Gabe

I’ll be thinking about this book, its themes, ideas, and conflicts for a long time. Its relevance is astonishing. It’s grim on grim on grim on grim, and then somehow hopeful? I’m not sure the whole thing was well executed, the writing style was almost lazy, definitely unrealistic and at times distracting. The complexity of the familial relationships will keep me up at night. The search for purpose, the need for and maintenance of community, and the personal sacrifices and potential interpersonal harm that it causes, or seems to cause, in an individualistic era is so agonising, both intellectually and emotionally. I wish it were just a bit better written, and perhaps a bit less excessively violent at times. A great not excellent sequel to the first instalment.

This was a dense read and packed with psychoanalytic themes and details that did not sing to me. It was interesting but in many ways not seemingly connected or meaningful. Sounded very whiney in early chapters. Better maybe than Spent? Better job at the meta-memoir, though difficult to follow the timeline.

kinda weird, I feel like this was far more meaningful to the author than it could be for any reader, and that’s ok. Read a little bit like an angsty YA novel, but also like the kind of thing parents would want banned for fear of radicalising their kids into cannibalism. A couple of throwaway lines about being human that would go off on a 15yo emo’s tumblr.

Also the second book I’ve read this month (year?) where characters are motivated by Korean loan sharks so that was kind of boring but also my choices.