A review by amaandaplz
The Gin Closet by Leslie Jamison

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I loved the writing, the intricacies of each (very flawed, very human) character and their relationship with one another. Despite the seemingly popular contrary opinion, I love a well done autobiographical fiction; and this novel, inspired by the author's own family/estranged Aunt, definitely fell into the catergory of successfully done autobiographical fiction for me. I was really emotional upon finishing it, which is usually an indicator that the book did something great. I only kept that fifth star because especially towards the middle of the book the pace seemed to slow a bit too much for me. I know my attention span has been just absolutely disintegrating more and more each day, but I still hope for a book to pull me in so much that I can't stop binging it until it's finished within a day or two. And I certainly didn't get that here, I read this book throughout probably 3 weeks, which is very long for a book for me, especially with such fun to read characters I'm not sure why I didn't have that binge urge I always hope to get from a book.

My only other, and more specific, complaint I have is I'm still absolutely losing my mind that the relationship between two of the characters was never even acknowledged as incest at any point by anyone, not aloud or even thought to themself that we were informed of at least (unless I somehow missed it?) But I was going crazy the whole time with 'OMG do they realize that just bc they didnt grow up together or even know one another existed until recently does NOT make their dna any less related. Do they even realize theyre cousins???? Does ANYONE realize theyre cousins????? Is anyone going to acknowledge this or did the author actually just somehow not realize these two characters technically are family, blood family, first cousins in fact!!!'

But overall Id absolutely recommend this book to anyone else who enjoys character driven stories about very flawed characters, and more specifically very flawed characters who are struggling with turmoil stemming from mental health/addiction issues (a personal favorite kind of character to read about for me!)