A review by sweetsxrrxw
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers

emotional mysterious reflective medium-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

2.0

i have been reading five chapters of this every week, for class. during the process of reading it, i've heard a couple of my classmates saying they were enjoying the book but, honestly? i couldn't relate back then and i still can't. tbh i don't know what am i gonna do in my exam cause i can't remember anything besides the plot's important details, lmao.

i think the only characters i was invested with were gretchen and margaret and once their story became a subplot, my interest in the  story. now that i have finished the book, looking back at it, i can empathize with jean and howard, however while reading, i just didn't feel any kind of affection towards any of them. 
like, actually, i wasn't mad or sad at the end? of course jean and howard deserve a happy life, i guess, but it is what it is


maybe i'm just not used to reading books in english (i usually read them in spanish) but the writing felt dense at some parts and i just could not focus on what was going on. however, one thing i liked is how the author occasionally inserted jean's articles for the newspaper. although i think it was a cool detail, i think clare chambers could have done so much better.
i get that the book is set in the late fifties but the misogyny, lesbophobia and ableism were awful to read. like ok, gretchen and martha were going to be judged anyways so why not let them at least by happy by themselves? and what was the need to make victor neurodivergent? that's just an awful thing to write...


idk, all in all, i just can't see the point of the book. and i get that some stories are just pointless but this book just was not my cup of tea.
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