Big Girls Book

This is one of those books that the whole time I'm reading it, I kind of just wonder why it exists. My feelings ranged from bored to annoyed and not a whole lot else.

My biggest issue was that it's told in first person by four narrators, each section lasting anywhere from a paragraph to a couple pages. It's designated when the POV switches by an extra paragraph break, but doesn't ever identify the narrator. Which meant that for each section, instead of just reading it, I'd be looking for context clues to figure who was speaking. It wasn't too difficult most of the time (though there were a couple of sections I either couldn't figure out or didn't realize who it was until the end), but it was just an annoying way to experience a book. It may not have bothered me as much if there were long sections, but since they were all so short, I had to do it every page or two. By the time I figured out who was narrating, the section was almost over.

Apart from that, I was mostly just bored. I couldn't get into any of the characters, probably because of that, but also because so much of this book was telling. I like being in the moment in books, reading the descriptions and feeling something, anything. This book didn't make me feel much of anything at all.

There were a lot of 'issues' in this book. Rape, trauma, violence, mental health, racism, etc. But it never felt like they were dealt with. I understand that's how it works in real life, those things just exist without meaning, but in literature, I want those issues to be discussed or looked at critically. I want their existence to matter to a book. Pointlessly crappy people exist, but pointlessly crappy characters just make me want to walk away.

There were also points that were just ridiculously unrealistic. The character received money in prison through the mail, which literally you can't do. There wasn't anything major, just small things like that throughout that irritated me.

Overall, bored and annoyed sums this book up for me. But some readers thought this was stunning, although I can't quite figure out why. I was mostly just glad it was a quick read, and I can almost guarantee I'll have forgotten this in a month.