A review by elmtreebooks
NSFW by Isabel Kaplan
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
The blurb on the front cover, says, “The rare read that made me giggle just as much as it left me gutted.”
I kept flipping back to that in disbelief, because while this book is incisive and does an incredible job of putting into simple words the amorphous and frustrating aspects of living within a system that you don’t necessarily agree with and isn’t necessarily good for you, but is also reality with no immediate alternative — there is no lightness to this book. I did not crack a smile once. I didn’t feel miserable reading it or anything like that, more just a heavy, dull weight.
It’s sharply observant and well written, but you know exactly where it is going because you’ve lived these stories; you know these stories; this is not fiction at all, but barely concealed reality. I tend to be biased against first person point of view storytelling, and this is no exception, but this case particularly felt like the main character was trying to convey her deep pain to you directly as both the reader/her therapist.
I don’t know how I feel about it as a whole. I closed the book and thought, “Yep. That’s accurate.” It’s not fun to read. It’s a little bit cathartic to read. I don’t know if it’s important because I don’t know that I learned anything new. I felt much like the main character, being put in an impossible situation where you either accept that that is just the way things are, and try to make the best path forward for yourself and swallow your objections along the way, or… what? Burn the place down, with you in it? Do any of us believe that would really change things?
It’s real. It’s so real. It’s so agonizingly, specifically real. Does that make it a good book? I don’t know. Is it supposed to make me feel outraged? I just feel tired.
Where did you giggle, Zakiya Dalila Harris?! Where was the light in all this darkness? But are we really owed lightness, in a book like this?
I checked the back cover. *All* of the blurbs mention humor. Maybe I’m the only one not laughing?
How do you consume a book like this? Read it. Throw it across the room in rage. And then quietly walk across the room to pick it up and pass it on to a friend. Think to yourself, “maybe if men read this too, and not just women, it will change how they think about things, how they view the “me too” movement and they will begin to understand how pervasive it is in every workplace in every industry, and not some abhorrent isolated behavior that impacts only glamorous Hollywood workplaces.”
Try to tell the voice in your head to be quiet, the one that keeps saying “Maybe… or maybe any man who reads this will think it’s *only fiction*, dramatized for effect.”
As I read I kept asking myself if I liked this book, if there was value to reading something so frank but accepting of the way things actually are. And then I got to the last paragraph and it crystalized — 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Rape