Kittentits

I’d like to thank Netgalley and Gillian Flynn Books, from whom I received an ARC of the audiobook. All opinions are my own.

I wasn’t sure about the Kittentits audiobook when I started it because to be perfectly honest, I didn’t like the narrator. I kept listening anyway because sometimes narrators grow on me, and I’m glad I did because Stephanie Willing really worked for Kittentits. I especially loved her voice for Jeanie, as she did a great job of bringing out Jeanie’s casual indifference and annoyance towards Molly.

Holly Wilson found a really great balance of writing in the tone of a child but with the style of an adult. Kittentits felt a lot like reading the diary of a 10-year-old girl. It’s written in first-person, and Molly sounds very much like a child, but it doesn’t feel like reading a children’s book.

There’s some offensive language used throughout Kittentits but in my opinion, there are two different kinds of authors when it comes to offensive material. Those that use it just for shock value, and those that use it because it’s an accurate representation of their character’s behavior and the setting. Holly Wilson doesn’t use offensive language just because she wants to shock people. In 1992, Molly uses these words because she’s a kid who thinks it’s badass. She also knows her dad doesn’t like it and she wants attention that she isn’t receiving. She’s lonely and has a lot of anger and grief she doesn’t know what to do with. This is how it comes out.

I didn’t have any preconceived notions of where the story would go after Jeanie faked her death and Molly set out on her adventure but it definitely went way beyond anywhere I would have guessed and into some pretty surreal territory I wasn’t expecting.

Kittentits is my favorite kind of weird book. I thought I’d like it but I enjoyed it even more than I thought I would. I’ve thought about Molly, a little girl I think I’d have been great friends with as a kid, several times in the days since I’ve finished it, and I expect I’ll think of her from time to time in the future.