oraclebykittie's review
5.0
DENSE and DIFFICULT!!! but i did love it <3 sybil lamb has a way with words that i really do envy, im excited for this book to sit on top of my brain the way kathy acker's stuff does alll the time
trans_mediocrity's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
myra_therese's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
avoryfaucette's review against another edition
4.0
This book was hard to rate because it's so unique. I'm not a fan of either post-apocalyptic stuff or absurdism as a category, so it might be more like 3 stars for me personally, but I can recognize the coolness of it, and appreciate how unapologetically queer and trans it is. I think someone with a little more trauma honestly might find it more relatable. I do find the way it's both fictionalized North Ameri(k)a and not compelling, as you never quite can locate yourself as you go through the narrative, but it's eagerly familiar. Plenty of sex, drugs, and rock n roll, but in a queer nihilistic kind of a way. I haven't read On the Road, but I imagine this is what it would be like if you made the hero a trans girl and mixed in a bit of Naked Lunch.
caseythecanadianlesbrarian's review against another edition
5.0
The only way for me to begin a review of Ottawa-born Sybil Lamb’s novel I’ve Got a Time Bomb is by saying it’s the strangest, most unique book I’ve ever read, and I have no fucking clue how to review it. I think both Sybils (the author and main character share a name, among other similarities) would take this as a compliment, though, so here we go....
Sybil is the anti-heroine that you learn to love: she’s a bisexual trans woman, she’s not above fucking you to get what she wants (you know, like maybe a place to crash), she’s the kind of friend who will help you burn down your own house if you want to, and she’s charming as hell (when she wants to be)—“she acted like charm was a minimum wage job she had to hold down 38 hours a week”—when she’s not acting like a self-proclaimed crazy bitch. She spends a lot of her travelling time looking for
"The kind of people who would still let you hang out if you had brain damage and a 3-second attention span and sometimes forgot how doors worked and had 1 or 2 tiny yet epically absurd delusions a day, accumulating like an abscess of crazy right behind your dead left eye."
As you can see, Lamb’s writing is really stunning, amazing and poetic and impressively fresh, but not in a show-offy way at all. Also, funny as hell sometimes. Like, here’s her description of a brothel/strip joint in “Salt Plain City”:
"The saloon was really, actually, seriously named the Fuck & Suck Saloon. At 10 A.M. at the Fuck & Suck, there was a motley crew of pansexual orientations and identities with every ethnic background and body politic represented so thoroughly that their team roll call sounded like a pamphlet from a progressive liberal arts college..."
See the full review here: https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/sybil-lambs-ive-got-a-time-bomb-a-review-of-an-unreviewable-book/
Sybil is the anti-heroine that you learn to love: she’s a bisexual trans woman, she’s not above fucking you to get what she wants (you know, like maybe a place to crash), she’s the kind of friend who will help you burn down your own house if you want to, and she’s charming as hell (when she wants to be)—“she acted like charm was a minimum wage job she had to hold down 38 hours a week”—when she’s not acting like a self-proclaimed crazy bitch. She spends a lot of her travelling time looking for
"The kind of people who would still let you hang out if you had brain damage and a 3-second attention span and sometimes forgot how doors worked and had 1 or 2 tiny yet epically absurd delusions a day, accumulating like an abscess of crazy right behind your dead left eye."
As you can see, Lamb’s writing is really stunning, amazing and poetic and impressively fresh, but not in a show-offy way at all. Also, funny as hell sometimes. Like, here’s her description of a brothel/strip joint in “Salt Plain City”:
"The saloon was really, actually, seriously named the Fuck & Suck Saloon. At 10 A.M. at the Fuck & Suck, there was a motley crew of pansexual orientations and identities with every ethnic background and body politic represented so thoroughly that their team roll call sounded like a pamphlet from a progressive liberal arts college..."
See the full review here: https://caseythecanadianlesbrarian.wordpress.com/2015/02/02/sybil-lambs-ive-got-a-time-bomb-a-review-of-an-unreviewable-book/
meganmilks's review against another edition
5.0
Okay what! Hahaha. I love this book.
Sample: "Syb left the burbling gas can in the sand and stashed the other ones under a scrap of canvas to be dusted with the sand-plain winds. Then she wrapped a dampened bandanna over her mouth and set out to walk the few miles back into Salt Plain City.
"By the time she arrived she had a saltsicle growing like a psychedelic bass player goatee on her chin. Every breath in the salt plains gives you 0.03% of your daily recommended intake of sodium. It was 10 am. She'd been awake for 24 hours and she'd been fighting with Cake since 6 am. Just during those 4 hours she had breathed in 100% of the salt she needed for the day. Maybe a lil more...." (164)
So the drugs and zaniness did start to sag for me in the last third but then there'd be some brilliant aside that brought me back. Would describe style/sequencing like early Michelle Tea crossed with Kathy Acker plus a bit of Fury Road and some kind of hot pink vomit / chemical trace. It's an episodic trans punk novel with slapstick drug humor and lots of love.
All the talk around literary autofiction has neglected/undersold this whole strain of queer punk self-insertion. Move over Ben Lerner, etc.
Sample: "Syb left the burbling gas can in the sand and stashed the other ones under a scrap of canvas to be dusted with the sand-plain winds. Then she wrapped a dampened bandanna over her mouth and set out to walk the few miles back into Salt Plain City.
"By the time she arrived she had a saltsicle growing like a psychedelic bass player goatee on her chin. Every breath in the salt plains gives you 0.03% of your daily recommended intake of sodium. It was 10 am. She'd been awake for 24 hours and she'd been fighting with Cake since 6 am. Just during those 4 hours she had breathed in 100% of the salt she needed for the day. Maybe a lil more...." (164)
So the drugs and zaniness did start to sag for me in the last third but then there'd be some brilliant aside that brought me back. Would describe style/sequencing like early Michelle Tea crossed with Kathy Acker plus a bit of Fury Road and some kind of hot pink vomit / chemical trace. It's an episodic trans punk novel with slapstick drug humor and lots of love.
All the talk around literary autofiction has neglected/undersold this whole strain of queer punk self-insertion. Move over Ben Lerner, etc.
meghan_is_reading's review against another edition
This is like and unlike so many things I'm having trouble describing it - it's playing with words, with gender a bit, the trauma around living as trans in a world so resoundly cis-hetero. It contains a multitude of madcap post-disaster punk survivalist adventure (ala Tank Girl kinda) and grime. And then it just kinda ends, and I'm not sure where we went. The illustrations are gorgeous though.
neurodivengeance's review against another edition
4.0
This took me a long time to read, partly cos I've not been feeling very read-y these last few months but also because of the form, disjointed often drug-fuelled incidents narrated by a character I cared for a great deal but who also had brain damage and MH stuff so at times it was too familiar in some ways for me to deal with. Also there's a lot of trauma in the book, although much of it wasn't stuff that I've experienced as it's transmisogynistic violence.
Anyway, I think this book is incredible and I'm glad I've read it but also it makes me feel sad and crazy and want to snuggle my cat. I'd recommend it tho, with trigger warnings. I think Sybil Lamb is an excellent writer, she's smart with words and I laughed out loud more than once. I'd like to read more of her stuff.
Anyway, I think this book is incredible and I'm glad I've read it but also it makes me feel sad and crazy and want to snuggle my cat. I'd recommend it tho, with trigger warnings. I think Sybil Lamb is an excellent writer, she's smart with words and I laughed out loud more than once. I'd like to read more of her stuff.
shellbellbell's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
This book was wild. The back-cover doesn't really give a good description of what this book is about, and there aren't as nearly many reviews and ratings on here as there should be, so I'll try based on my impressions: This isn't really a novel with a story arc. It's a series of rough-cut slices of life from a post-Katrina New Orleans, to the mountains of Tennessee, to the Toronto underground. I've Got a Time Bomb is like meeting someone at a party who randomly pulls out an outrageous anecdote like it's nothing, then another, and another, until you realize they are one of the most interesting people you've ever met, and that they're also really high right now. This book is like Kino's Journey crossed with The Big Lebowski but instead of The Dude it's a gutterpunk trans girl, and we're all just along for the ride. The characters were both real and vivid, and absolutely unreal at the same time.
That said, there is a lot of heavy content in this book (see trigger warnings listed below) and it's not always a fun ride. I spent a lot of time puzzling over why I couldn't put it down regardless compared to other books I've read recently with heavy content. And maybe it's just the difference between 2020 and 2021, the sheer utter queer survivalist energy of this book, or maybe the slightly irreverent and absurdist tone.
Oh, and the ART! The art included in each chapter really added a lot to the already bizarre tone and events happening.
Not everyone will like this book. There's not a lot of narrative structure. There are weird spellings and run-on paragraphs. Sometimes the scenes drag on a little long. And not everyone has to like this book! Especially since a lot of the content could be triggering, which is why I hesitate to recommend it without some warnings. But I really enjoyed reading about Sybil's adventures, good and harrowing, and I hope she's doing ok now.
Representation notes: Extremely queer. Focuses on trans and queer women, with a few shitty dudes thrown in for variety, and queer community. Main characters are white for the most part.
Trigger Warnings: Transphobic violence, general transphobia, homophobia, dubious consent/coerced sex/sex under the influence, heavy drug use, anorexia (pro-ana), suicide ideation, general depiction of TBI impacts
That said, there is a lot of heavy content in this book (see trigger warnings listed below) and it's not always a fun ride. I spent a lot of time puzzling over why I couldn't put it down regardless compared to other books I've read recently with heavy content. And maybe it's just the difference between 2020 and 2021, the sheer utter queer survivalist energy of this book, or maybe the slightly irreverent and absurdist tone.
Oh, and the ART! The art included in each chapter really added a lot to the already bizarre tone and events happening.
Not everyone will like this book. There's not a lot of narrative structure. There are weird spellings and run-on paragraphs. Sometimes the scenes drag on a little long. And not everyone has to like this book! Especially since a lot of the content could be triggering, which is why I hesitate to recommend it without some warnings. But I really enjoyed reading about Sybil's adventures, good and harrowing, and I hope she's doing ok now.
Representation notes: Extremely queer. Focuses on trans and queer women, with a few shitty dudes thrown in for variety, and queer community. Main characters are white for the most part.
Trigger Warnings: Transphobic violence, general transphobia, homophobia, dubious consent/coerced sex/sex under the influence, heavy drug use, anorexia (pro-ana), suicide ideation, general depiction of TBI impacts
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Eating disorder, Mental illness, Transphobia, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Homophobia
Moderate: Sexual assault
mostly_voids's review
challenging
dark
funny
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Hate crime, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, and Violence
Minor: Blood, Death, Gore, Gun violence, and Vomit