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saestrah's review against another edition
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
My favourite book published this year was Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This. An exploration of narrative form, the unnamed protagonist searches for authenticity via the internet, telling her story in snippets of text as if they too are social media posts. Its fragmentary form reminded me of the work of Jenny Offill, but despite being perfect for reading only a few hundred words at a time, I finished it the same day I started. It was also the first book in a while to induce a cathartic cry, but it wasn’t until halfway through that the emotional events in the story started to take root and themes of loss and love were explored. Throughout it all Lockwood’s protagonist tries to stick to the language of social media, ensuring that punchlines are delivered more than giving the reader clear descriptions of scenes or depth to secondary characters. She’s committed to being relevant and up-to-date with memes and online humour, even when her world is falling apart.
Most of all, the structure of Lockwood’s debut novel made me think of how every writer’s advice is to start a story where the action kicks off, and yet No One Is Talking About This defies that advice, using its modernist and experimental form and references to internet culture to draw in readers from the first few pages. I read this book on my kindle, but upon reflection I think I would re-read it on my phone in a rather meta replication of the endless scroll attributed to social media.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Medical content, and Terminal illness
Minor: Excrement
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