Reviews

Dora: A Headcase, by Lidia Yuknavitch, Chuck Palahniuk

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bri_bee's review

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dark funny fast-paced

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

2.5

lindacbugg's review against another edition

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5.0

This is next on my list-after I read my embargoed arc. I'm so excited to have received a copy early because 'The Chronology of Water' was my absolute favorite book last year. Thanks to Cindy for sending me a copy and BJ for requesting a copy for me!! I love my job and I love being able to read things early to be a champion for books and authors I love. Being a bookseller rocks and when you sell a book you love it's so great to be able to tell people "If you love this as much as I did she has a new book coming out and it's just as fabulous" to get them as excited as you are.

This one may end up in my top 5 for 2012. All about finding and creating your own family in this f-ed up world. Beautiful and raw and full of people you know(or want to know)and now that you've read it you can't wait to give it to everyone.

timbo001's review against another edition

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4.0

In my early 20s I would have loved this book. Even now, with its cartoonish characters,I enjoyed the hell out of reading it.

hanelisil's review against another edition

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4.0

Lidia Yuknavitch is a ferocious writer. This book makes me both wish I could remember what it was like to be a teenager, and also be grateful I can't remember. The ending was a little abrupt or maybe... overly contrived? Still liked this brazen story, though.

frankie_s's review against another edition

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3.0

Exhilarating but OTT. At its best like a trashy 90s movie or an Acker novel, at its worst kind of boringly excessive. I enjoyed it though! Super charming.

inhisbluegardens's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny fast-paced

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

5.0

Wow, this was an absolute riot of a book. Based on Freud's case study of his patient "Dora", who suffered from aphonia, this retells the analysis from the point of view of a modern-day troubled teenage girl. She is outrageous, impulsive and traumatised, trying to understand her world and what she wants out of it. Ida/Dora is someone on the cusp of adulthood but still with such a warped sense of who and what she is, as if looking at herself in a fun house mirror. Her inability to articulate this mental anguish she experiences, even through her art, renders her voiceless. This book deals with so much and still manages to pack a punch: art, film, self-harm, female adolescent rage, loss of identity, female sexuality and mental illness. Ida/Dora's voice is certainly a singular one. I raced through this excellent, excellent novel. I'll leave you with a quote I enjoyed: