dessa's review against another edition
3.0
I thought this novel was going to be whimsical. It was not, in fact, whimsical. In fact, it was very dark: the citizens of small-town Ontario finding new ways of hating one another, of spitting venom at the world in general, in tearing apart themselves and their families by force, by a series of ever-evolving and ever-novel forces. The reader sees potential and goodness glimmering in almost every character, way down at the bottom of the well. But ultimately that potential never comes to anything - and we return to the title of the book in a refrain of mourning: what a waste, what a waste, what a waste.
stevendedalus's review against another edition
4.0
Jesus this is the bleakest thing I've ever read. Set in a fictional Oshawa in the late eighties, it follows a bunch of wrecks of white trash people as they muddle through their wasted lives in a wasted city with violence and gore and black, black comedy.
It's a deep-dive into the wreck of the industrial suburb. Bad things just continually happen, awful coincidences bring people together, and it ends badly for most. It's a helluva microcosm to throw on the page and I can't say it's a particularly pleasant read, but it's very effective at what it's going for which is to convince you of the hopelessness that suffocates a town once it's forgotten by the economy and society in general.
Sullivan is a very talented writer, which makes the continued assault on light and good at least somewhat bearable. Though it also makes the grotesquerie that much more effective.
I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this. It's short on descriptions of the young, white, male protagonists, giving them them that everyman, faceless thing. Its story is discombobulated and only fits together at the end in, what else, a bloodbath. It's just unrelenting and hard and unique and I don't really want to reread it but I'm glad I got through it nonetheless.
It's a deep-dive into the wreck of the industrial suburb. Bad things just continually happen, awful coincidences bring people together, and it ends badly for most. It's a helluva microcosm to throw on the page and I can't say it's a particularly pleasant read, but it's very effective at what it's going for which is to convince you of the hopelessness that suffocates a town once it's forgotten by the economy and society in general.
Sullivan is a very talented writer, which makes the continued assault on light and good at least somewhat bearable. Though it also makes the grotesquerie that much more effective.
I don't think I've ever read anything quite like this. It's short on descriptions of the young, white, male protagonists, giving them them that everyman, faceless thing. Its story is discombobulated and only fits together at the end in, what else, a bloodbath. It's just unrelenting and hard and unique and I don't really want to reread it but I'm glad I got through it nonetheless.
toasty's review
4.0
unbelievably dark. i thought i knew what i was getting into after the first chapter, but i was very wrong. the story is second tier to the characters, because that's what the majority of this book is: character studies on these fucked up people in this fucked up town. even the side characters get chapters in their own povs, which is confusing at times and brilliant at others. i really enjoyed this, but parts made me feel sick while i was reading, because there isn't even the smallest sliver of good in any of these people or their actions. would recommend for people who don't mind nonlinear, wandering stories.
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