3.25
I think the ending segment was the strongest part, it was so beautifully done and I can really see this being a fairytale movie. Of course the reason why the ending worked so well was because of what was built before it in the previous chapters. But I think this story could have been so much shorter and still have gotten the message across, like many fairytales have done. Even though the treatments happened pretty rapidly for a perfect candidate, the whole process started to make the story feel heavy. And I was astounded by how many times ‘Tom Cruise’ was mentioned in the book, obviously it’s because Belle sees Seth that way, but wow I wish it was a made up actor or an indie one because it was throwing me for a loop. He does have the expressions to play the villain though. I loved reading about a half North African girl, the talk about beauty standards was a bit in your face but I liked it. Much like Bunny I like how the main character shifts their perspective on a character they once found annoying (in this case Sylvia) but by the end better understands them. The way Belle talks about her mother makes it seem like she was never a good one, but even in those scenes you can feel the love she somewhat has for her daughter, it’s just love is not enough and you need to act, speak and address with love too. And she did make many mistakes, leaving her alone all the time, surface level care for connecting her daughter to her culture and roots to form her identity. The differences in appearance between them and no dad being present only exacerbated the envy she felt for her mum, the way she thought her mum didn’t really find her beautiful, that could be unreliable narration and just a projection of Belle’s insecurities or it could be true/true at one point but it was probably both.
The final scene between mother and daughter got me, idk why maybe because I was grieving too when reading about this book about grief but I loved it.

Again the ending really saved this for me, if this book had been cut in half (because I think it didn’t have as many topics to talk about as some of her other books so the page length should have been shorter) it would have a higher rating.

But I love the fever dream style of writing Mona Awad has, that’s why I’ll keep on picking up their books.