Michael

Yet another book that I went into blind and found myself relating to in ways that I didn't expect, particularly the awkward dynamic between queer son and estranged mother and brother.

This book was really compelling to me with the restraint that it uses, what people don't say to each other. As a matter of fact, the two characters driving this restraint (and thus, this book) are only ever referred to as “the mother” and “the son,” though every other character is named.

It pains me to say that the ending pretty much undoes that, making it fall pretty flat for me. Initially I gave this book three stars, and that was probably because how much the ending disappointed me, but the writing is great, and the hostility between mother and son kept the book moving.

I wish the world-building was done in a way that would make me care about it more. So many places in Japan are name dropped, but I find the environment doesn't really inform the story at all. The American son living in Tokyo feels like a choice made by the author to pick a place that was as far from Houston (where his mother lives) as possible. It could have just as easily been Paris, or Capetown, or Melbourne, or even Boston. I wish Tokyo did a bit more in that regard.

And finally, a warning: if dialogue without quotation marks is a dealbreaker for you, maybe find something else to read.

A fantastic read. Also: Jesus Christ what the fuck.

Upsettingly readable. Nutting's prose is writerly but not dense or pretentious. i kept waiting for the disgust (of which there was an endless supply) to stop me reading, but I didn't.

I LOVE an unlikeable narrator, but Celeste is... something else. Something I have very seldom encountered in books I've read previously. She is not messy or damaged in a way the book makes excuses for; she is just plain evil. Never does she ask for sympathy or understanding (and thank fuck for that). I really could have done without the seemingly endless graphic depictions of the sexual assault of teenagers at the hands of a teacher, but that isn't an incidental choice because you are listening to the inner world of an absolute monster who has spent years rationalizing her aberrant sexual behavior.

This book also reminds of how our society in particular is quick excuse sexual predation when a) the offender is a younger, beautiful woman and b) the victims are adolescent boys. And as someone working in education, this made me want to crawl out of my skin and pluck my eyes out of my face.

The only reason I don't give this five stars is that five stars feels too weirdly close to endorsement in my eyes, even though that is not how ratings work. Never casually recommending this book to anyone.

As a fat, queer 20something working on the fringes of the education system, I found myself relating perhaps a bit too hard to Emmett at various points of this book.

Generally quite well-written, and a surprisingly quick read! Strikes a balance with the grotesque body horror elements without being gratuitous about it.

The overarching commentary of the predatory nature of the weight loss industry is about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the head, but that feels intentional. Maybe a bit too on the nose with the reference's to Stephen King's “Thinner,” from which this book obviously takes much inspiration from (Emmett's doctor during the clinical trial sharing the name of the main character in “Thinner” unfortunately did get an eye roll from me).

I would love to read more of Dumas's work to see if it holds up.

It really feels to me that this book is trying to blend elements of “Call Me By Your Name” and “Another Country,” and it unfortunately doesn't handle either premise particularly well.

Not the worst book I've ever read, but I would be lying if I said reading this was enjoyable. This is also my plea to authors anywhere that, if you can't find anything new (or at least substantive) to add to the “tortured Brtsh teenager unpacks his sexuality while away at boarding school” trope, quit while you're ahead.

I'm gonna preface my review by saying this is not a book that I read by choice; instead I read it with a group of 6th-graders in a class I support. Am I going to use it to pad my Reading Challenge for this year? Yes, because I did still read and engage with this book, even if it was against my will.

I can see why this book is taught in schools. It is accessible with a linear plot and it opens discussion for a lot of weighty topics (gender politics, family values, the human impact of war, etc.).

I'm just tired of reading stories about people of color, especially stories about people living in SWANA, written by white authors living in the West. I get that Ellis did a decent amount of information-gathering by interviewing many Afghan women in refugee camps, so the story doesn't come from thin air. The book certainly intends to be respectful and educational.

Even so, I just can't reconcile this story of Afghan peoples' suffering in its current form, which is to say deliberately shaped by a white author for a young Western audience, where Afghanistan is effectively equated to the Taliban, and is therefore flattened to oppression and restriction and danger. I don't at all mean to say that those things are not part of the reality this book purports representing - they obviously are. But so much nuance is lacking here and, without it, it just feels like yet another piece of classroom media by which students try to learn about and empathize with another culture by watching them suffer.

TL;DR I get what this book is trying to do. I don't think it was entirely successful in doing it. Also white people stop manufacturing stories and experiences of people of color please.