A review by menomica
Standard Deviation by Katherine Heiny

reflective tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
people weren’t meant to get married twice; it only led to comparisons.

I really enjoyed this book. I liked the character study and seeing how the character’s day to day life went. That being said, I constantly was on the verge of dnf’ing this book because oh my god the ableism is literally quite ridiculous.  I honestly still can’t tell if Heiny was just writing the thought process of Graham (it would make a lot of sense for him to be ableist, he has a weird hierarchical view on life), or if she genuinely is just expressing these ideas as her own.

That being said, I was very entertained by the characters. I loved how you could understand the characters’ motivations.
We get the sense that Audra is so hypersocial and (arguably) hypersexual because of her relationship to sex (the sleeping with all those dads when she was a baby sitter, her grandpa kissing her).
I’m not a huge fan of how Audra being sexually harassed so much discussed so casually. I also wish we’d gotten a confirmation as to whether or not Audra was cheating or not.
Not the first time, but when Graham catches her leaving the hotel. I mean it’s pretty obvious she was, but I wish she and Graham had talked about it.
 

Admittedly, my favorite character was definitely Elspeth, (even though that is a silly name)
I was very sad to see her die, even though it made sense, fOr tHe Sake oF GraHaM’S chArAcTeR deVeLoPmeNT.
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