Bailey

I'm not sure where the cycle started, but I was bored by the subject matter, then spaced out and didn't pay enough attention to details, then didn't remember enough to gain interest, then was bored, and on and on. This book felt like it went on forever and I'm still not sure anything really happened? It was also a huge missed opportunity to discuss gender from a really unique perspective.

5/5, just not gay enough

Reads like an engaging thriller, feels like an upsetting but important thought experiment.

I'm reviewing this six years after reading it because it still affects me, which is probably the marker of a technically very good book. It was just SO extremely viscerally upsetting that I had a really strong aversion to it after reading it, and I honestly still do, six years later - if I see even another book by the same author in a bookstore I will feel uncomfortable. I've never had this kind of reaction to a book be so strong and last so long before, and I read a lot of upsetting books, I don't know what it was about this one.

Again probably important and since it was semi based on a true story I think?, even more so, just good to know going into it that it is very intense and upsetting.

This book was so beautiful and heart-wrenching. As an extreme misandrist I rarely have any interest in books where the main character or POV person is a man, but I was totally captivated by this book.