Scan barcode
madelinequinnee's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Cursing, Gore, Gun violence, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
samanthaleereads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Self harm
Minor: Fire/Fire injury
miafromorchardstreet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Moderate: Child abuse, Self harm, and Sexual assault
orlagal's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Grief, Religious bigotry, Stalking, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
savannnah_reads's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
The story being written in first-person plural was really interesting. I’ve never read a book that utilizes that style, but it made the narrative more interesting to hear chunks of the plot from the POV of “we” and then swap to individual POVs set in the future. I think it really embodied the experience of being a young girl terrified of standing out in a bad way; just wanting to belong.
You should read this book if you are fascinated by girlhood, repressed memories from childhood/moments from childhood we didn’t understand at the time and are still left wondering about, & tense and slightly manipulative relationships with moms. Oh, and if you enjoyed books like Bunny and Ripe.
//
“Eddie’s torso is a miracle to us. And we don’t even believe in miracles”
“We would not be born out of sweetness. We would be born out of rage.”
“We think of our mothers when we love them the most. Which is always just after we hate them the most”
“Now I think the only way some men know how to love a woman is to humiliate her”
“People seem to see warmth in me, even when I offer none. Maybe if I was thinner, it would be easier. But it seems to me sometimes that a woman with flesh is a woman who must always be grateful. People don’t hesitate around me. I’m always being asked for favors, and causing offense when I say no.”
“Our mothers call us brutes when they want us to feel bad. It is what they call men they do not like, like our dads”
“We felt foul and fatherly and afraid of ourselves. We tried to make ourselves small. We were coiled up, but we were not broken. And we knew our mothers’ idea of goodness was not measured by morals, but by how much noise we made. And we quickly grew tired of trying to be good in their way.”
“Leaving was glorious until I realized there was no one left to talk to about it”
“He looks like someone returning for a dinner they will not have to clean up”
Graphic: Bullying, Self harm, Toxic relationship, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Child abuse, Cursing, Fatphobia, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence
elysh_kaye's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Pedophilia, Self harm, and Suicide
rionstorm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
The plot is hard to follow and each new thread that seems like it will be the new main direction inevitably gets abandoned for whatever the characters are more fixated on at that moment, with a fickleness that is thematically appropriate. That being said, the author probably introduced more elements than she could realisticslly or satisfyingly pull off.
The two main characters, in my opinion, are the setting of Florida and the amalgamation/superorganism that is The Girls. The sensory descriptions are delicious and disgusting, and the sense of place is overpowering. This feels like a horror about being a teenage girl - everything is grubby and decorated and fascinating and boring and pointless and achingly intensely meaningful. The characters are fixated on being seen and chosen, with the two possible outcomes (achieving this or not) both anticipated as equally nightmarish.
The tension between their vulnerability, longing for tenderness, cruelty, and disgust at any softness or kindness feels sharply accurate to the experience of teenage girlhood - particularly the teenage girlhood of children who have been profoundly traumatised but don't have any way to confront or desk with that reality. The way that the narrators dance around their traumas without making direct eye contact with it, both as an unconscious survival mechanism and as a conscious denial, put words on an experience I'd seen play out among my peers as a teenager, but never identified.
Overall I found this book interesting, if confusing, and enjoyed the uneasy atmosphere it created. Reccomend to people who love gross, cruel, painful, conflicting portrayals of girlhood, to people who love descriptions of rot and bugs and swamps, and to fans of Ethel Cain. Do not reccomend to people who want a solid plot or any conclusions.
Graphic: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Self harm, Sexual assault, Violence, Stalking, and Toxic friendship
Moderate: Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail