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A review by kristianawithak
His Favorites by Kate Walbert
3.0
The content makes this a hard book to read. It is bleak and sad. The prose is lyrical, but there were moments where this 149 page book felt long. Maybe that’s the point.
The narrator, Jo (so thankful she has a name), is telling what seems like three stories:
1. She accidentally killed her best friend as a teen.
2. Her charismatic teacher began an inappropriate relationship with her.
3. Cynthia, he first roommate at boarding school, doesn’t fit in at school and leaves.
Are these separate stories or all pieces of the same story of how item two is not her fault? Jo lays out the facts, in a stream of conscious manner jumping back and forth between each story. She understands the reader will be skeptical and likely blame her, because she is to blame for item one. It’s a timely novel, in the midst of a culture that sometimes blames victims. That is what makes reading it a little uncomfortable. How does the reader engage with this story? Which parts do you wish were not there?
The narrator, Jo (so thankful she has a name), is telling what seems like three stories:
1. She accidentally killed her best friend as a teen.
2. Her charismatic teacher began an inappropriate relationship with her.
3. Cynthia, he first roommate at boarding school, doesn’t fit in at school and leaves.
Are these separate stories or all pieces of the same story of how item two is not her fault? Jo lays out the facts, in a stream of conscious manner jumping back and forth between each story. She understands the reader will be skeptical and likely blame her, because she is to blame for item one. It’s a timely novel, in the midst of a culture that sometimes blames victims. That is what makes reading it a little uncomfortable. How does the reader engage with this story? Which parts do you wish were not there?