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commiebeatle's reviews
161 reviews
I Who Have Never Known Men by Jacqueline Harpman
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, and Gore
Young Mungo by Douglas Stuart
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Abortion, and Murder
Ex-Wife by Ursula Parrott
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
The Seaplane on Final Approach by Rebecca Rukeyser
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
I don’t know if this one was just not that well edited but every paragraph just vanished from memory as soon as I read it. It’s not particularly bad, per se, the words just didn’t stick. I agree with other reviews that the scenes are way to short, usually lasting half a page, which doesn’t fit with this kind of writing style unlike, say, Almond.
All the characters are quite flat, and while the main characters obsession with sleaze and a guy she met once was what made me immediately buy the book I think it’s handled in a way where we never get to know her at all since that is all she ever thinks about.
I find it deeply disturbing that a storyline where a (probably) middle aged man has an affair with his freshly 18 teenage employee is basically a background plot that the narrator and seemingly the author not only doesn’t condemn but rather supports (there’s numerous mentions of how Erin is glowing with love and Stu seems to be truly happy for the first time) even when he has previously molested another teenage employee (then 17). It brings to mind something Polly says when Maureen tells the girls they can’t have a glass of wine because of the legal drinking age in the US: who’s gonna find out? Stu can molest as many teenage girls as he wants – they’re on an isolated island outside of a small Alaskan town, there are no authorities or people to protect these girls. But somehow that is not the story that deserves to be told here, according to Rukeyser. That story is Mira ruminating on whether streetlights can be considered sleaze while she violently masturbates and eats cookie dough for ~300 pages.
Truly just a disjointed novel. Scenes seem to come out of nowhere and nothing really means anything or leads anywhere. The ending is totally random and not based on anything. What was it all about? Who knows? Who cares? It barely seems like Rukeyser does.
All the characters are quite flat, and while the main characters obsession with sleaze and a guy she met once was what made me immediately buy the book I think it’s handled in a way where we never get to know her at all since that is all she ever thinks about.
I find it deeply disturbing that a storyline where a (probably) middle aged man has an affair with his freshly 18 teenage employee is basically a background plot that the narrator and seemingly the author not only doesn’t condemn but rather supports (there’s numerous mentions of how Erin is glowing with love and Stu seems to be truly happy for the first time) even when he has previously molested another teenage employee (then 17). It brings to mind something Polly says when Maureen tells the girls they can’t have a glass of wine because of the legal drinking age in the US: who’s gonna find out? Stu can molest as many teenage girls as he wants – they’re on an isolated island outside of a small Alaskan town, there are no authorities or people to protect these girls. But somehow that is not the story that deserves to be told here, according to Rukeyser. That story is Mira ruminating on whether streetlights can be considered sleaze while she violently masturbates and eats cookie dough for ~300 pages.
Truly just a disjointed novel. Scenes seem to come out of nowhere and nothing really means anything or leads anywhere. The ending is totally random and not based on anything. What was it all about? Who knows? Who cares? It barely seems like Rukeyser does.
Alone With You in the Ether by Olivie Blake
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0