The "on trend" genre today leans towards woman-led, dark, experimental books a la Ottessa Moshfegh and Mona Awad. I'm not a big fan of these books (besides Bunny) because they are dark and weird for the sake of being dark and weird. It's a terrible experience to read the book and an even worse feeling to finish.

Parakeet is experimental and surreal but light. Bertino easily could have gone into the darker territory but as the Bride's episodes get more intense, the weirder it gets, not more tense. There are some dark moments and I wish the Bride's reactions were fleshed out more

like, how did she feel about her client shooting himself/her injury? How did that affect her or impact her final decision?

Some of my favorite moments were when the Bride hung out with Simone or was lucid. The surreal aspects were not overwhelming, Bertino did a nice job transitioning. The second half is messy but that's probably the point. The book was a bride looking into a funhouse mirror. I've never read anything like it, and that's not a bad thing.