Uh what?

This was a really great Japanese story, following the life of a woman working at a convenience store. The language is elegant and I felt connected to the culture reading this. I would absolutely read more of Sakura Murata. Where the Factory was sort of dark and foreboding, CSW was face value and crafted beautifully.

I enjoyed this peek into a child's mind as they explore a fascination with a grocery store employee.

I thought this was a little overwrought and aimless. I have read other Japanese books I liked much more than this one.

This book was okay. I struggled through about the first half of it wondering, "Is this a fictional book about horror movies or is this a fictional book about 'true crime'?" It's kinda both and kinda neither. He makes it so clear that the girls are from movies that it feels like, "Why are the police involved in movie crimes?" and Lynette's slasher story is 'real life' which made the story that much more confusing to have both 'fiction' & 'real' in the same story. I read other reviews who posit this takes place in the same reality where the final girls of movies like Scream, Nightmare on Elm Street, etc are all trying to move on with their lives. So the movie actresses experienced real trauma from the scenes on set? The characters were traumatized and spend their remaining days terrified the villain of the movie will escape and come after them again. I get confused even trying to understand it now. So maybe I'm too literal or too dumb to understand it. Some twist on art imitating life, with the girls being in movies and also stalked by "superfans".

But I can tell you-- once I let go of the desire to understand the characters or place the characters in time and space, I enjoyed the story more. That said, who wants to read a book like that, with almost a total suspension of disbelief and kind of scratching their head half the book? I almost DNF but I stuck it out. By the end, I didn't have a horse in the race. I thought the girls all kind of blended together except rich philanthropist Marilyn and Lynette, the washed up 70s starlet. One was a lesbian, one was kind of 'woke'. I was so focused on learning the answer to my questions, I didn't take in a lot of info about the characters.

Despite that, the tone of the piece is like a slasher film from the 80s so I think Grady Hendrix nailed that. The ending was definitely something that could have happened in a FT13 flick, that is to say a rote trope with a neon sign pointing at the ending on the horizon. I didn't dislike the style so much to swear him off as an author. I think I learned "slasher: crazed loose killers" isn't my favorite horror subgenre. I'd take a body horror (The Troop) or paranormal/demon horror (Head Full of Ghosts) over slasher.

It wasn't for me, to echo other reviews. She writes beautifully but it didn't come together for me.

Well I love Michaela Coel. This was pretty good, intelligent without trying too hard, autobiographical but not long and boring. Michaela seems like someone I'd be friends with, in school, as a dorky misfit. I'll check out anything she does!

Her fiction story felt so real, and the thing that felt the most real were the emotions and feelings of the characters. Vanessa is so lifelike. I picked this up from a reading list of "devastating" books and my god, was it ever. Thought-provoking and faceted, and again, so lifelike.


As an aside, because of Strane's take on The Road Not Taken, we had an interesting study session of the poem and its academic interpretations. I don't think Strane was right, that the choice is ultimately meaningless. ("...an ironic performance about the futility of choice. He says that by believing our lives have endless possibilities, we stave off the horrifying truth that to live is merely to move forward through time while an internal clock counts down to a final, fatal moment.") Ok, boomer. I think moreso it's like the saying you can't step in the same river twice. The time you spend debating over the choice sort of of doesn't matter because 1. The journey is more important than the destination and 2. If you return to the crossroads after choosing one, you're different because of the journey. So it isn't so nihilist as it is meditative: be present now, what will pass, is the right choice.

I felt deeply for Vanessa. I felt deeply for Henry, her future teacher. I felt deeply for Taylor coming forward bravely. I felt for Vanessa's parents and the other staff who saw what happened but convinced themselves they were exaggerating. This book was complex and, yes, devastating.

I couldn't share quotes from my version so I'm sharing one here, now.

"I block his screen name, delete all our chats and emails, and fake sick the next day, grateful that at least I never told him exactly where I live so there’s no chance he’ll find me at home. When I return to school, I carry my house key so it sticks out between my fingers as I walk from the school doors to the bus. I imagine him grabbing me from behind, forcing me into his truck, and then who knows what. Rape and murder me, probably. Carry my corpse to the movies so we can finally have that stupid date he always went on about. After a week passes and nothing happens, I stop holding my key like a weapon and unblock his screen name to see if he’ll message me. He doesn’t. He’s gone. I tell myself I’m relieved."

This book is too hard to sum up but I loved the story spanning generations (like East of Eden) and the connection to each character. No one was wholly good or evil. It gave me Steinbeck elements for sure. Loved it. Couldn't put it down. Plus, the Northwest!

I think most people would like this book. NYC, west coast, Korea, following the author from tumultuous teens to retrospective adult, I loved it.