A review by janwe
All This Has Nothing to Do with Me by Monica Sabolo

2.0

I find it very hard to rate and to describe this novella. It is a multimedia novella, about women’s deranged attitude to men and relationships in general. The writing style is very experimental – and definitely not for every one. I still can’t decide whether I liked it or not. I love all the printed pictures and snippets of things the protagonist collects from the people around her. You kind of have to find out for yourself how distorted she is. Nevertheless, the writing style switches between diary entries to weird - very clinical in tone – descriptions, like “They flirted with the male species and mastered the secrets of protocols (...)” I think this clinical descriptions imply the social detachment the protagonist feels. However, as a reader it is still hard to connect to the protagonist or any other characters … Additionally, the backstory felt completely flat for me … I get tht you need to understand where she has coming from … Nevertheless, to make the back story and family history to be the main focus for the rest of the novel was really annoying. I thought this story would turn into a twisted story about a woman being obsessed with a (former) lover … This novella, however, did not focus on that in the last part of the story … Very disappointing.