literatureaesthetic's Reviews (540)

reminded me of why i don't read thrillers lmao

gaslight, gatekeep, gollum

‘my nemesis’ is an acute and thought-provoking 2023 release documenting an intellectual affair and its impact on the lives of two couples and their families.

this book is a treatise on contemporary feminism. craig does a good job at accentuating how a lot of women erased in this modern era of *girlboss* feminism. we have a main character who identifies as a feminist, but her academic background frequently places her in a position that is alien to the majority of women, including charlie’s mixed-race asian wife, wah. it begs the question of how contemporary social norms and environments inform our relationships and the way we present ourselves.

it also effectively touches on the ways in which patriarchal and traditional norms constrict both men and women. a critique of masculinity and all the ways in which masculinity provides an escape: an escape from responsibility, an escape from accountability, an escape from loyalty, and an escape from parenthood. it's also a commentary on femininity. craig scrutinises female competition and rivalry and the ways in which feminism is exploited to further isolate certain archetypes of femininity. 

overall, this book felt like a piece of work written by someone who clearly knows what they are talking about but lacks the skill to adapt that knowledge to novel form and make it accessible. the author is extremely intelligent, but this book is dull, lacklustre, and suffused with random tangents on camus that felt overly excessive and highbrow. the start felt like i’d been dropped in the middle of a narrative and somehow been told to understand; the ending was completely out of the blue and felt messy for me. the bones and the ideas are there, the execution wasn't.

i was not a fan at all, unfortunately. it felt extremely pretentious, and not in a fun way.

a new all-time favourite, elena ferrante ily

no-one gets me like mieko kawakami

mrs. s is a seductive, illusive, and atmospheric 2023 release brimming with sapphic desire, yearning, and forbidden love

this novel is essentially plotless. we follow our unnamed narrator, a ‘butch antipodean’, as she begins to work as matron in an all-girls boarding school. a romance blossoms between our narrator and the headmaster’s wife. their affair is electric; it’s consuming and our narrator teeters on obsessive. mrs. s is a passionate “no plot, just vibes” novel that really should’ve worked for me. it’s sexy and erotic, but i think it loses itself in its attempt to be unique

there were many small moments where i could see the beauty and the author’s genius, but those moments were fleeting. for the most part, this book was tedious and exhausting. from the decision to make every character nameless, to the relentless staccato style of writing that leads to intangible, ungraspable descriptions, as well as the lack of punctuation and grammar. this novel felt like a chore to get through.

i don’t think this was a bad debut by any means; it just didn’t work for me, unfortunately. i’m so sad about it.

might just be the gayest thing i've ever read (thank you sappho)

"he broke my heart. you merely broke my life" - this novel is gonna haunt me for the rest of my life

just listened to matthew mcconaughey talk in my ears for 7 hours......i am very content rn