A review by helloroci
Inside Madeleine by Paula Bomer

2.75

I will say the saving grace of this book is it’s namesake short story. “Inside Madeline” is hard, raw, honest, and very very good. It made getting through this book worth it for me. The rest of the book is just a cliche of the same “bad girl” tropes previously found in The Bell Jar, The Virgin Suicides, Girl,Interrupted, etc. There’s also extensive queer bating and many of the stories involved clearly queer narratives that the author is either knowingly co-opting or she’s somehow too oblivious to where she’s “heard a story like this before” when adding it in—either way it all goes unacknowledged and it only makes the book stranger and nonsensical.