Reviews

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett

ceciliacrawley's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

rvlgonzalez's review against another edition

I really do not have strong feelings about this book at all. If I were a Bookmarks reviewer, I would give it a ‘positive’. A lot of the book was really compellingly new - taxidermy, sexy taxidermy - or giving fair shake to previously-underrated topics, like sibling friendship and normalizing queerness or ‘Florida as a normal place’. I think I just didn’t connect as much with the actual people. I didn’t quite feeeeel how Jessa and Milo would love Brynn (who was a jerk, we can all agree). It felt like Jessa had internalized so much about how the people around her are, she’s very extrospective, and my speed a little more introspective. Good book! Just not my forever fav.

kat_simpson's review against another edition

dark sad slow-paced

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

2.25

ssem's review against another edition

medium-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

2.0

lily_rose03's review

dark emotional funny inspiring medium-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

4.25

tomwbrass's review

2.0

Very readable but also quite boring

jiyoung's review against another edition

2.0

Occasionally funny though ultimately contrived. The drama felt as staged as the taxidermied menagerie; I couldn’t fully invest in the Mortons’ psychological turmoil as it vacillated between the cartoonish and the cliché. Arnett does have a knack for writing about viscera while there are some concise prose gems throughout (e.g., “Nothing made an animal look less alive than tension leaked from the spine”). The book doesn’t evolve much beyond its narrow gimmick of dead animal erotica, unfortunately.

rgprinzen's review against another edition

4.0

3.5

bbqrplanting's review against another edition

3.0

Probably closer to 3.5. It took me a bit to get into it

neatsmarie_reads's review against another edition

I just couldn’t get into the descriptions of animals and the taxidermy unfortunately