Brutes

Brutes is an interesting exploration into girlhood and trauma, but the narrative is too loosely-styled for me. Sometimes Dizz Tate's writing is painfully beautiful, other times just painful. 

lots and lots to think about here! nauseatingly beautiful; i really fell in love with tate's prose as the novel continued. i really enjoyed the jumps in perspective, and the continuity of "we" and the girls as one unit interrupted by chapters of them alone & separated in their adult life. i enjoyed the subtle exploration of their trauma, and how violence against women, particularly girls, was maintained in this particular town. what really appealed to me was the creeping dread of unease, and the general thought of "surely this isn't the case..." and then confirmation that that is, indeed, the case. brutes felt like a puzzle with only the corner pieces aligned, with details slowly clicking into place as you read and recall. it felt very much like remembering your childhood and remembering all the sickening, rotting details that you normalized or forgot as a kid.

I wanted to like this, I really did, and the most spectacular part about it is I loved the last chapter- it was like a scene from an A24 movie.
The problem is, you have to get to the last chapter.
I don't mind a chorus of voices as narrators (We Ride Upon Sticks did it perfectly). I also read a novel a couple of years ago that took place in an office and the employees all spoke as one? Blanking on the name. Very well done.
The problem with Brutes is the storytelling is so vague, the reader just can't tell what the hell is going on. The “girls” are telling us they “know what happened” but they don't tell the reader. They also claim no one is asking them, but that's untrue, several characters flat-out ask them and they choose not to answer.
Then....we get these individual POV chapters of The Girls in the future and they drop us down into new stories where, you guessed it, the reader still isn't being let in on what's going on. So, added frustration.
I think by the end I pieced most of it together. But did I care by then? I did not.
If Tate had thrown us a bone every once in awhile, I might not be so salty.
I feel like this was really written for the big screen. Big scenes of crying mothers holding each other under a big white tent and a pink Florida sky. Similar to the the crying scene in Midsommar. I'm just highly unimpressed. I think I hung in there because I really did care what happened with Sammy.

Rating: 3.38 leaves out of 5Characters: 2.75/5 Cover: 3.75/5Story: 4/5Writing: 3/5Genre: Contemporary/MysteryType: AudiobookWorth?: YesHated Disliked It Was Okay Liked Really Liked LovedWow... okay where to begin? So how from what I was told about this book I think was a bit wrong? Or maybe, because I had to wait for my loan at the library, that I might have gotten it mixed with something different. Either way, wow. So it does give me virgin suicide feels, a lot. I loved it in that sense. I highly suggest you check trigger warnings though. This book was as wild as the everglades. The only reason it isn't rated higher is the fact that I was confused in some places but other than that, a really good read.

Girls sharing a collective conscious in a way, and experiencing fucked up things.