carlin

read on a recommendation from Bad Gays Huw Lemmy and Ben Miller, in which they said to read it blind, this was quite an experience

Feels like reading nutritious brain rot, and as such feels unadaptable — what's fun to read doesn't mean it would be fun to watch

I really loved how refreshing this felt. No pretense of being high brow or serious, this books revels in it's irreverence. However I'm really not sure what to make of the ending, which prevents me giving it a higher rating

Would happily read another book by Ess and it has opened my eyes to more alternative types of literature

wish i read this sooner!

honestly pretty genius. Can't really belive how good this is on so many levels

Feels like it's for a queer audience, but yet the door is open for allies in a way that is very hard to pull off

I've rated so many things 4.5 recently but taking the plunge here. Also both this and The Safekeep were nominated for the Women's Prize, and maybe that's where the good stuff is?

i really loved all three of our main characters and the story we're told

for me it was only after 100+ pages that i was really engaged with the story, but once i was i really enjoyed it. Also Ive been having to read a lot of another book at the same time, which gave me the rare feeling of wanting to read more of this but not being able to

I found the concept quite compelling and definitely one which would be fun to tease out with a friend or a reading group - both the ethics and the mechanics. Personally i found my opinion changing as the story went on.

Really interesting to me that they made a movie about this. Feels very soft and pensive and not exactly dramatic. I wonder if it plays out the same or if it's like insipired by this setting

-- spoilers--

kazuo ishiguro recorded some tiktoks re his books and I really want to watch the one i saw where he answers the question "why don't they run" which seems unrelated to this story to me

a book club read and so not something I would've picked nor read this quickly. But I'm glad to have had the urgency of reading it as it's been nice to do so instead of reading social media

I have mixed feelings. I think the chief word that comes to mind is "indulgent". This book is mining something pretty simple — in Part 3 Ch V Jonny summarises the whole story in a sentence — for a long time and for me I didn't really get much out of this particular story.

I think for me I find it hard to give the narrator (JJ) much grace as this is a story mourning a self-professed racist (among other fascist tendencies). And sure, these things can happen, you can love people who hold upsetting views, but for me I can only really understand it in a family context. When it's romance or friendship, I do have to question your character if you can look past that, and 10x moreso if that person becomes someone who is this important to you.

I also struggle to find much I can connect with otherwise: JJ lives to party and I am not a party girl. The story isn't concerned with family, health, hobbies, etc, and I find it curious how much reference there is to classic films when this doesn't seem to be an interest of hers during the parts of her life documented. Also personally I find her desire for living in the US a bit perverse, like it's just not something I can relate to at all.

I found the quality of the prose fairly decent, if a bit overly defensive, and I can see how this could mean a lot to people who resonate more with this experience.

On a side note, I'm trying to improve my vocabulary and this book was great for that effort; I gained about 50 words.

Regardless, I am interested to hear what people have to say at the book club and I don't think it was a waste of time or anything. I'm very glad I didn't read this over 2-3 months like I would've pre this reading era

stunning, really took me by surprise!

in the first 20% I really wasnt very hooked but i became invested very soon after

really impressed by this on a plot level, as well as prose, character, etc.

I was very much headcanonning who i think should be in the film adaption (which would stun). I think our main character is very much an Eva Victor/Bernadette Banner type and Eva would be like Adele Exacharcopolous/Florence Pugh type

would highly recommend this generally, but especially for those wanting to read lesbian fiction

stunning, really took me by surprise!

in the first 20% I really wasnt very hooked but i became invested very soon after

really impressed by this on a plot level, as well as prose, character, etc.

I was very much headcanonning who i think should be in the film adaption (which would stun). I think our main character is very much an Eva Victor/Bernadette Banner type and Eva would be like Adele Exacharcopolous/Florence Pugh type

would highly recommend this generally, but especially for those wanting to read lesbian fiction

omg the author is Edinburgh based and probably my age or younger? getting writing published is possible <3

lowkey this is written for me. Like I knew pretty much all the movies mentioned — Challengers! Shortbus! Secretary! Crash! Showgirls! The Watermelon Woman! Sense8! etc. (besides from In the Cut which is going on the watchlist) and also all the theorists. This kind of operates as a sequel to Audre Lorde's Uses of the Erotic but also references Gayle Rubin and "Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny" as well as people I know but not read (such as Mark Fisher and David Graeber). I definitely want to add some of the things referenced here to options for my reading club

I think it is argued quite effectively but does have a little academic-poisoning: sometimes the questions that are thrown out feel too abstract and unnecessary. However I think by the end of the book the line of argument does feel justified and specific enough that it doesn't just feel like a pile of ideas. Also I appreciate that some of this does actually feel sexual!

really beautiful book, will be thinking about it

Love Cunningham's prose, I find it so elegant and pure. Maybe this is how Hemingway feels to other people

found part 2 to be a little less cohesive than parts 1 and 3. Wish it focused more, somehow, on specific people rather than equally telling everyone's story. I think in general I wish this was longer

really beautiful book, will be thinking about it

Love Cunningham's prose, I find it so elegant and pure. Maybe this is how Hemingway feels to other people

found part 2 to be a little less cohesive than parts 1 and 3. Wish it focused more, somehow, on specific people rather than equally telling everyone's story. I think in general I wish this was longer

omg the author is Edinburgh based and probably my age or younger? getting writing published is possible <3

lowkey this is written for me. Like I knew pretty much all the movies mentioned — Challengers! Shortbus! Secretary! Crash! Showgirls! The Watermelon Woman! Sense8! etc. (besides from In the Cut which is going on the watchlist) and also all the theorists. This kind of operates as a sequel to Audre Lorde's Uses of the Erotic but also references Gayle Rubin and "Everyone is beautiful and no one is horny" as well as people I know but not read (such as Mark Fisher and David Graeber). I definitely want to add some of the things referenced here to options for my reading club

I think it is argued quite effectively but does have a little academic-poisoning: sometimes the questions that are thrown out feel too abstract and unnecessary. However I think by the end of the book the line of argument does feel justified and specific enough that it doesn't just feel like a pile of ideas. Also I appreciate that some of this does actually feel sexual!

the cover is a little bit misleading, but got really into this after about a hundred pages <3

really enjoyed the character work here and there's some really great scenes. I think my favourite character was Poor Wee Chickie who really elevates this as a whole

This is totally a me thing but I had a bit of a love-hate relationship with the use of dialectal Scots. On the one hand it's so important to me and found it really comforting, but on the other some of it was a bit obvious (she looked as wispy as the haar but was as strong as aberdonian granite) and some was a bit over used (everyone and everything is gallus). I think I just need to read more books in Scots

The writing style as well was a bit underwhelming from what I had imagined of a Booker prize winning author, but perhaps that prize isn't just for high-brow books

Alcoholism is one of the few things I find too difficult to engage with, and was actually totally fine with the level of it here. Felt realistic but didn't have me triggered, for lack of a better word

Edit: from researching, a shame to see him talk about how he had to elevate himself to middle class to be able to write working class books :(

Edit: also wow the cover is by the same guy that did the frank ocean blond album cover! I kind of get why you'd want this cover even if it's not really giving what the book is like

PS douglas stuart seems so obsessed with downy hair at the bottom of your spine ahahah