Reviews tagging 'Abortion'

The Pisces by Melissa Broder

7 reviews

alex_wordweaver's review against another edition

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sad tense fast-paced
  • 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

2.0

I didn't really enjoy this book at all. I first picked it up because I found it on a list of queer books. It definitely had some queer undertones, but the MC Lucy's voice/internal monologue and her actions to deal with her problems just grated on me so much. I think the only person (creature?) I kind of liked was Theo the merman and Dominic the dog. Dominic also deserved better.
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denacolada's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

3.25

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froggoz13's review against another edition

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dark
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No

1.0

Really bad in my opinion. Bad writing, bad story, bad characters. The main character Lucy is a really bad person and the rest of the story doesn't redeem that. The disgusting details of her life weren't funny to me so I did not enjoy reading any of the book. Many parts were absurd and the dialogue was simple so ut was quite easy and quick to read. 
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cass_masters's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny reflective medium-paced

4.0

Beautifully written, pure smut, filled with self-loathing. Great sex scenes 
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pabi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative reflective sad tense 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

3.0

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cheye13's review against another edition

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

2.0

Sigmund Freud and Judith Butler would go to town on this. And the ensuing debate would be more interesting than this novel. This was a boring Rachel Bloom's Crazy Ex-Girlfriend and a bland Zaina Arafat's You Exist Too Much.

Unlike many earlier readers, I didn't pick this up for hot mermaid sex; I picked this up because those earlier readers said it was a wild ride. It disappoints on both fronts: first of all, the merman sex, while indeed hot, doesn't happen until a full halfway through the book, and is preceeded by quite a bit of terrible human sex. Second, it was more realism than it was ridiculous.

This novel did help me narrow down my ennui of millennial literary fiction. So much of that niche relies on "shock" fiction, but the "shock" is through explicit realism, which isn't shocking at all when you've lived it. Tragic public bathroom hookups, terrible first-anal-attempt stories, graphic discussion of suicide – I can accidentally overhear all that in a nightclub line on a weeknight.
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missbreathing's review

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challenging dark emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Well. I was warned that this would be a weird one. Usually, I like weird. Gimme weird any day! But this might have been a bit too weird for me. I usually like to stick to full or half star ratings, but 3.75⭐️ just felt right for “The Pisces.” Some thoughts:
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“The Pisces” follows Lucy, who spends the summer in Venice Beach to recover from her recent breakup and work on her doctoral thesis. In the process, she falls in love with a merman. 
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The blend of realism and fantasy was so well done that it almost hurt my head to follow. Honestly, the merman stuff is done really really well. 
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I was definitely warned about the merman + human sex, but, oddly enough, that wasn’t what disturbed me? The sex was definitely explicit and at times uncomfortable, so do keep that in mind! But it was actually being inside the MC’s head that weirded me out. It could be very triggering, sometimes cringey, but mostly just dark and oppressive. 
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In the beginning, I thought this would be one of my favorite reads of the year. The prose is smart and funny and peppered with subtle hints of feminism. The writing is stunning! I also really liked the ending. But there was a point about halfway through where I just wanted it to end. It’s slow paced, and while I understand the stylistic choice, I think the story would have benefitted from less meandering. 
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I’m glad I read this, but I wish I had known how sad it was going to be. Please check the trigger warnings for this one, as there  are a LOT of potentially triggering things in it. 
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