The New Me
Ratings50
Average rating3.4
wow! i really did not like this!! a star and a half if only because it was engaging, but i found millie to be self-aggrandizing and annoying—which can WORK in a main character, especially if they're being satirized and made fun of as butler does, but the entire novel just feels like it's making fun of women. it reads very mean-spirited, especially when one of the only men in the novel is mocked for having "feminine" traits.
poverty is lightly grazed, and class isn't even mentioned at all. for a book described to be a critique on consumer culture, it sure as hell does not do a lot of critiquing! it would be easy to dismiss millie's viewpoint (re: buying a lot of clothes, saying that her alleged best friend is only saying she can't afford a coffee so millie can buy her one) if the novel didn't carry the EXACT SAME TONE for every other millieless narration.
maybe i'll have more to add later, but for now, this was deeply disappointing and slightly insulting
This is like if you recorded yourself going through a mental health crisis (where your thoughts turn into conspiracies and everything is evil and disgusting and you're convinced you'll never be happy again) and you watch it back once you've been medicated or taken a long nap. You notice valid points in arguments and evils you've conjured up, but you've also come back to earth by now and realized you sound a bit crazy and don't have control over any of these things and maybe even blew everything out of proportion.
At times, I found Millie extremely unlikeable and whiny because of this. Her predicament is a somewhat lucky one. I mean, she had a temp job that she might've been able to keep had she shredded a small stack of papers. But I also realized that I've had her same anger and jealousy so I can't hate her too much. Her job was unfulfilling and she was obviously depressed. Having your parents to fall back on you can't erase that, thought it was an unrealistic aspect of her career. You get to keep your apartment for weeks with no job, great! Her friend pointed this out, which was cool. But her friend was just as awful and bitter so I hated her as well.
Ultimately what I took from this is that it never really gets better. You just find a job that you can survive on and keep it. The young people who come after you will always think less of your position and personality and are convinced they can do better. They cannot. It's a bit bleak. But it's something you can resonate with or see yourself in. I had a hard time getting into moments where Millie gets to thinking about life on an almost philosophical level (just quick thoughts, nothing too serious. this is not a book about philosophy). Just moments where her struggles make her think about free will, what it means to be an individual, etc. Just felt a bit cheesy? Millie is obviously struggling but like, let's go on LinkedIn or Indeed girl! It felt like a cop out to blame the universe or a lack of free will.
I'll always make this disclaimer for books where I hated everyone: maybe that's the point. If the author was going for unlikeable characters who have no joy and the tension/conflict is mostly in their head, then they did an excellent job! If nothing else, these are characters who are awful or mean to each other (and themselves). They're complex and angry, which people don't write all the time. But it still wasn't my favorite and I found myself skimming entire paragraphs at a time (and still being able to keep up with the plot somehow). It is a quick read so it wasn't too much of a loss of time. This is definitely not for everyone.
Depressingly relatable, but not relatable enough for me to have truly enjoyed it. I kept reading in the same way people slow down when they see a car crash on the side of the road.
"We're so much in our minds, waiting for something to happen, acting it out, that the body and the outer world might as well not exist, for all it concerns us."
This one goes out to all my depressed girlies
I feel like I was duped by the title. Was she at all different in the end than how she was at the beginning of the book? I wish the book went in the direction of success and happiness not being what it seems but instead had Millie in a bad luck situation with Karen tbh since Millie did her job well enough and that somehow had a profound effect? Idk the second half just kind of fell off the tracks.
I feel like I was duped by the title. Was she at all different in the end than how she was at the beginning of the book? I wish the book went in the direction of success and happiness not being what it seems but instead had Millie in a bad luck situation with Karen tbh since Millie did her job well enough and that somehow had a profound effect? Idk the second half just kind of fell off the tracks.
(4.5 stars) Some chapters were hilarious, especially the ones about Karen, and Millie's neighbours. Did anyone else see a little of themselves in those characters?
A short novel of the modern, everyday experience. An educated woman, with every advantage, lives and works in Chicago. She is lost, adrift. Her life seems pointless and lacking meaning. She is installed as a temp at a design firm where she does not seem to get along with her coworkers or have any ambition to climb higher in the company. In fact, she seems to have deluded herself that she is the victim here. A chance at being made permanent at the company sparks a half-assed attempt at cleaning up her act. Millie reminded me very much of Eileen from [b:Eileen 23453099 Eileen Ottessa Moshfegh https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1479545528s/23453099.jpg 43014905], if Eileen had grown up with loving parents. The funny part is that we meet other characters in chapters and they are not any happier or more fulfilled than Millie. It is a book about people so in tune with their selves, so very concerned with their own feelings, that they cannot move beyond that. I read it as a warning. To whom, I am not sure. I have a personal rule that one cannot blame one's parents for anything that is going on in one's life after the age of 30. Millie does not blame her parents. She doesn't blame anyone. She just lets life roll over her like a plane flying overhead. She's completely disconnected. I found her frustrating and entirely fascinating at the same time. She doesn't know how to save herself, and no one is jumping in there to do it for her.I want to read more from Butler.