A review by annietaber
Big Swiss by Jen Beagin

dark emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

I’m shocked and saddened to report that I don’t think I liked this book. On paper it has everything I love: an unreliable narrator, weird but compelling premise, dogs and donkeys, sapphic entanglements. I think it was just simply too weird. I love a zany book, but the characters were simply too bizarre for me to understand, much less relate to and root for. 
I was also put off by the main character’s 45-year-old-ness

(I don’t feel a need to delve into the sex lives of the middle aged quite yet)

. 
And finally, this book had a lot of weird gaps?? Talk about telling not showing. I never understood Great and Big Swiss’s dynamic

(what was with their weird passive aggression?? Don’t even get me started on the stone top-ness)

and we would suddenly jump to an interaction between them that I couldn’t trace to how we got there. Overall, too odd, too millennial/Gen X, too shock-oriented, and just overall too off-putting to ever fully jump into. This was truly sad to report