Reviews

Chouette, by Claire Oshetsky

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emilyexley's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

jubaju's review against another edition

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2.0

I'm sorry, I missed something. I didn't enjoy this book at all, neither as a story nor as a metaphor. The most obvious interpretation (and the one I'm going with) is that this is a novel about raising a child with autism and the toll that it takes on the psyche of the parents and their relationship with each other.

I can't say whether it handled the theme well or not; I've never raised a child with autism. But considering that I rate books based on my enjoyment of them, I can't give this one more than 2 stars. The writing was good, but this was just a nonsensical book for me, in the vein of Megan Hunter's The Harpy, which I also gave 2 stars to.

Tiny was all over the place, a completely unreliable narrator, and the child was very hard for me to get a grasp of, which made it very hard for me to follow this novel. I haven't struggled with visualizing a novel since I started reading in English, but this one was too weird.

All in all, this would probably be a decent book for someone who is interested in this kind of theme. I might check out more from the author because I enjoyed the writing.

beatboxboyfriend's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

Content Warnings

clairewimbush1997's review

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challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

sallyscriv's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

What an incredibly weird, beautiful book.

Through Chouette, Claire Oshetsky explores themes of motherhood, sacrifice and parental perception. I don’t know if I really had expectations when I picked up this novel, but whatever they were, this book absolutely shattered them.