This book is insane, gleefully and wholeheartedly insane. The basic plot summary is this: after the breakup of her long-term relationship, Lucy spendsThis book is insane, gleefully and wholeheartedly insane. The basic plot summary is this: after the breakup of her long-term relationship, Lucy spends a summer in Venice Beach and falls in love with a merman. They have a ton of merman sex, described in realistic and detailed prose. (This is not a traditional romance novel; there is no fade to black, there is no coy allusion.) Simultaneously, Lucy is finishing her thesis on Sappho and taking care of her sister's dog. That's it. That's the whole plot.
But of course, that is not the whole book. The writing works on several levels. This is a first-person narration, and Lucy's monologue is perhaps the most honest and interesting narration I've ever read. I can see how someone might read Lucy as "unlikable," but I think that does a disservice to what Broder is trying to do. Lucy is only unlikable in that she is a fully fleshed out person with a hyper-realistic internal monologue. It's easy to condemn some of her decisions (view spoiler)[(I was waiting the entire book for Dominic to die :( :( :() (hide spoiler)], but those decisions are always consistent with what Lucy herself is telling us. (It helps that her narration made me laugh out loud a couple times.) Through Lucy's lens, you get a larger discussion of love, and lust, and neediness, all intermixed with her thesis on Sappho and the atmosphere of Venice Beach in 2018. And it's all from a woman's perspective, which feels radical.
I did not enjoy the second half of the book because it was too much merman sex and too much foreshadowing, but the book overall was so unsettling and so committed to its weirdness that it gets three stars. I thought the ending was particularly well done. (view spoiler)[I didn't enjoy it because I was racing ahead to see what happened with Dominic, but the idea that Lucy has to find a merman who rivals her in neediness, and that she actually considers going under the ocean with him, was the natural spiraling conclusion to end this story. The image of Theo showing up with a rope is going to be burned into my brain for awhile. And is Theo even real?? Or is she having some sort of psychotic breakdown or awakening that manifests as a merman? (hide spoiler)]
I've been struggling to find the right male-authored work to compare this to. This book is only "women's fiction" if you consider that genre as "any work that features a woman as the protagonist," which seems wrong. This is literary fiction, full stop. It's telling that the writers who blurbed the book were all women, including Stephanie Danler, Alissa Nutting, Emily Gould, and Megan Amram. I also can't figure out who to recommend this to. I think that if you have enjoyed a writer who blurbed this book (particularly Alissa Nutting), you may also like this too. But if you read the first paragraph of this review - or the first chapter of this book, really - and are turned off, then you should stop. Despite the fact that this book is much more than it seems, you still have to read all of the merman sex to get to the deeper themes....more
I am a new convert to Marcy Dermansky (thanks Meg!), and while I still love her writing, I am less enthused about the story of the red car. Leah, the I am a new convert to Marcy Dermansky (thanks Meg!), and while I still love her writing, I am less enthused about the story of the red car. Leah, the protagonist, is directionless, which is interesting for the first half of the book and singularly less interesting in the second, perhaps because prolonged exposure to Leah slowly reveals that there's not much underneath the surface. What's relatable in Leah's early twenties is not in her thirties, which is compounded by the problem of the red car. The car is a legacy from Leah's former boss, and it's the forcing function to pull Leah back to San Francisco and away from her husband. I didn't think the car was necessary(view spoiler)[, and while I liked Judy's voice coming through the narrative, I decidedly did not enjoy the haunted car. That was the element of the book that felt the most off, and it ends with Yumiko literally stealing the car to drive up the coast, which is an ending that could have only happened in this alternative reality that the car, as a plot device, creates (hide spoiler)].
I loved several passages in this book, but I think overall I liked the writing in Bad Marie more. The writing in this book is more simplistic - possibly because you're inside Leah's head? - and it became grating when Leah was interacting with Margaret and Yannick. But I really did love the meeting between Lea and Leah. That feels like it definitely happened in San Francisco. ...more
Wow, this was a lot of fun! Don't plan on doing anything else after you start reading this book - you're not going to be able to stop. It's told from Wow, this was a lot of fun! Don't plan on doing anything else after you start reading this book - you're not going to be able to stop. It's told from the perspectives of four different teen murder suspects after one of their classmates dies during detention. Each of them has something to hide. DUN DUN DUN!!
While the four teens start out as Breakfast Club stereotypes, they grow over the course of the novel, and I thought each perspective and voice really added to the overall book (which is no mean feat). I particularly liked the relationship between Addy and her sister Ashton, as well as the friendships that grow over the course of the investigation. Even though there has been a MURDER, this feels more realistic, and thus more interesting, than something like Pretty Little Liars (and that comes from someone who watched too many seasons of PLL while painting her nails). My only real complaint is that (view spoiler)[NONE OF THEM WERE LYING. Because I've read so many Agatha Christie books, I got the twist without much effort, but was hoping that there was something more to this than suicide. I thought Maeve might have done it partway through, which would have been slightly more interesting. I started feeling a little skeptical of the first-person narration two-thirds of the way through the book - none of them were lying to me in their sections, so WHICH ONE WAS LYING BY OMISSION - but it turns out that nope, none of them were lying. Was Simon even lying? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (hide spoiler)].
I thought this book did a good job of bringing this fictionalized high school into 2017, what with the Tumblr posts, the rules on phones, and Simon's blog. It was funny, though, to see the author working hard behind the scenes - are these kids actually excited to watch Buffy? What's a plot-driven way to get these kids talking to each other on flip phones and off of Snapchat?
I would read a million murder mysteries set in San Diego high schools. Next time, don't even fictionalize your high school. We all know this was High Tech High....more
This novel has flashes of brilliance and beautiful writing, but is dragged down by a meandering plot and truly terrible dialogue. At times, it feels lThis novel has flashes of brilliance and beautiful writing, but is dragged down by a meandering plot and truly terrible dialogue. At times, it feels like Allende is less interested in putting together a coherent story with compelling characters, and more interested in detailing life in various 1850s societies (Valparaiso, San Francisco, Hong Kong). There's a lot in here about how women are treated in each place, the awfulness of deep poverty, and racism across continents. It's interesting to read about the first few years of the Gold Rush in San Francisco, particularly as a former resident: Allende makes a point of the similar real estate prices in Sacramento and San Francisco in the years after the fervor dies down. And I really liked the themes of love, and loneliness, and found family. It's hard not to empathize with Eliza and the lover that she constructs to replace the reality of Joaquin.
The real problem with the book is the dialogue, which is awful in almost every single instance and is used only to deliver Allende's ideas or to bridge two pieces of the plot. No one actually talks like this. It's a disservice to the characters, and it sticks out because the descriptive passages are quite good. Later, Allende also uses Eliza's letters to Tao Chi'en to achieve the same lackluster and awkward effect. The plot is also terrible. Allende goes back and forth between Jacob Todd (a character who does not have to exist), Eliza, Tao Chi'en, and the Sommers family in Valparaiso. Over the course of the novel it becomes clear that (view spoiler)[Eliza and Tao Chi'en are meant to be together (hide spoiler)], which is hampered by Joaquin's absence and potential role as famous Californian outlaw. At the end of the book, there are two hilariously ridiculous things that happen. First, Jacob Todd (view spoiler)[recognizes Eliza after 10+ years apart when she is dressed as a boy, thousands of miles away from where he originally met her (hide spoiler)]. Secondly, the love story for Joaquin and Eliza (view spoiler)[ends when Eliza MIGHT HAVE SEEN HIS SEVERED HEAD IN A JUG OF GIN. It's unclear if it's actually his head, and the book ends ON THAT PAGE. I honestly kept flipping back and forth to see if I had missed anything. This felt like a cheap way for Eliza to get closure with Joaquin so that she could move on with Tao, and it was also DUMB (hide spoiler)]. I disapprove.
I can only recommend this with reservations, and only if you are interested in reading about San Francisco during the Gold Rush. The rest of it is pretty bad....more
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