Reviews

I’m giving this a 3.75 rating because I believe it deserves more than just 3.5 but not quite a 4. This book is interesting but wasn’t super engaging. I think it would’ve taken me a long time to read this had I not taken this on a trip with me. It gives me Black Mirror vibes due to the anti-capitalism themes throughout the book. I think that’s what I liked about it the most.

sodimode's review against another edition

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4.0

Gunk Baby immerses you in a glowing stream of western imperliast information, that's so familiar that it's like recognising your own family. It's like the book calls from within a dissasociated body that keeps trying to draw breath over the waves of suburban neon consumerism. It feels like living as a person in your 20s and watching the world burn slow and steady, stinking of rubbish and sweat and cleaning products.

readingintheether's review against another edition

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3.0

very stream of consciousness, plotless, and not sure if I could explain this one with a g*n to my head

amanizaha's review against another edition

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3.0

Gunk Baby reads like a mildly bizarre dream set in a shopping mall on a regular weekday. You know—mostly desolate, shopping mall music droning incessantly, empty stores with idle workers. I think this quote does a good job of conveying the tone and distinctly weird, dream-like ambiance of Gunk Baby:

When I touch the hot steering wheel it stings a long paper cut across my hand. I'm not sure when it got there. The windows are down. There's a red streak across the sky and a dead animal on the road, which I swerve around smoothly. It looks like a bear, a chunky little thing. The mega gas station is lit up with white lights, flickering like a mirage. I remember to breathe in my nose and out my mouth.

The narration by Leen, our twenty-something years old main character, is detached, drifting wherever events carry her. It definitely took considerable effort for me to finish the book, what with the style of narration, but Lau's writing also has a lot of charm that kept me reading. Overall it's a weird, colourful, inventive story, and weeks later, I'm still unable to really wrap my head around it. Regardless, Gunk Baby definitely has personality and a lot to say.

bedjacket's review against another edition

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this really reminded me of you too can have a body like mine. fits into the type of fiction written by women right now in that it has a narrator who seems to be living life behind a glass wall (diassociated from others+herself+the events she's experiencing etc.) and is all about bodily-ness. i could draw about a really lucid theory about this type of DeLillo-esqe shit happening to insouciant female narrators if i wasn't worried someone else had already done it. i guess it also reminded me of severance, but maybe that's the shopping mall connection. i enjoyed it

ciarlene's review

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

emmeme's review against another edition

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dark funny informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

insane behavior.

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