LaShel

I hate when I (either intentionally or subconsciously) resist reading a very popular bestseller for years only to discover when I finally crack the cover that everyone was right and it's absolutely incredible.

These short stories are unsettling, as promised, but in a vaguely nauseating body horror kind of way and not in a clever Edgar Allen Poe sort of way. There's a bit of a feminist bent but also most the women just want to have sex and have babies which feels so reductive. And the writing was perfectly fine but not particularly for me.

I absolutely loved reading this book - the writing is beautiful and the descriptions of the meals the author shared with her mother left my stomach rumbling. There were a few passages where I rolled my eyes a bit at the blind spots in the author's perspective (such as when she was talking about her trips to Paris or the concerns of her dissertation advisors) and some bits seemed a little embellished but overall I was ready to proclaim this one of the most beautiful books I had read this year. I tore through it in less than a day and it left me aching with emotion over mental illness, family relationships, generational trauma, colonialism and racism, and the human experience.

And then I saw the reviews and tweets from other members of the author's family. I don't mind at all that the book is not wholly accurate - historical truth has never been something I've demanded of my entertainment. But I am very troubled by the amount of harm that the writing and publication of this book is said to have caused. For that reason, I can't give it the high rating I was planning.

I love Laura Vanderkam's books - the advice is well-written, inspiring, and refreshingly concrete. This wasn't quite as revolutionary for me as 168 Hours but I would still definitely recommend it to anyone feeling overwhelmed by the blurry, busy, "where did the day/week/month/year go?" reality of modern life.

I checked this out because it seemed appropriate for October and I'd heard good things about the author. This was an entertaining and quick read propelled forward by a light sense of dread/suspense and the fun imagery (disco-obsessed vampires with an amazing house and even better wardrobes). The main characters were mostly unlikeable but I appreciated the way the book played with its theme - what makes someone a monster? And to what extent can we recognize the darkness in ourselves?