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whoisrois's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Suicide, Police brutality, Abortion, and Death of parent
Moderate: Alcoholism
deeb_reads's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Leilani manages to trace the intricacies of her characters and their interactions with each other-- which is great, because not much else happens in the book. (If you're not really into character driven books, you probably won't like this one.) Edie, Rebecca, Eric, and Akila all feel fully fleshed out, with their occasionally hostile, occasionally tender interactions providing the meat of the story. Even small-seeming interactions tell you something about the characters and their relationships to one another.
"She has terrible handwriting, doesn't she?" he says... He smiles, this small cruelty hanging in the air between us. And though I can tell he feels a little bad about having said it, he seems relieved when I join in. (32)
Edie will likely be polarizing to readers, who might be frustrated watching her make questionable decisions and suffer the consequences
Like most white people who eat beans in the woods undeterred by the fresh fecal evidence of hungry bears, Eric finds his mortality and soft meaty body a petty, incidental thing. I, on the other hand, am acutely aware of all the ways I might die. (11)
I also loved Leilani's writing style, which is poetic and really evocative of both sensory details and interior emotions. However, I can understand why a decent number of other reviewers didn't like it-- if you like a more subdued writing style it will probably strike you as overwrought. At times, the writing style did bother me, generally just during the occasional flow-of-consciousness run on sentence. For me, though, it hits more than it misses.
In the city, there is a smell. Hell's Kitchen, a rotting, fungal fruit. Midtown, smelling of mildew and old pecorino. I forgot that this is what happens in New York when it rains... (200)
Besides complex characters and well-crafted writing, Leilani provides insightful commentary on race, sex, love, and artistry. Why young women "[make] gods out of feeble men." How intergenerational trauma and racialized poverty affect families and continue vicious cycles. Why people make self-destructive decisions when it comes to sex and relationships. The story addresses these issues and weaves them seamlessly into the narrative, with Edie connecting her own story to that of generations of everyday triumphs and tragedies and her relationships with Rebecca, Eric, and Akila fleshing out these themes.
Overall, very enjoyable writing, humor, and commentary, though definitely might be a bit polarizing depending on your taste in problematic narrators and purple prose.
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Mental illness, Racism, Suicide, Grief, Abortion, and Death of parent
Minor: Eating disorder and Fatphobia
kerrence30's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pregnancy
Moderate: Eating disorder and Police brutality
Minor: Drug use, Infertility, and Suicide
stellahadz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Moderate: Drug use, Miscarriage, Racial slurs, Toxic relationship, Police brutality, Medical content, Abortion, and Death of parent
Minor: Eating disorder
vagorsol's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Miscarriage, Racism, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Eating disorder, Suicide, and Abortion
Descriptions/depictions of depersonalization.alisonfaith426's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Cursing, Drug use, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abortion, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
Minor: Animal death and Car accident
geesammy's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Eating disorder, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Abortion, and Pregnancy
novella42's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I just need to say... Please don't take this book's depiction of non-monogamy as representative of how to do an ethically open marriage. Holy hell. I feel at a loss to list all the ways Edie and Eric and Rebecca torture each other needlessly. It's a fascinating train wreck to watch, and I found myself looking at my own polycule with renewed gratitude and affection. Leilani doesn't let any of the characters off the hook, and if a lot of their behaviors seem inexplicable to you, well, you won't be alone.
As to the book itself, I appreciated the lyrical, almost psychadelic writing. (If you don't like pose poetry or stream-of-consciousness writing, maybe pass on this one.) Leilani revels in dark Millennial existential dread that kept shocking laughter out of me. She's fantastic at descriptive phrases that catch you off-guard with their originality. I marveled at some of them, their poetic pacing and expansive assumptions, so much I started collecting a list:
"I am suspended in a lurid hypnagogic loop."
"It is impossible to see another black woman on her way up, impossible to see that meticulous, polyglottal origami and not, as a black woman yourself, fall a little bit in love."
"A sudden and swiftly contained conniption."
"Hooked into peripheral intuition."
"The city's breakneck, multilingual carousel."
"Some inconceivable boss-level of concentrated loneliness."
"The bike lanes in Manhattan already terrifying at 11:00 a.m., filled with delivery boys and girls who jet into traffic with fried rice and no reason to live, along with the sentient abdominals who do this for fun."
"The lawn buzzed and alkaline, the vinegar in the wine and carnage in the dew, everywhere the perfume of things that want to live."
I can't imagine what it's like to narrate this as an audiobook, because the rhythm of the words is beautiful and also relentless. Leilani is skilled at pulling you deep into the bewildering internal labyrinth of mental illness and immersive, uncomfortable experiences.
If you carry any traumas, I recommend browsing the full list of content tags. I almost couldn't make it through the scenes with gore and body horror, though Edie's dissociative skills and the eye of an artist made it slightly more bearable. I'm glad I got it in hardcopy instead of audio, so I could skim over difficult dark passages. There were lots of those. I'm not sure why I kept reading, except that I was fascinated. It was hard to look away.
One last thing, a recommendation for anyone who likes disco. I genuinely think one reason I enjoyed this book as much as I did was that in the first 15 pages, Edie references her connection to Idris Muhammad's 1977 song "Could Heaven Ever Be Like This." On a whim, I made a Spotify station out of it and I have to say, it complimented the book and let me surrender to the undertow.
Beautiful writing about broken people living a surreal, twisted story.
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Cursing, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Police brutality, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abortion, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Dysphoria, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Gun violence, Vomit, and Car accident
Minor: Cancer, Rape, Excrement, Stalking, and Abandonment
bookishplantmom's review against another edition
- 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
4.0
Graphic: Miscarriage and Police brutality
Moderate: Chronic illness, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Misogyny, Racism, and Sexual assault
heisiiri's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
I think my main issue with this book was that it's one of those books that are quite depressing and grim, yet it still doesn't hit the feels enough. Like this isn't the kind of book I would cry over. The main character and narrator Edie seems to hold a certain emotional distance to everything that happens in her life, which can be an interesting character trait, but sometimes it also means that the scenes don't really impact the emotions of the reader either. It's a style choice that can really work for some readers, but it wasn't my cup of tea.
The best parts of this book are definitely the relationships between the female characters. I enjoyed the complexity and depth of Akila and Edie's relationship, and some of the scenes between Edie and Rebecca were great as well.
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Racism, and Police brutality
Minor: Alcoholism, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Suicide, Death of parent, and Classism