was reading and found myself enjoying the book more.

The title is apt in the same way; near the beginning, it feels very on the nose. The stories are unpleasant, sad, "awful," the characters' flaws are glaring, uncomfortable, "terrible." Yet as narrative structure melts into meaning, the stories feel more genuine and honest – still heavy and sad, but more empathetic. By the time I reached the title story, the phrase meant something entirely different.

A beautiful book that took me completely by surprise. In definite need of a reread.
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