A review by uuuultraviolennnnt
By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept by Smart, Elizabeth (May 7, 2015) Paperback by Elizabeth Smart, Elizabeth Smart

challenging emotional mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I wanted to hit her behind the head with a hard baton of reality…

I needed to pause a lot whilst reading each chapter to let Smart’s metaphors take root before they quickly passed into the other, and the other, and another. It was endless, and so weighted— a dizzying, albiet charming read. The narrator spends the absolute length of this novel spiralling, employing a cultish, catastrophic lexicon. She speaks only in justifications for her ‘love’ (obsession). The narrator desperately seeks to be validated by EVERYTHING, from Evolution, to the Bible, to plumbing, to the metaphysical world at whole. Her ruse is sickening and very ridiculous. Delusions are all I see. Is that because I am not in love? No, it is because I’m not guilty.