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A review by 2001astaceodyssey
No One Belongs Here More Than You by Miranda July
3.0
I'd been meaning to read this book for a long time. I've owned it for years and even started it twice, both times ultimately setting it aside in favor of something that seemed more interesting before I'd gotten so much as halfway through. I really enjoyed Miranda July's movie Me and You and Everyone We Know and wanted to give her book a fair shot by actually finishing it, so I buckled down and didn’t stop until I’d turned the last page.
My actual rating for No One Belongs Here More Than You is 3.5 stars, but that’s not an option on Goodreads so I’ve rounded it to 3 because for me it leans more in that direction than 4. I had a difficult time feeling transported by and getting lost in these stories. Probably my biggest issue was that I wanted them to come to more of a conclusion somehow, to have more of a point, or at least more of a payoff. The fact that every story seemed to just sort of fade out without much of a purpose seemed to give the book as a whole the feeling that IT lacked much of a purpose. There were some great moments throughout the book, I definitely highlighted multiple passages where July's use of language was particularly interesting/pretty/truthful. I enjoyed Birthmark the most, and also genuinely liked The Swim Team and The Sister. Something That Needs Nothing wasn’t bad either. I half really enjoyed and half really didn’t Making Love in 2003. The stories were unique, and July didn't seem afraid to write whatever the hell she felt like writing, whether that meant including a sort of super natural element or a controversial/taboo topic, and I appreciated the genre-defying nature of them. At the same time, there were also stories (like The Moves) that felt like they were mostly shocking for the sake of being shocking and ultimately didn’t really go anywhere or say very much. I found myself feeling very ‘…okay, and?’
It wasn’t awful. Ultimately, I really just wanted this book to DO more.
My actual rating for No One Belongs Here More Than You is 3.5 stars, but that’s not an option on Goodreads so I’ve rounded it to 3 because for me it leans more in that direction than 4. I had a difficult time feeling transported by and getting lost in these stories. Probably my biggest issue was that I wanted them to come to more of a conclusion somehow, to have more of a point, or at least more of a payoff. The fact that every story seemed to just sort of fade out without much of a purpose seemed to give the book as a whole the feeling that IT lacked much of a purpose. There were some great moments throughout the book, I definitely highlighted multiple passages where July's use of language was particularly interesting/pretty/truthful. I enjoyed Birthmark the most, and also genuinely liked The Swim Team and The Sister. Something That Needs Nothing wasn’t bad either. I half really enjoyed and half really didn’t Making Love in 2003. The stories were unique, and July didn't seem afraid to write whatever the hell she felt like writing, whether that meant including a sort of super natural element or a controversial/taboo topic, and I appreciated the genre-defying nature of them. At the same time, there were also stories (like The Moves) that felt like they were mostly shocking for the sake of being shocking and ultimately didn’t really go anywhere or say very much. I found myself feeling very ‘…okay, and?’
It wasn’t awful. Ultimately, I really just wanted this book to DO more.