Rating: 2
Format: Physical book, Audiobook
Genre: Literary fiction

This book reminds me of that one girl on TikTok who does those “politics for the girlies” videos where she dumbs down complex ideas into vapid analogies of things that are perceived as feminine, like shopping or gossiping, as if women aren’t capable of engaging with nuanced and complicated topics if they aren’t covered in metaphorical pink glitter (no hate to that girl btw - I get that her intention is to be comedic).

I think the satire in books like this can work if I actually have characters that I can connect to that I can view the ridiculous world through their eyes. Damani is not that character. She’s a rideshare driver who is also taking care of her sick mother (and occasionally engages in elder abuse). She’s very involved with her own physique and falls in lust with a woman she drives for named Jolene. I didn’t feel connected to Damani and Jolene as individual characters or their dynamic as a couple.

Damani would have these moments of reflecting on the world and her bleak situation, but at other times she was written to be just as out of touch and unrealistic as everyone else. The dialogue was all very over the top and hyperbolic, so much so that I was typically rolling my eyes rather than finding it funny.

Anyways, I get what this was going for but it didn’t work for me.