A review by liralen
Rent Girl by Michelle Tea
3.0
Up until about halfway through this book, I thought it was fantastic. It's on point, it's funny, and the red-black-white illustrations really make the book.
To an extent, the book remains its funny and on-point self (the illustrations, certainly, are still terrific), but by the time I reached the end I had soured on the narrator. Maybe it was the switch to a focus on drugs (doing them, dealing them), which I didn't expect -- but I think that more than that it was the lack of depth.
I wasn't sure at first what I didn't care for in the second half. I went away for a few days and had to leave the book at home; would I have liked the second half as much as the first if I'd read it all in one go? Or would I still be disenchanted? But then it clicked. The illustrations -- I know; I said this already (and will say it again) -- really make the book. The writing's pretty interesting, sort of stream-of-consciousness mini-essays that connect but most of which could be read independently of one another. But it's pretty...one-sided.
In the first half of the book, the writing has a point to make. The narrator isn't always sympathetic, but it was definitely interesting to get her perspective (even if it was pretty limited) on the sex trade. Do I wonder whether Steph was really as toxic as she suggests? Yes. Do I wish she'd commented on things like legalisation of prostitution? Yes. That said, it was funny and often biting.
The second half more or less loses the plot, though. The focus switches from prostitution to drugs -- but I don't think there really was a perspective here, or a point, except that making money by selling drugs to "friends" was harder than they'd thought and she didn't like working. It wasn't particularly interesting to me (this was also the point at which I started getting irritated by the typos), and although I did appreciate the artwork, it shouldn't be doing so much of the heavy lifting.
I'm glad I read this, though, especially coming so close on the heels of [b:Paying for It|10108380|Paying for It|Chester Brown|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317067463s/10108380.jpg|15005677]. I just found the first half more compelling than the second half.
To an extent, the book remains its funny and on-point self (the illustrations, certainly, are still terrific), but by the time I reached the end I had soured on the narrator. Maybe it was the switch to a focus on drugs (doing them, dealing them), which I didn't expect -- but I think that more than that it was the lack of depth.
I wasn't sure at first what I didn't care for in the second half. I went away for a few days and had to leave the book at home; would I have liked the second half as much as the first if I'd read it all in one go? Or would I still be disenchanted? But then it clicked. The illustrations -- I know; I said this already (and will say it again) -- really make the book. The writing's pretty interesting, sort of stream-of-consciousness mini-essays that connect but most of which could be read independently of one another. But it's pretty...one-sided.
In the first half of the book, the writing has a point to make. The narrator isn't always sympathetic, but it was definitely interesting to get her perspective (even if it was pretty limited) on the sex trade. Do I wonder whether Steph was really as toxic as she suggests? Yes. Do I wish she'd commented on things like legalisation of prostitution? Yes. That said, it was funny and often biting.
The second half more or less loses the plot, though. The focus switches from prostitution to drugs -- but I don't think there really was a perspective here, or a point, except that making money by selling drugs to "friends" was harder than they'd thought and she didn't like working. It wasn't particularly interesting to me (this was also the point at which I started getting irritated by the typos), and although I did appreciate the artwork, it shouldn't be doing so much of the heavy lifting.
I'm glad I read this, though, especially coming so close on the heels of [b:Paying for It|10108380|Paying for It|Chester Brown|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1317067463s/10108380.jpg|15005677]. I just found the first half more compelling than the second half.