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rachelkays's review against another edition
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Pointless. Literally pointless. Pointless and plotless.
It started off okay- the annoying, potty humored voice of the first story was forgivable, seeing as it was written from a young child’s perspective. It hits a low point in the next story where theres a long, drawn out scene of sexual assault between children that was so incredibly graphic and weird. That story ends abruptly and I was continuing in to see what the point of it was, and it never came. That extended child rape scene was essentially pointless, and not connected to any overarching point or lesson of the book. Apparently thats supposed to be a “compelling” coming of age story.
I continued reading. All the voices in these essays sounded very much the same. Innocent child with an overbearing mother, underachieving father, brother with an up and down relationship, precocious friends who try to teach girl about sex at like 6 years old. Sometimes I didn’t even realize the essays switched until someone said the protagonist’s name and I realize it had changed like 15 pages in.
The plot of each story was literally just like little girl experiences ordinary day, basically. It would be like girl goes to school and interacts with friends then goes home, all interlaced with this really grating potty humor that just like did not work for me at all. I don’t know any 9 year olds who talk about sex in such a like, I can’t think of another word but potty humored way. Friends inspect each other genitals like at least twice in each essay. Its viewed as completely normal and almost funny.
The writing itself was not for me. Disjointed, with shifting points of times without any indication so it’d be like 1996 in one sentence and the next sentence is supposed to be 1921 with a completely different speaker but theres no italics or quotes or any change indicating a shift in time and voice. Inconsequential, boring moments were focused on for pages and I was always waiting for them to come to some sort of meaningful conclusion but it wouldn’t come and instead there’d be a shift to another boring pointless inconsequential moment in a 7 year old’s daily life.
There was so much potential here- the lives of young Asian immigrant girls and their coming of ages in a multicultural, poverty stricken neighborhood as their families move towards upwards mobility. Talk about race, talk about class, talk about language, talk about class struggle, talk about anything that actually means something, please. There’d be mentions of this stuff but nothing was ever actually talked about, analyzed, or said. There was no reflection in any of these stories, and no satisfaction of conclusion. To me, this was almost 300 pages of uncomfortable descriptions of elementary schoolers genitals, reoccurring poop themed jokes, and ultimately a whole lot of nothing. Between that, the unnecessarily graphic and pointless sexual assault scenes, and several racist jokes made at the expense of black and brown people, this was a waste of time for me.
It started off okay- the annoying, potty humored voice of the first story was forgivable, seeing as it was written from a young child’s perspective. It hits a low point in the next story where theres a long, drawn out scene of sexual assault between children that was so incredibly graphic and weird. That story ends abruptly and I was continuing in to see what the point of it was, and it never came. That extended child rape scene was essentially pointless, and not connected to any overarching point or lesson of the book. Apparently thats supposed to be a “compelling” coming of age story.
I continued reading. All the voices in these essays sounded very much the same. Innocent child with an overbearing mother, underachieving father, brother with an up and down relationship, precocious friends who try to teach girl about sex at like 6 years old. Sometimes I didn’t even realize the essays switched until someone said the protagonist’s name and I realize it had changed like 15 pages in.
The plot of each story was literally just like little girl experiences ordinary day, basically. It would be like girl goes to school and interacts with friends then goes home, all interlaced with this really grating potty humor that just like did not work for me at all. I don’t know any 9 year olds who talk about sex in such a like, I can’t think of another word but potty humored way. Friends inspect each other genitals like at least twice in each essay. Its viewed as completely normal and almost funny.
The writing itself was not for me. Disjointed, with shifting points of times without any indication so it’d be like 1996 in one sentence and the next sentence is supposed to be 1921 with a completely different speaker but theres no italics or quotes or any change indicating a shift in time and voice. Inconsequential, boring moments were focused on for pages and I was always waiting for them to come to some sort of meaningful conclusion but it wouldn’t come and instead there’d be a shift to another boring pointless inconsequential moment in a 7 year old’s daily life.
There was so much potential here- the lives of young Asian immigrant girls and their coming of ages in a multicultural, poverty stricken neighborhood as their families move towards upwards mobility. Talk about race, talk about class, talk about language, talk about class struggle, talk about anything that actually means something, please. There’d be mentions of this stuff but nothing was ever actually talked about, analyzed, or said. There was no reflection in any of these stories, and no satisfaction of conclusion. To me, this was almost 300 pages of uncomfortable descriptions of elementary schoolers genitals, reoccurring poop themed jokes, and ultimately a whole lot of nothing. Between that, the unnecessarily graphic and pointless sexual assault scenes, and several racist jokes made at the expense of black and brown people, this was a waste of time for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Trafficking, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Racism, Xenophobia, Toxic friendship, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Body horror, Violence, and Rape
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