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I don't like reading books I dislike
I've finally finished struggling with 13 Ways Of Looking At A Fat Girl. I won, book. You lose! I knew when I put it on my Goodreads list that it was going to be a struggle. Sometimes you just know. But still, the review I read made it sound like one of those books that isn't easy, but that you enjoy on some level, or that you should read. I don't fully remember which, and also I was promised some humor and the ability to identify.
Self, you've gotta stop adding books to read at 4am on your lunch break at work. That version of you is an idiot. She chooses bad books because magazine reviews are damn lies.
13 Ways is a painful read if you are or have ever been a fat girl. At first it starts out in a cringy but relatable way and you think to yourself that maybe the reviews were right. Maybe!
And no. As the short stories continue, Elizabeth (or Lizzie, Liz, or Beth, she keeps changing her name) becomes more and more miserable. She eventually loses a lot of the weight and then obsesses over not gaining it back and naturally this is just the most fun ride ever. You see her cycle through a series of relationships until she finds a keeper, only to lose him, though I'm not entirely sure what brings about the end. I mean, I know it's because she's so wrapped up in her destructive eating that there's no room for a husband or even herself but it's handled very... strangely. Elizabeth seems to basically hate everyone except maybe, maybe her husband, and even then you don't really see too much feeling for him so it's hard to say. But she's especially harsh on other women, particularly anyone she works with. Yet we go from her judging the shit out of her manicurist to moving out and living with a coworker she seems to despise as she runs away from her marriage.
The whole book feels off kilter somehow and I didn't enjoy it beyond a few things in the first story. There are moments in that one where you connect and it's nice to have someone else share an opinion/thought/feeling you've had. But as the stories continue, things get more difficult to relate to. Either because you can't or because it's painful to do so.
And then I just stopped being able to connect at all. By about halfway through the book, she's just miserable all the time, and in sort of denial about it. No one really says anything to her, and I suspect that it's because they've tried off page to do so and she's just gone on the attack. She's a miserable person who becomes pretty horrible to other people, if only in her head, and I'm left wondering why. Why the book was written the way it was, why it's getting all this amazing press, why, why, why.
There's a story towards the end that would almost be funny if it hadn't followed endless stories that were so damn miserable so that by the time you reached it, you'd forgotten what funny could be. The final story is odd and I don't blame people who've said that this book ends without hope for Elizabeth. I kind of see some light about to go off above her head, but it could honestly have just been my relief that the book was about to be done. So maybe the light was all in my head.
Tl;dr: hyped book fails to live up to the hype, gives me something new to be paranoid about instead.
I cheated on 13 Ways with Truth or Hair and it was cute. I'd like to see more Poppy, please. Which isn't really a phrase I thought I'd ever say but there you are. And Sparrow's a redhead if the O'Hairs are so there's a little nitpick. I wasn't too fond of the ending because it felt pretty tacked on, but for something that gave the twins some damn characterization, I'll be kind.
Now, apparently today is a kitten visitation day so I've got some time to kill. Maybe I'll resume my MH blather? Saw two or three bunnies out on my walk with the dog, which has nothing to do with anything other than bunnies!
Self, you've gotta stop adding books to read at 4am on your lunch break at work. That version of you is an idiot. She chooses bad books because magazine reviews are damn lies.
13 Ways is a painful read if you are or have ever been a fat girl. At first it starts out in a cringy but relatable way and you think to yourself that maybe the reviews were right. Maybe!
And no. As the short stories continue, Elizabeth (or Lizzie, Liz, or Beth, she keeps changing her name) becomes more and more miserable. She eventually loses a lot of the weight and then obsesses over not gaining it back and naturally this is just the most fun ride ever. You see her cycle through a series of relationships until she finds a keeper, only to lose him, though I'm not entirely sure what brings about the end. I mean, I know it's because she's so wrapped up in her destructive eating that there's no room for a husband or even herself but it's handled very... strangely. Elizabeth seems to basically hate everyone except maybe, maybe her husband, and even then you don't really see too much feeling for him so it's hard to say. But she's especially harsh on other women, particularly anyone she works with. Yet we go from her judging the shit out of her manicurist to moving out and living with a coworker she seems to despise as she runs away from her marriage.
The whole book feels off kilter somehow and I didn't enjoy it beyond a few things in the first story. There are moments in that one where you connect and it's nice to have someone else share an opinion/thought/feeling you've had. But as the stories continue, things get more difficult to relate to. Either because you can't or because it's painful to do so.
And then I just stopped being able to connect at all. By about halfway through the book, she's just miserable all the time, and in sort of denial about it. No one really says anything to her, and I suspect that it's because they've tried off page to do so and she's just gone on the attack. She's a miserable person who becomes pretty horrible to other people, if only in her head, and I'm left wondering why. Why the book was written the way it was, why it's getting all this amazing press, why, why, why.
There's a story towards the end that would almost be funny if it hadn't followed endless stories that were so damn miserable so that by the time you reached it, you'd forgotten what funny could be. The final story is odd and I don't blame people who've said that this book ends without hope for Elizabeth. I kind of see some light about to go off above her head, but it could honestly have just been my relief that the book was about to be done. So maybe the light was all in my head.
Tl;dr: hyped book fails to live up to the hype, gives me something new to be paranoid about instead.
I cheated on 13 Ways with Truth or Hair and it was cute. I'd like to see more Poppy, please. Which isn't really a phrase I thought I'd ever say but there you are. And Sparrow's a redhead if the O'Hairs are so there's a little nitpick. I wasn't too fond of the ending because it felt pretty tacked on, but for something that gave the twins some damn characterization, I'll be kind.
Now, apparently today is a kitten visitation day so I've got some time to kill. Maybe I'll resume my MH blather? Saw two or three bunnies out on my walk with the dog, which has nothing to do with anything other than bunnies!