While I doubt there is such a thing as a perfect book, imagining myself finding a better book seems incredibly unlikely. The one thing I’d have to say is that this was recommended to me as a poetry book, it is found in the poetry section of the bookstore, and that this is a novel. It is not a poetry book. It’s probably the best written novel I’ve read in the last 10 years by a living author. This came as a large surprise to me, as I was expecting this book to be one of those books that covers so many taboo topics that no one is allowed to say anything bad about it, making it flawless due to how untouchable it is rather than how good a book this actually was. I was very surprised very quickly.
It did have some issues- some cliches. He did some novice tricks I see everywhere that I’m very tired of. Specifically the crossing out of a word and adding a new one changing the meaning of the sentence.
A lot of the drug references were very heavy handed. Using full scientific names with grand emphasis on its use- when I just know this isn’t how druggies talk and act, so it came off as insincere. A female friend who read the book noticed also, claiming it sounded like he had a friend who did drugs and he just shoved it in there. It also felt like the author didn’t really grow from his perspective in the book, at least not on the pages, which is where the book really shines in every other department. A fully grown in world that is lived in by a world of people and watching a young boy grow up alongside his mother and a character named Paul. He comes as a stranger in a strange land who is scared, and the differences between his culture and the one hes moved into seems impossible to navigate. He arrives in the middle of the book as a citizen of the new world, finding love and existing as a native. He starts as a young man who knows he will be a monster to his mom, and lies to her, but later they embrace truth and move forward.
The fluid memory writing style reminded me a lot of 1000 years of solitude, and I would recommend this to anyone who is at a harry potter reading level and wants to explore the greater regions of literature. It might be too intense to follow for some people, constant time jumps and animal references, displaying memories in real time. I read with a pen and a notebook, to more easily recall what I like and key points, so this style of writing in almost made for me. Obviously, this book is a novel written for poets. If it wasn’t for some of the adult scenes I’d say that this would be an excellent book for high school students.
I’m so used to saying books are average at best I am actually very floored by this one. Especially with how popular it is everywhere.
I don’t want to spoil any of the of the book if I can help it, I wanted to focus on one very same set of words that run through the book telling the story. In the opening sleeve there is a quote to his mother- “You’re a mother, Ma. You’re also a monster. But so am I, which is why I can’t turn away from you.”
When the protagonist little dog wears a dress as a child, they call him names which he says he later learns means “monster”- one of the names is fag.
When he tells his mother he is gay, she asks him if he has worn a dress, which he replies with a lie “no”.
You can see from the beginning of the book confessing that they are both monsters and that he loves her, and that there was a time he lied to his mother about being a monster, turning away from her, and that buy finishing the book, he cant turn away from her. All of this around the midpoint of the book. It is so very good when read in the book I promise you.
