If money/capitalism/ownership/meaning stresses you out, then boy howdy will this book send you spiraling

I thought this book was going to talk a bit more about the health/science behind Black women's health but it was more about personal accounts (and convos with therapists/people doing to work to help better Black women's health). I wish there was more emphasis on the science and social blockages to poor health. I think this would have helped the author avoid slightly fatphobic comments. While I understand the intent behind her words, the chapter focusing on weight and health did not feel firmly rooted in science. YES Black women/people are more likely to faces instances that increase their chances of poor health and higher weight, there needed to be more nuance surrounding weight/stigma/fatphobia to better guide readers who might not fully know about weight/BMI/fatphobia/etc.

Overall a fun read. Interesting, weird, and truly bizarre. I don’t really know where this book sits in my mind. I really liked it but I also hated it? Readers were definitely beat over the head with metaphor, and it works and it’s enjoyable, but as someone who hates (/reading about) motherhood/domesticity/etc it was infuriating to read. But that rage lends itself to drawing us into the story. Maybe it wasn’t for me, maybe I wanted the metaphor to be more subtle, or maybe I just can’t read about motherhood/domesticity in any capacity and enjoy it.
My biggest complaint about the story itself was that I felt like I was waiting for something big to happen and nothing crazy really happened. The ending made sense and came full circle but I wanted her to go bat shit crazy and it felt like she could have pushed it more?

Nothing about this story was resolved and not in a fun way. So much and so little happened that it dragged on. Easily could have been half the length. I wanted to know SO much more about every character and we were given nothing. I felt like i was a therapist sitting with a client trying to help them organize their stories and getting nowhere. The flashbacks were disjointed and only added to the trauma and grief that ran through everything but never fulling etching into to the main character’s personality, only explaining why she’s shut off.
The ending also seemed extremely abrupt. Too much was trying to be resolved in a matter of DAYS and the characters glossed over so much and so much was implied that it seemed impossible and unrealistic for them to be how things would unfold.
This book had so much promise but ended up falling so flat. I wanted more for and of every character but wasn’t given a fraction (felt very indicative of how they were treated I’m sure - maybe it’s stylistic).

Like Tuesdays with Morrie but more sad and deeper. Would have loved this more if I read it at a different time (not what I needed to read when I did - just too sad). 

The description wasn’t wrong when they said you’d enjoy it if you were a fan of Carmen Maria Machado. This definitely read almost identically to some of the stories in Her Body and Other Parties. (If you want something exactly like it, read this). 
Some stories were better than others but all were enjoyable and fun to pick apart  for a ~deeper meaning~. 

Would be a great book club book (especially if read alongside Her Body, and especially especially if read around Halloween. A fun event I’d sign up for).

No one knows how to knock the wind out of me like Nina LaCour. So gut wrenching and raw but oh so real. I know she’s spoken about her personal experiences with grief, but oh boy does she tap really tap into that with this one. This book was filled with so much longing, so much aching to the point where it felt like my chest was caving in. The ending was beautiful and  warm and welcoming and much needed.