Pizza Girl is 18, pregnant and working as a pizza delivery girl in suburban LA. Her supportive mother and doting boyfriend drive her nuts with their constant affection, she doesn’t have any plans for her future, and she’s terrified that she’s following in her late alcoholic father’s footsteps. But everything changes when Jenny, a stay-at-home mom, orders a pickle pizza for her son. Pizza Girl is instantly enamored by Jenny—and her obsession quickly turns dangerous. 

 

This was a strange little novel that I didn’t dislike—in fact, I finished it not quite sure how I felt about it. Ultimately, I landed on either wanting less (in a short story format) or wanting more. 

 

Kyoung Frazier’s prose is meandering and random, echoing the stream of consciousness from our young and listless main character. This voice really captures the tone of the novel: not knowing what you’re doing with your life, fearing you’re making mistakes, and making them anyway. There were some wryly funny lines, and others that broke my heart. 

 

Other characters did not benefit from this very introspective POV. I wanted more from Billy, the boyfriend, and Pizza Girl’s mother, a Korean immigrant who had her own stories and failures to share. Jenny, too, ultimately was an enigma by the end of the story, although I felt that was more purposeful—like Pizza Girl, we never get closure on what Jenny wanted from our main character, how she felt about their entanglement or what her purpose was. She served as a nice mirror (or perhaps foil) for Pizza Girl, with Pizza Girl projecting her own life dissatisfaction onto someone she feels she cares for and wants to save. At the end of the day, pretty much everyone in the novel felt inadequate and dissatisfied—a theme a lot of readers will probably relate with. 

 

Ultimately, I think I enjoyed this, despite its strange, unresolved plot and frustrating characters’ decisions. I think fans of other “woman on the verge” books would appreciate it!