Boring, flat, and helped me fall asleep

I’m not sure why I thought picking this memoir up as someone who has never watched a single episode of any Real Housewives franchise was a good idea, but I did it. 

Maybe it’s because there’s a high probability this will end up on the Goodreads choice awards memoir nominees for 2023 and I wanted to get ahead on listening?

I found the parts on Heather growing up Mormon, going on her mission, and her married, adult life in the church fascinating all up until this just turned into a whine fest.

65% and there’s no tea or any kind besides she’s in an unhappy marriage, admitted to being gold digger, and loves her daughters 

I guess just like any other Christian religion, Mormons also take positions in their church to show their status because everyone loves a bragger who participates in church a lot. 

It’s also not well written at all and while I didn’t last until her divorce or the RH time, it’s easy to see she probably wrote this too soon. 

I don’t think she’s far enough removed from the church or anything else to offer a reflection and see how damaging some aspects of the Mormon church are. 

Anyways, missions from all churches are pointless

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an ARC and audiobook galley of this book. 

To sum it up: I'm disappointed. 

I loved The Whisper Man, still have The Shadows on my shelf (haven't been in the mood for it), and was hoping for another five start favorite from this author. 

Sadly, I think all of the timeline jumps and the multiple of characters did a great disservice to this work. Also, there needed to be more of the actual Angel Maker. 

I do not recommend this one on audio as the singular narrator leaves every character one note. If this had been a full cast, it would've been better.

Don’t let description fool you, this is about a history of a commune and not about figuring out what happened to the body found in the garden. 

What a snooze 

This one definitely won’t be for everyone. It’s very vulgar, it invades privacy, and has affairs in it. However, I had a good time. 

I picked it for my audiobook (thanks Libro.fm for the ALC) for a weekend trip and have zero regrets. Parts made me laugh out loud, but didn’t take my attention away from the road.

I’ve seen many compare this to Melissa Broder’s writing, which I would have to agree. However I gave Milk Fed two stars and am leaning on giving this one 3.75-4 stars. 

There’s one major part of the story that didn’t make sense to me - how did Flavia go from immigrant cocktail waitress to a practicing gynecologist with her own practice at 28? Even if a doctor got their training abroad, being a full fledged doctor who passed all boards in the US by 28 is rare. I would’ve liked that information when we learned more about Flavia’s background. 

Avoid if you hate bugs. 

Had a lot of promise, but the only thing that was really achieved was the Scottish atmosphere