freul's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-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
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Rape, Car accident, and Suicide
Moderate: Grief, Religious bigotry, Misogyny, Bullying, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Medical content, Vomit, Abortion, Pregnancy, Eating disorder, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Blood, Body shaming, Cursing, and Religious bigotry
queen_melliott's review against another edition
challenging
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
I had really high hopes for this but ended up absolutely despising it. I did however, very much enjoy the ending because I love when everybody gets what they deserve. It was the only redeeming thing about this disaster of a book.
First of all, I have no idea why in the world anyone would describe this as comedy and compare it to Mrs Maisel when the holy story revolved around discrimination, prejudice, bullying, rape, suicide and death in general. It had zero funny moments.
The story felt so unrealistic for the time. Yes, there absolutely were women who were highly intelligent, who wanted to work, to be scientists or doctors, who didn’t believe in God, who supported or at least accepted gay people, who didn’t believe in marriage, who didn’t want children, who were not warm and nurturing but more unemotional and matter-of-fact, and who had highly intelligent children whom they brought up with a more liberal mindset. Elizabeth, however, combined all of these traits and felt so incredibly unrealistic to me. The reason why I couldn’t stand her was a different one, though. She always felt the need to fight, to be mean and make enemies wherever she went. She was so uncooperative and defensive, she didn’t see when people were trying to help her and be good to her (Calvin, Mason, Avery). She felt downright hostile to me.
Talking about unrealistic, DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MAD AND THE DOG. Madeline is 5 YEARS OLD. Even for a gifted child, it just seemed ridiculous to me, the way she talked, speaking about taxes and faith having nothing to do with religion, get out of here.
And then the friggin’ dog. Learning English. Analyzing human behavior like a psychologist. Reading the clock. Speaking to dead and unborn people. Walking 9 miles by himself to visit Elizabeth at work. Picking up Mad from school. Having an inner monologue about the dissonance between people thinking they’re so smart and voluntarily consuming carcinogens. Then of course he was trained in bomb detection, too. I swear the only thing that dog couldn’t do was go rowing with Elizabeth.
Also, maybe three people would watch that cooking show. It would NOT be a hit in that time. Today, yes. Back then, hell no.
Needless to say, I skim-read most of the book because I hated it so much but still wanted to know where the story was going to go, what all the fuss was about.
Then came the point I would have DNFed this, hadn’t I been in 76% already: Elizabeth, a SCIENTIST, someone who always stuck to the SCIENTIFIC FACTS, telling a woman on her show that it is OK TO EAT MEAT BECAUSE PLANTS ARE ALIVE, TOO, just like animals!!! LADY, PLANTS DO NOT HAVE A CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, THEREFORE, THEY DO NOT FEEL PAIN. Also, they do not feel emotions and have no families, they don’t feel frightened before we dice them, they do not release stress hormones, they don’t feel pain, they don’t miss their family members when separated from them. EATING MEAT AND EATING PLANTS ABSOLUTELY DO NOT COMPARE. Meat is murder, full stop. So is dairy and eggs. Educate yourself, Bonnie Garmus. The only slightly redeeming part about this was that, later, Elizabeth teaches her audience that plants do in fact have protein. So at least, Bonnie Garmus knows nutritional facts, even if she has no clue about the anatomy of plants or ethical questions.
Lastly, the whole point of the story was to fight discrimination and be accepting of people no matter their sex or sexual orientation - with the exception of people who believe in God, of course, and all Christian churches in the world. They are pure evil! There is only a single good priest and that is the one who doesn’t believe in God in the first place (Wakely). What a way to undermine the books whole point. Accept people for who they are, unless they have a different point of view or different beliefs from yours. Well done, Bonnie Garmus.
First of all, I have no idea why in the world anyone would describe this as comedy and compare it to Mrs Maisel when the holy story revolved around discrimination, prejudice, bullying, rape, suicide and death in general. It had zero funny moments.
The story felt so unrealistic for the time. Yes, there absolutely were women who were highly intelligent, who wanted to work, to be scientists or doctors, who didn’t believe in God, who supported or at least accepted gay people, who didn’t believe in marriage, who didn’t want children, who were not warm and nurturing but more unemotional and matter-of-fact, and who had highly intelligent children whom they brought up with a more liberal mindset. Elizabeth, however, combined all of these traits and felt so incredibly unrealistic to me. The reason why I couldn’t stand her was a different one, though. She always felt the need to fight, to be mean and make enemies wherever she went. She was so uncooperative and defensive, she didn’t see when people were trying to help her and be good to her (Calvin, Mason, Avery). She felt downright hostile to me.
Talking about unrealistic, DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON MAD AND THE DOG. Madeline is 5 YEARS OLD. Even for a gifted child, it just seemed ridiculous to me, the way she talked, speaking about taxes and faith having nothing to do with religion, get out of here.
And then the friggin’ dog. Learning English. Analyzing human behavior like a psychologist. Reading the clock. Speaking to dead and unborn people. Walking 9 miles by himself to visit Elizabeth at work. Picking up Mad from school. Having an inner monologue about the dissonance between people thinking they’re so smart and voluntarily consuming carcinogens. Then of course he was trained in bomb detection, too. I swear the only thing that dog couldn’t do was go rowing with Elizabeth.
Also, maybe three people would watch that cooking show. It would NOT be a hit in that time. Today, yes. Back then, hell no.
Needless to say, I skim-read most of the book because I hated it so much but still wanted to know where the story was going to go, what all the fuss was about.
Then came the point I would have DNFed this, hadn’t I been in 76% already: Elizabeth, a SCIENTIST, someone who always stuck to the SCIENTIFIC FACTS, telling a woman on her show that it is OK TO EAT MEAT BECAUSE PLANTS ARE ALIVE, TOO, just like animals!!! LADY, PLANTS DO NOT HAVE A CENTRAL NERVOUS SYSTEM, THEREFORE, THEY DO NOT FEEL PAIN. Also, they do not feel emotions and have no families, they don’t feel frightened before we dice them, they do not release stress hormones, they don’t feel pain, they don’t miss their family members when separated from them. EATING MEAT AND EATING PLANTS ABSOLUTELY DO NOT COMPARE. Meat is murder, full stop. So is dairy and eggs. Educate yourself, Bonnie Garmus. The only slightly redeeming part about this was that, later, Elizabeth teaches her audience that plants do in fact have protein. So at least, Bonnie Garmus knows nutritional facts, even if she has no clue about the anatomy of plants or ethical questions.
Lastly, the whole point of the story was to fight discrimination and be accepting of people no matter their sex or sexual orientation - with the exception of people who believe in God, of course, and all Christian churches in the world. They are pure evil! There is only a single good priest and that is the one who doesn’t believe in God in the first place (Wakely). What a way to undermine the books whole point. Accept people for who they are, unless they have a different point of view or different beliefs from yours. Well done, Bonnie Garmus.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Religious bigotry, and Bullying
Moderate: Rape, Homophobia, Pregnancy, and Body shaming
Minor: Grief, Child death, Suicide attempt, Infidelity, Death of parent, Abortion, and Car accident
iothemoon's review
dark
slow-paced
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Rape, Sexual harassment, and Sexism
Moderate: Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Suicide and Homophobia
weasley1912's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
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? No
5.0
The dog as a character was very interesting and also broke my heart ❤️
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, Death, Physical abuse, and Sexual harassment
adelita18's review
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Rape
Minor: Suicide, Death, Suicidal thoughts, and Abandonment
floatinthevoid's review against another edition
DNF-ED at 75%.
Warning! Rant review incoming.
Warning! Rant review incoming.
"Wait. is that rare?" Madeline piped up. "Is not believing in God one of those rare things?"
The subtlety... is that of an actual elephant in the room. This is why I avoid hyped books like a plague btw. I've heard so many positive reviews from people I usually shared a taste in books with. But man, like okay, I get it Elizabeth Zott is Woman In Science. She calls out misogynistic bullshit all the time. She dared to fight injustices. I get it she's smart and quirky and very attractive to everyone except herself. And of course her child is a Genius too. Reading Nabokov and Norman Mailer at four. Understand politics and human rights at six. Oh, they also have a dog that can understand 200 words or something. Nothing is too impossible for the Zotts, apparently. Okayyy I get it, really. So then, the story?
The actual plot minus all the quirkiness and force-fed morality messages from the author? so dragging and borderline boring. The comedy? Okay. You can make fun out of something very serious. I believe that. But you also need to execute it well. Meanwhile in this book, the author to me feels like she doesn't know how to go about it. And I imagine she said "Fuck it, we ball!" then she balled and not giving it another glance. There's some heavy topics discussed and described in the early chapters, so I got the impression that this is the kind of "serious book" layered with dark humor. Well I was promised "sparks joy with every page" but I got none. With all the exaggeration integrated in a lot of aspects in this book: the characters, plots, dialogues, etc this would do so well as a satire. Make it over the top since the start, so over the top people can't miss it's a satire. But alas this book is not a satire.
Instead of exploring nuances about women in science's struggle or women's struggle in general during the 1950s, the author instead took the girlboss archetype marketed by corporates and mainstream media path. Why is it that Elizabeth so two dimensional anyway? there's a potential to shape her into Woman In Science character with depth, if the author allows her to have vulnerabilities. There are some moments where distressing situations can cause her emotional or moral dilemma, which will be very interesting by the way. But no, nuh-uh. Only logical thinking is allowed. She seemed to always got it handled perfectly in the end.
The other characters were also put as some kind of measurement to show how much better Elizabeth is regarding to social issues, as if she's a social person herself. I only loved the part where Elizabeth and Calvin met, knowing each other then get together. Just two snobs being a couple.
The dog... doesn't necessarily give me any kind of joy. It's just not something I usually wanted to read willingly. So I don't have much to say about it.
The other men characters on the other hand, have no redeeming qualities. Either they're straight up a SA perpetrator or they're an active complicit that ends up not getting their views challenged/confronted at all.
You know, if anything I'm more interested in whatever's going on between Calvin and Wakely...
Point is, this is so disappointing and annoying.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Domestic abuse, Grief, and Child abuse
bug_lightyear's review against another edition
4.5
A great book, shows in painful ways how much it sucks to be a woman in science. But also fun and interesting. I liked how the dog had paragraphs with his point of view.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, and Sexism
rebeccagl0ver's review against another edition
challenging
dark
funny
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Brilliantly readable book consumed within a weekend. It’s very witty, but unexpectedly heavy in parts. Please be aware of trigger warnings before you start.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Rape
Moderate: Suicide, Sexual harassment, and Suicide attempt
janwe's review
Triggerwarning+spoiler
-10 ⭐... WTF... Apart from being absolutely ridiculous and flat... It really annoyed the hell out of me. "Had to" read it for a book club.. But I just can't... Dnfd it at the 2. sexual assault scene... That is supposed to be feminist satire set in the 50s and 60s? Yeah.. RIGHT... I think sexual assault is really funny - LOL... Wtf...
Spoiler:
the female protagonist gets sexual assoulted for the 2nd time (first time brutally raped!!) and, when this Harvey Weinstein-kind-of-type-TV-Producer pulls down his pants... Her reaction to it is this?:
"she shook her head in wonder. She had no idea why men believed women found male genitalia impressive or scary"
... Wtf!? NO just NO!!! I regret sooo much that this author! got any money from me, because I unfortunately PAID MONEY FOR THIS PIECE OF SHIT!!!
-10 ⭐... WTF... Apart from being absolutely ridiculous and flat... It really annoyed the hell out of me. "Had to" read it for a book club.. But I just can't... Dnfd it at the 2. sexual assault scene... That is supposed to be feminist satire set in the 50s and 60s? Yeah.. RIGHT... I think sexual assault is really funny - LOL... Wtf...
Spoiler:
the female protagonist gets sexual assoulted for the 2nd time (first time brutally raped!!) and, when this Harvey Weinstein-kind-of-type-TV-Producer pulls down his pants... Her reaction to it is this?:
"she shook her head in wonder. She had no idea why men believed women found male genitalia impressive or scary"
... Wtf!? NO just NO!!! I regret sooo much that this author! got any money from me, because I unfortunately PAID MONEY FOR THIS PIECE OF SHIT!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual violence, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Domestic abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Sexual harassment
bravelass85's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
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? Yes
5.0
An inspiring story - I couldn’t put it down!!!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual harassment