We All Fall Down

Szabo can make such interesting worlds and creatures,,,but the writing and actions they make their characters do is seriously lacking or cringe worthy. Its sad, because I feel like their worlds do have serious potential.

I didn't need to read about Jesse stripping, or exploring their female body. The fact that they can shift their gender is definitely interesting, but Jesse's struggle with their gender/pronouns feels like an afterthought; it's just sprinkled in sometimes. The constant misgendering of Turing is also really upsetting.

It is also odd to me that in the 2 books I've read from Szabo, everyone just....wants the main character? The mc is an instant like for most other characters, and usually this like is sexual.

The last book I read by them (What Big Teeth) wasn't great but some qoutes in it made up for it a little bit, this sadly doesn't have that.

2.5 stars