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flowersophia's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
It was a little slow to start, but once the plot picked up I really enjoyed it. An extremely queer-coded main character with Deadpool-like humor in a noir-esque detective story. I needed a fun read like this after some more serious stories.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Gun violence and Car accident
willow1113's review
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Body horror, Death, Drug use, Gore, Gun violence, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
anna_hepworth's review against another edition
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
This is the third of Cantero's books that I've read, and I'm not as head over heels about it as I was the others. As with the previous, it is a fascinating combination of meta-textual commentary on a set of genre tropes, and a completely over the top example of the same. I think that the reason that it didn't work for me is that I'm not as familiar with the genre, and so rather than being engaged with the cleverness (and the bits I did get were so very clever) sections felt really flat.
Also, I think the pace of the story was best described as frenetic. Which when there are madcap criminal Things happen, including car chases and shootouts, kind of makes sense, but I did find it exhausting to read and it took me significantly longer than I would have expected. I dialed it down to only attempting to read a chapter at a time, and that helped for dealing with the overwhelm, but meant that I wasn't as focused on the details of the plot as I might have been.
The central conceit, of two people in the same body, kind of worked, but there were lots of times where the science side of my thoughts got in the way, because the plausible deniability wore thin. Be interested in knowing whether other people find the same thing, and whether it is more that I just wasn't engaged enough. After all, I'm perfectly willing to hand wave lots of science bullshit when a story sells it to me.
As would be expected for detective noir, the characters are all a bit over the top, a bit charicatured, a bit flimsy. I didn't really mesh with any of the major players, finding the most believable one a bit part -- Ursula, kid sister of the fellow whose death is being investigated.
There are many great paragraphs, several fabulous scenes, but few gripping chapters.
All in all, Cantero stays on my 'buy on sight' list because their all in investment in deconstructing stories makes for a great read.
Also, I think the pace of the story was best described as frenetic. Which when there are madcap criminal Things happen, including car chases and shootouts, kind of makes sense, but I did find it exhausting to read and it took me significantly longer than I would have expected. I dialed it down to only attempting to read a chapter at a time, and that helped for dealing with the overwhelm, but meant that I wasn't as focused on the details of the plot as I might have been.
The central conceit, of two people in the same body, kind of worked, but there were lots of times where the science side of my thoughts got in the way, because the plausible deniability wore thin. Be interested in knowing whether other people find the same thing, and whether it is more that I just wasn't engaged enough. After all, I'm perfectly willing to hand wave lots of science bullshit when a story sells it to me.
As would be expected for detective noir, the characters are all a bit over the top, a bit charicatured, a bit flimsy. I didn't really mesh with any of the major players, finding the most believable one a bit part -- Ursula, kid sister of the fellow whose death is being investigated.
There are many great paragraphs, several fabulous scenes, but few gripping chapters.
All in all, Cantero stays on my 'buy on sight' list because their all in investment in deconstructing stories makes for a great read.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Gun violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Car accident, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Ableism, Addiction, Drug use, Infidelity, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol
ka_ke's review
Originally I was enjoying the book. And then the transphobic term Lady boy was used in a racially charged manner and that is just not okay.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Racism, and Transphobia
lycanhood's review
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gun violence, Violence, Car accident, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Transphobia, and Dysphoria
Minor: Mental illness
monochromatique714's review
adventurous
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
A wonderful play on a Jekyll/Hyde situation. Loved the characters and the crime/mystery aspects.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Violence
bluejayreads's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Despite how dark and downright horrifying this book can be at times, This Body's Not Big Enough for Both of Us was, overall, astonishingly fun.
Adrian and Zooey are conjoined twins. Except instead of having two torsos, or two heads coming out of one torso, or an abnormal number of limbs, or something like that, they share a body with two arms, two legs, and one head - perfectly normal to look at. They're two separate people sharing one body and one brain - Adrian has the left half, Zooey has the right. Adrian is pure calculation and logic, and Zooey is pure emotion and hedonism. And they hate each other.
But together, they make a really good private eye. So when the police department calls them in to help an undercover cop prevent a gang war, they get in a little bit over their heads, especially since Adrian is actually trying to get things done and Zooey gets them in trouble by acting on impulses and feelings and never thinking things through. Zooey worked really well as as foil for Adrian, but I really liked him the best. Neither of them were exactly good people, but I related much more to Adrian's logic than Zooey's free-spiritedness.
This book does get really dark. There's car crashes, guns, gory murders and injuries, questions of what exactly a minor child should do when she knows her father's a mobster and how to cope when the polar opposite sibling you hate shares your body, the trauma of growing up abandoned and medicalized because people think you're insane and having people see you as a medical curiosity or a dangerous maniac but never as a human being, Adrian's trauma of being asexual while Zooey is a nymphomaniac, and the question of whether the siblings trying to hurt each other counts as siblings fighting or self-harm. But despite all that, the writing style and Zooey's inability to be anything approaching serious, it manages to be mostly lighthearted and sometimes even laugh-out-loud funny.
This book breaks the fourth wall a lot. In some ways it doesn't seem intentional, since Zooey is a little nuts anyway and seems to fully believe that she's the protagonist in a book. So like, sort-of fourth wall breaks. It fully leans into the wacky weirdness of two siblings who hate each other in one body, and was highly entertaining. It wasn't perfect by any stretch, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Gun violence, Self harm, Blood, and Car accident
Minor: Pedophilia and Transphobia
sunnymatsu's review
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I adore this book, it's my absolute favorite of all time. A noir comedy mystery about 2 detective siblings who were born in the same body. The writing style is creative and fast-paced, and incredibly unique! It goes back and forth between more traditional writing and a screenwriting format, which does an amazing job for both comedy and drama. The beginning of the book is a bit confusing, but stick with it!
I won't deny that some parts may ring transphobic. On my end, it seems more like a lack of information than any sort of malice on the author's part, though. But it's up to you to decide whether that's worth it.
I won't deny that some parts may ring transphobic. On my end, it seems more like a lack of information than any sort of malice on the author's part, though. But it's up to you to decide whether that's worth it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Gun violence, and Car accident
Moderate: Death and Self harm
Minor: Racism, Transphobia, and Forced institutionalization
Other warnings: Syringe Use, A child character with a crush on an adult Notes: The self-harm is not in any typical form, but I felt it should be included as the scene itself is fairly graphic. To go into more detail,