peeled_grape's reviews
146 reviews

Okay. What?? What? What just happened. There are moments where this book is great, but it mostly feels like a mess. It feels like a lot of scenes that just happened to get squished together and had nothing to do with each other. Cool ideas! But it didn’t feel complete, and things that were introduced did not become relevant.

I will give it this: I often could not focus on passages because they were very long and too much, in my opinion. I’m sure that has something to do with it. Bron was strange and obsessive and the whole novel is just tainted by his self-centeredness. I really don’t know what to make of it though. 10/10 for the abundant queer content, though.

Also. What happened with the parenthesis. Every single placement of them was unhinged. What was that.

My therapist recommended this one to me and no wonder. I didn’t expect it to be this religious. Anyway: it takes a stab at the fourth commandment and traditional morality, which states all children should obey their parents and forgiveness is always the best option. Which, this line is fantastic: “Forgiveness has never had a healing effect.” It’s one of those books that has all the information you felt like you already knew but someone wove it into familiar words for you.

Took an unnecessary dig at art and fiction, though! That’s not the problem here. Also steered very, very clear of singular they pronouns—which might’ve been the translation—but the book used “it” as pronouns for people. Yikes.

Perfectly serviceable, just not for me. I’m finding I’m not big into environmental writing (unless you’re Janet Sarbanes). Poetic, daydreamy in tone, full of imagery, flows nicely between narratives. Loved that it fit into one day. Don’t have a lot of big thoughts for this one. Also: That list of names in the beginning? Fantastic.

My opinion: I have conflicting feelings about this book. On the one hand: there are sections of this that are just beautiful. One section I remember from my first reading of this was the one with the "I'm slipping" line -- it's a very powerful, vulnerable two words in the story. I wish we got more of this, where the story almost lets its guard down. I like the experimenting with the form, but the narrative seemed entirely invested in that form and less in the actual story. I think I liked the more meta elements of this, too: an author having a conversations with themselves, trying to figure out what to include, what's important, what the subtext in their writing is. I love the idea that truth is flexible, that it changes from person to person, and that there can be multiple, contradicting truths all at once. Truth is complex, and I like that this book took that on.

On the other hand: I couldn't tell if this is criticizing the biases journalists or readers. I know there is that whole section where the reader chooses their own story and ending, but there is also not one positive depiction of a journalist. I am a journalist, though, and the news story sections rubbed me the wrong way whether or not they criticisms were for us. (I had a very, very long rant here and then took it out, so just imagine that very long rant about how people who have not worked as a journalist/are not particularly familiar with the field should not be making criticisms about news media because it can often be inaccurate, and how the press itself is often sensationalized in pop culture depictions, as I see it here.) The point: none of these news stories read like news stories -- they read more like blogs -- but the criticisms are geared toward news stories anyway. But! I can't tell what it's getting at! Because its form is very flexible and I'm getting mixed messages. I guess the point is to choose, but there is that reading that I dislike and disagree with very much. It's a narrative that shouldn't exist -- not because you can't criticize the media, but because these aren't legitimate criticisms. I told myself I had to read the book again to make sure this was a valid reading, but the truth is that I still can't tell. Very slippery. Very flexible. Will attempt understanding this again, when I learn to read.

I can usually get the hang of a collection's style by the time I get halfway through it, but this one has a strange shapeshifting quality I really haven't seen before. Everything feels new compared to the thing before it (but also, it all goes together?). These stories remind me of Kelly Link's stuff ("Clearing" reminds me so much of "Origin Story"), though this is less fantasy and more actual science with a particular focus on the body. I also want to compare it to George Saunders' stuff, too -- there is an attention to the depths of relationships between people, and some stories have this minimalist quality -- but the humor is much less of the silly, light, almost throwaway kind I associate with Saunders. It is much sharper, much smarter, much more meaningful.

"Body, Etc." and "Startled Poet Who is a Bat" were my favorites. I was also fond of "Goat Sucker." The former is brilliant all the way through, and the dialogue form with the changing names was particularly compelling. "Startled Poet Who is a Bat" has a one-paragraph turn that is as concise as it is gutting, and there is a foreboding via play with time that I really liked. All of this is very sharp, though, and often contains a lot of depth in its observations.

This was fantastic, and it's one of the few times I've seen humor mixed with trauma (which it does effectively). I'm interested in how much this introduces without deeply getting into it. I also love the wholeness of this -- as in, the regular day-to-day mixed with the trauma, an accurate snapshot of memory. Starts with a bang and really does not let up.