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boyish's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Rape
eeefann125'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
5.0
Graphic: Body shaming, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Biphobia, Dysphoria, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Cultural appropriation, Mental illness, Addiction, Homophobia, Racism, Drug abuse, Fatphobia, Rape, Alcoholism, and Classism
seekittyread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Violence, Infidelity, Alcoholism, and Mental illness
Moderate: Drug use, Biphobia, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting
Minor: Addiction, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Bullying, Drug abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Blood, Body shaming, Pedophilia, Rape, Incest, and Suicidal thoughts
lpdx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape
Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, and Violence
Minor: Physical abuse
sealbrecht's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Biphobia
Minor: Pedophilia, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Suicide, and Incest
machinations's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Toxic friendship
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Biphobia, Sexual content, Rape, and Stalking
Minor: Abortion, Addiction, Transphobia, and Injury/Injury detail
oliverlang's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
I found it very easy and compelling to read. The plot is weird. From the beginning you're not told what *event* caused Cass to move away from NY to LA and I guarantee you, you will not guess what it is specifically before it happens.
I didn't love all the characters but I didn't not-Not like them. This is a book about relationships, to people, your relationship yourself and to your life/career.
Moderate: Addiction, Biphobia, Blood, Body horror, Drug use, Vomit, Suicide, Sexual assault, Rape, Physical abuse, and Misogyny
Minor: Eating disorder
caseythereader's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
📚 This book is like PLAIN BAD HEROINES + PIZZA GIRL.
📚 I felt Cass on a few levels - trying to make art work, trying to find yourself by dropping out of your life, being an elder millennial trying to understand the universe young queer people live in - whewwww!
📚 Everybody is such a mess, but in a way that feels true to life. I've known (and sometimes been) these women trying to figure out where they belong and how to exist.
📚 There is a painful two-pronged critique of the art world: one thread about how tastemakers jump on what they think is new and cutting edge but it's really the same stuff repackaged in a more soul-crushing way, and another thread about how people in power will put that pain on display and mine it for profit, even when the creator is visibly suffering.
📚 There's also some really good stuff about tokenism and molding people to fit the story in your mind. I do want to point out what at first seems like some nasty asexual rep, but I do think it's pushed back on as much as possible in the moment (and it feeds back into my previous point about people in distress not getting the support they need).
Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Vomit
Moderate: Ableism, Biphobia, and Homophobia
liteartha's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
some things that i loved:
- the writing! there's something about silverman's prose that truly elevated this to the next level for me. there's humour and emotion and a truly gripping style of writing that kept me engaged throughout
- the characters are messy, messy, messy, and so human for all their ridiculousness. many of them were insufferable, and yet i loved that. though this novel serves as a very close examination of cass herself and we don't get nearly as much development from the side characters, it remained clear throughout just how multi-layered the people surrounding her all were. we really don't get a lot of resolutions, which was refreshing
- the exploration and satirization of both the theatre and film scenes, which was funny and (delightfully) grating in near equal measure
- cass' story in relation to her age. she's 33 and she's struggling. she fumbles over and over again. she hasn't got much at all figured out
- the authentic queerness of it all and specifically the bisexual representation. this isn't a love story or a story about cass' queerness, but it's there all throughout in the way that queerness simply is a part of queer folks' lives. that's something i've struggled to find in other works and it stood out to me here for the sheer ease of it
at its core, this book meditates on success and failure, devotion to one's craft, humanity, and ambition. there's ample exploration of desire, art, queer existence, and the mess of life. the third act in particular brings a marked shift in the novel's tone and really brought things home for me. as a queer woman in the creative scene, struggling with feelings of inadequacy and what success means to me, i needed this novel, and i feel like so many others do as well.
i do want to address a few things i liked less, though, specifically in terms of representation. it's tricky in a book like this to determine what's intended as commentary or human flaws vs intentional statements, but i want to give a heads up about some of the content all the same:
- the film we spend much of the book following the production of features two token bipoc and one token gay character. this is all depicted in a very self aware and intentional manner and the token gay film character is balanced against the novel's cast of several queer characters, but given the overall whiteness of the novel's cast, the bipoc tokenism is still a bit rough to read
tw:
thank you to random house and netgalley for providing this e-arc
Graphic: Blood and Violence
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Biphobia, Homophobia, Infidelity, and Rape
Minor: Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, and Suicide