Joey

It's a fun fast read that takes a lot of dark themes (living through a live streamed genocide, repression of Palestinian voices, Islamophobia...} and makes them surprisingly digestible. Also lots of entertaining digs at academia and the media for those who need to laugh at how bleak these last few years have been....

This is so wide ranging and uses some obvious devices but it's all in service of something with so much to say and well, so much love for the world it portrays. The details bring Sabah and the forest alive and ultimately the complexity is there, not in the plot or characters but in the place...

This really hit the spot for me - grief and nature and chronic pain and Broder's signature no holds barred neurotic inner dialogue. Also many tender conversations with inanimate objects. Is the meta about a writer a little twee? Maybe but I didn't mind it as much as I might have in a more affected story. This one is so raw that I felt it just made the whole thing feel even more guts-cut-open vulnerable.

My only complaint is that this is so short - there were blank pages between the chapters but c'mon just admit it's a novella!

This was always interesting, sometimes shocking and occasionally hot. I really appreciated the genuine attempt to portray the headfuck of maybe being in love and being kinda crazy and craving sex and connection and the whole mess. Sometimes it seemed like there was too much therapy speak but also, we all have that in our heads now.

It's cheesy and overblown and obvious.... Of course we know at the start that the one who has hardened her heart to avoid pain will end up realising it's better to open up to love. There are way too many huge big plot lines for everyone and emotional revelations and c'mon change doesn't come so quickly.

Besides this many of the details don't ring true but the setting is quite entrancing and sure, I cried at the end.