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jenpaul13's review against another edition
3.0
Fragmented. Aging. Cancerous. Self-fulfillment. All featured within A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing by Eimear McBride.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
A disapproving, religious mother, a nonexistent father, and an older brother handicapped by a brain tumor individually will have a rather large effect on how someone will grow up and place themselves within the world. And, undoubtedly, all three of those people in your life will have a formative effect on you. So for the young woman narrating McBride's story, her personality is heavily impacted by these influences. With immense love for her older brother and an aggressive antipathy toward her mother, the narrator seeks out affirmation of her self outside of her family and friends, particularly through rough sex as introduced to her by her uncle when she was 13. Finding and trying to better herself and fighting to keep her brother from dying drive the narrator into periods of action, culminating in an inevitable end to close the cycle of trauma.
In a word, the narrative is raw; there is a power to the story being told; however, the unique writing style choice seemed far more of a gimmick than actually contributing to the narrative in a functional way. The message being conveyed was strong enough on its own merits as a coming of age story/realization of self and could be more powerful if the writing style made the story more easily accessible to more readers. I enjoy a challenge when reading and subverting traditional narrative styles, but this was less a challenge and more of a lobotomy. Yes, I understand that we're all imperfect creatures and constantly changing and evolving into a different version of ourselves. And, yes, our thoughts may change direction while we're thinking. But that doesn't mean that we all have such fragmented thought processes so as to find it difficult to get the gist of what's happening. Even some of the earliest stream-of-consciousness works are infinitely easier to comprehend than McBride's attempt (I honestly found it easier to read a stream-of-consciousness story in German while still learning the language!).
Overall, I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
To read this, and other book reviews, visit my website: http://makinggoodstories.wordpress.com/.
A disapproving, religious mother, a nonexistent father, and an older brother handicapped by a brain tumor individually will have a rather large effect on how someone will grow up and place themselves within the world. And, undoubtedly, all three of those people in your life will have a formative effect on you. So for the young woman narrating McBride's story, her personality is heavily impacted by these influences. With immense love for her older brother and an aggressive antipathy toward her mother, the narrator seeks out affirmation of her self outside of her family and friends, particularly through rough sex as introduced to her by her uncle when she was 13. Finding and trying to better herself and fighting to keep her brother from dying drive the narrator into periods of action, culminating in an inevitable end to close the cycle of trauma.
In a word, the narrative is raw; there is a power to the story being told; however, the unique writing style choice seemed far more of a gimmick than actually contributing to the narrative in a functional way. The message being conveyed was strong enough on its own merits as a coming of age story/realization of self and could be more powerful if the writing style made the story more easily accessible to more readers. I enjoy a challenge when reading and subverting traditional narrative styles, but this was less a challenge and more of a lobotomy. Yes, I understand that we're all imperfect creatures and constantly changing and evolving into a different version of ourselves. And, yes, our thoughts may change direction while we're thinking. But that doesn't mean that we all have such fragmented thought processes so as to find it difficult to get the gist of what's happening. Even some of the earliest stream-of-consciousness works are infinitely easier to comprehend than McBride's attempt (I honestly found it easier to read a stream-of-consciousness story in German while still learning the language!).
Overall, I'd give it a 2.5 out of 5 stars.
*I received this book from Blogging for Books for this review.
sheena_sherburn's review against another edition
dark
reflective
sad
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
1.75
joshburtwistle's review against another edition
5.0
From the first word, McBride grabs you by the wrist and forces you into the very soul of her protagonist.
Her love, her grief, her fear, her trauma is all your own.
And you will not come back the same.
Her love, her grief, her fear, her trauma is all your own.
And you will not come back the same.
bonjemon's review
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
so hard to read cos like what? but so good and so worth it and once the groove comes oh jeeze oh lord so incredible
erinbryce429's review
4.0
This book challenged me in a way a book hasn't in a while, but it was well worth it. I think it's one I will need to read again to get the full effect.
lalawoman416's review
4.0
This is a brutal, brutal book. This book follows a girl from age two though twenty - through her father's desertion, her brother's childhood cancer, her fanatical mother, and her rapist uncle. After being raped by her uncle at 13, she uses sex as a weapon against the boys who teased her brother, older men who objectified her, and eventually, herself. It's hard to read as she uses sex frequently and violently.
The genius of this novel, however, isn't the plot. It's the prose. It reads more like poetry. It's a stream of consciousness that frequently is stilted - as though the girls' language stopped developing as a child. Her childlike narrative makes her story all the more uncomfortable - and this book IS uncomfortable. It's definitely worth the read, but be forewarned. It is bleak.
The genius of this novel, however, isn't the plot. It's the prose. It reads more like poetry. It's a stream of consciousness that frequently is stilted - as though the girls' language stopped developing as a child. Her childlike narrative makes her story all the more uncomfortable - and this book IS uncomfortable. It's definitely worth the read, but be forewarned. It is bleak.
elenakieckhafer's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
juneuk's review
My lack of rating for this book is simply because I cannot make my mind up about it. Reading the reviews here, my feeling swings widly between 'it's the best; groundbreaking, genius, prose-as poetry etc etc', and 'it's the worst; harrowing,too-clever, impenetrable..'and so forth. I will say that as a rule I detest 'stream-of -consciousness' as a style. I only read this book because it won the Bailey's Prize and I wanted to see what the fuss was about. I almost gave up at times until I 'got my ear in'so to speak and the sense of the thing began to show itself.But that was also when the sheer horror of the situation emerged;the broken relationships, the degradation and , at times, the sexual violence.
I don't regret having read this- I cried,I was shocked, and sometimes I was dazzled, but I was never unmoved...
I don't regret having read this- I cried,I was shocked, and sometimes I was dazzled, but I was never unmoved...
veganlasagne's review against another edition
2.75
I don't think I'm a big enough art bro to understand this book, sadly.
The formatting made me want to DNF several times. I've never read a book like it which was mostly the driving force that spurred me on to finish it and ultimately challenge myself.
It's uniquely written in a stream of consciousness type format. Which is clever but meant that reading it took up 100% of my brain capacity, and even then I wasn't sure what was going on.
No speech marks meant that conversations have to be re-read again and again to understand who's talking. Did my head in.
The story itself is harrowing and the ending is brutal but the writing style completely killed it off for me.
The formatting made me want to DNF several times. I've never read a book like it which was mostly the driving force that spurred me on to finish it and ultimately challenge myself.
It's uniquely written in a stream of consciousness type format. Which is clever but meant that reading it took up 100% of my brain capacity, and even then I wasn't sure what was going on.
No speech marks meant that conversations have to be re-read again and again to understand who's talking. Did my head in.
The story itself is harrowing and the ending is brutal but the writing style completely killed it off for me.