Rei
I think the author intended this book to be edgy and provocative. What it is instead is repugnant.
Ugly, disgusting, and repulsive in every way, it's not a book that will cleverly make you uncomfortable in order to open a discourse on taboo topics. It just a book that wallows in its own filth. It feels like your hands should come away from the pages greasy and raw.
Let me explain. I'm not afraid of books that are dark and that examine the uglier sides of humanity. What I am opposed to is suffering, hatred, violence and self-loathing offered up as voyeuristic entertainment with no greater purpose and nothing to say.
This book is absolutely jammed with humiliation and denigration of women. It's drowning in violence toward and by women. Is it there to examine these topics, start a discussion, or raise awareness? Nope it's just sitting there like a buffet of human flesh for the reader to choke on, or maybe get off to, which is even more upsetting. The book feels like a fantasy piece written for serial killers who chop up women and do depraved things with the pieces.
For example, the main character is a self-mutilator and alcoholic consumed by trauma and self-loathing who numbly offers herself up for use and abuse by anyone and everyone. Is there a journey toward healing and an exploration of metal illness as a serious topic? No. She's just a victim, nothing more than a blow-up doll designed for violation. Seriously, she's actually confused as to whether or not the gang rape of an intoxicated, underaged girl even counts as violence. She is no less confused by the end of the book.
Then there are the other women in the book, all of whom are awful. They're petty, cruel, manipulative gossips who delight in abusing each other and aspire to be nothing more than catty, superficial mean girls or virtue signaling baby machines.
The men are also uncommonly awful. This book has the most superficially written men I've ever seen, which is something I never even thought I would say. The main male characters exist in a strange trinity of a father, a lover/abuser, and a lover/son.
There are two father figures, one well meaning, but powerless and physically distant, and the other cold, callous, powerless, and emotionally distant.
There are also two lovers, one powerful, but abusive, inappropriate, manipulative, and a classic gaslighter. Tho other is weak, juvenile, and emotionally needy, and seems to only exist for the female characters to humiliate and abuse, both emotionally and sexually.
As if all of that weren't enough, none of these repugnant and pitiful characters sees any development. No one grows, no one learns anything, no one heals, none of their problems are solved, and nothing is taken away for later reflection.
Now I've encountered some turds in my time. Books that were bad because they were poorly written, or the plot was clunky, or because the subject matter was trivial and shallow. This book is bad because it's about awful people doing abhorrent things, for no good reason, and to no literary end.
This a not a book about mental illness and humanity's darkness that leaves you with something thoughtfully provocative to chew on. This book is to those books as a snuff film is to a murder mystery.
Please don't read this book. It's ugly mind poison that swallows itself only to sick itself back up and repeat ad nauseum.
I think the author intended this book to be edgy and provocative. What it is instead is repugnant.
Ugly, disgusting, and repulsive in every way, it's not a book that will cleverly make you uncomfortable in order to open a discourse on taboo topics. It just a book that wallows in its own filth. It feels like your hands should come away from the pages greasy and raw.
Let me explain. I'm not afraid of books that are dark and that examine the uglier sides of humanity. What I am opposed to is suffering, hatred, violence and self-loathing offered up as voyeuristic entertainment with no greater purpose and nothing to say.
This book is absolutely jammed with humiliation and denigration of women. It's drowning in violence toward and by women. Is it there to examine these topics, start a discussion, or raise awareness? Nope it's just sitting there like a buffet of human flesh for the reader to choke on, or maybe get off to, which is even more upsetting. The book feels like a fantasy piece written for serial killers who chop up women and do depraved things with the pieces.
For example, the main character is a self-mutilator and alcoholic consumed by trauma and self-loathing who numbly offers herself up for use and abuse by anyone and everyone. Is there a journey toward healing and an exploration of metal illness as a serious topic? No. She's just a victim, nothing more than a blow-up doll designed for violation. Seriously, she's actually confused as to whether or not the gang rape of an intoxicated, underaged girl even counts as violence. She is no less confused by the end of the book.
Then there are the other women in the book, all of whom are awful. They're petty, cruel, manipulative gossips who delight in abusing each other and aspire to be nothing more than catty, superficial mean girls or virtue signaling baby machines.
The men are also uncommonly awful. This book has the most superficially written men I've ever seen, which is something I never even thought I would say. The main male characters exist in a strange trinity of a father, a lover/abuser, and a lover/son.
There are two father figures, one well meaning, but powerless and physically distant, and the other cold, callous, powerless, and emotionally distant.
There are also two lovers, one powerful, but abusive, inappropriate, manipulative, and a classic gaslighter. Tho other is weak, juvenile, and emotionally needy, and seems to only exist for the female characters to humiliate and abuse, both emotionally and sexually.
As if all of that weren't enough, none of these repugnant and pitiful characters sees any development. No one grows, no one learns anything, no one heals, none of their problems are solved, and nothing is taken away for later reflection.
Now I've encountered some turds in my time. Books that were bad because they were poorly written, or the plot was clunky, or because the subject matter was trivial and shallow. This book is bad because it's about awful people doing abhorrent things, for no good reason, and to no literary end.
This a not a book about mental illness and humanity's darkness that leaves you with something thoughtfully provocative to chew on. This book is to those books as a snuff film is to a murder mystery.
Please don't read this book. It's ugly mind poison that swallows itself only to sick itself back up and repeat ad nauseum.