Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

No One Is Talking About This by Patricia Lockwood

6 reviews

withlivjones's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

This is a book about a minor internet celebrity whose perspective on life and how much of it is spent on the internet is completely changed when her family undergoes a tragedy. The first half of the book is very much no plot just vibes as the protagonist narrates her social-media-focused life, but the second half of the book, which focuses on her real life, is where it really steps up and becomes so profound and beautiful - sometimes it’s the little stories, the ones that don’t make the news, that most deserve to be told. 

I thought that the writing was very clever: the whole thing is structured in small, Tweet-like sections of prose in reference to the theory that humans’ attention spans are getting shorter because of social media; the tone of the narration is littered with dark humour because many people nowadays use humour to cope with how awful life is; and the book perfectly captures the internet culture of the late 2010s - the period between the 2016 election and the pandemic when we all thought life couldn’t get any worse! - and yet at the same time there are so many absolutely beautiful lines, and you can easily tell that this is a book that was crafted with love. 

I’m sure that a lot of the references will go over the heads of those lucky enough to not be chronically online, and it’s so much a product of its time that it will become outdated in a decade or so, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this book gets taught to the literature classes of the far future to get a good idea of the cultural zeitgeist of the Trump era, and those future children will stare at words like “binch” and “sneazing” with the same level of bewilderment as our parents, and the cycle will continue. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Religious bigotry and Abortion

lynxpardinus's review against another edition

emotional reflective

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Child death, Sexual content, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Addiction, Confinement, Drug use, Incest, Racism, Vomit, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Abortion, Cultural appropriation, Alcohol, and War

sorcha's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Medical content, Grief, and Abortion

Minor: Rape, Violence, and Religious bigotry

andrewhatesham's review against another edition

The writing style is unbearable. I read a couple pages, it was just so... unpleasant. Didn't enjoy reading it at all. I was already thinking about DNFing it, but I read some reviews and saw that the second half was better, so I tried skipping the first half (it was so boring), and skimmed through some of the the second half. It IS more interesting, but still not the type of thing I want to read. Won't say it's a bad book, it just didn't click with me. The cover is nice though.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Medical content, Religious bigotry, Abortion, and Pregnancy

brittishliterature's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Police brutality, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, and Abortion

alylentz's review against another edition

emotional funny reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

This was absolutely engrossing in the first half, and then an absolute gut punch in the second that I was completely unprepared for in the best way. It felt like being an alien introduced to social media, where things are vaguely recognizable but also incomprehensible. Every time I turned to Twitter while reading this I felt detached and a little nauseated, but I think in a really healthy way. And I wept at the end. This book manages to be funny, deeply moving, has a totally unique voice, and got me to assess habits I don't always think about. This is the second work of Patricia Lockwood's I've loved: it was eagerly anticipated, completely unexpected, and exceeded my expectations.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, and Grief

Minor: Ableism, Miscarriage, Religious bigotry, and Abortion