Inspired by the true events of the Chillicothe Six (a string of unsolved cases involving murdered women in Chillicothe Ohio), On the Savage Side follows the tale of Arcade, aka Arc, her twin sister, and other young women caught in the same cycle of drugs, abuse, prostitution, and tragedy.

This is as tragically sad as it is beautifully written. Arc already had an enormous deck stacked against her as the daughter of addicts growing up in a mostly rural and decaying small town, and her story unfolds in a brutally predictable way. The struggles that McDaniel describes here feel incredibly real and authentic, and having spent much of my childhood in and around these parts of the US, it makes me realize how many bullets I dodged. The one person I have to thank for that is my mom.

This book will make you sad and angry, but that's the point. Atc and her friends are so flawed and tragic that you can't help but feel connected to them and deeply sorry for them. One part of this book that made me think was how quickly Arc's mother and aunt seemed like the 'bad guys' and that Arc and her friends were the victims. But at what point do you turn from victim to a bad guy yourself? I was just left wondering how we form those types of attitudes and when we stop giving people the benefit of the doubt.

This was an amazing book, but emotionally taxing in ways that you might not be prepared for. So please make sure you're not in a bad head space if you pick up this book. It will demand a LOT from you, but I feel like it will be equally as generous in what it gives back.

How I Won A Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto

Go to review page

challenging funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Where do people go when they're cancelled? In How I Won a Nobel Prize by Julius Taranto, they can find refuge at the Rubin Institute Plymouth (aka RIP), an alternative educational/cultural institution, whose giant, unmistakably phallic central tower is of course colloquially referred to as "The Endowment."

RIP is where grad student Helen, the genius protegee of exiled physicist Perry Smoot, is headed to continue her work. Accompanying Helen is her partner Hew, who is absolutely aghast at the proposition, and falls in with a dangerous crowd to being RIP down.

This is a genuinely engaging story with well developed characters, but the real selling point is the satire. Taranto pulls no punches with the performative self righteous liberals or the toxic, right wing assholes he portrays in the book. If you're feeling called out or have a case of hurt feelings when reading this book, I say good. It means you're the butt of the joke and you're probably worthy of the ridicule for failing to realize that shades of grey exist in the world.

I absolutely loved this book and am very excited to see what Taranto does next!

Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa

Go to review page

challenging dark reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Equal parts dry humor, amazing character development, and uncompromising in its portrayal of living with a serious medical disability, Hunchback is a sucker punch of a novella that shows the reader how unnecessarily difficult society makes life for people with disabilities.

Ichikawa and her main character Shaka each share the same condition, which is the most direct way to illustrate the point that people living with disabilities have the same wants and needs that everyone else has, despite how disabilities are often portrayed in the media, and viewed by society.

Hunchback is definitely character driven, but the plot points pack quite a punch, Ichikawa's sense of humor is a huge driving force here. Hunchback will and should make you uncomfortable, but it's an incredibly important book to read if you're looking to expand your horizons and become a more empathetic person.

Eurotrash by Christian Kracht

Go to review page

challenging sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? N/A
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

0.25

This is my first time where I feel this type of review is warranted, so please bear with me. To be clear, I am not telling people what they should or shouldn't read. I'm posting this because I feel this book crosses the line into being actively harmful towards our perceptions of autism, and I regret having spent money on this book.

Two of these instances were in reference to the main character's father, who is not otherwise portrayed as being autistic. Yet in these cases, the fact that he supposedly does not like having houseguests results in the lines "your autistic, disturbed father," or "he was completely autistic when people came over." This is clearly latching onto a negative stereotype and using the word in a perjorative manner.

The MC also references writing a novel, and wanting to "affect the air of an autistic snob." Putting aside the matter of what the hell that's supposed to mean, it's included in such an effortlessly flippant way that it immediately raises concern.

You might say there's a difference between the character and the author, and I usually give authors leeway on that subject. However, in this instance, the main character is trying to distance himself from his Nazi father. That being the case, I don't think this is the character talking. This was further reinforced because a Google search for the author yields a write up of a public lecture he gave where he reads from prepared remarks because otherwise he said he perceives himself speaking the way an "autistic infant" would.

It's clear to me that this author has no problem speaking about autistic people in a derogatory way. He presents autism as inherently negative, and as the punchline for jokes. Considering Eurotrash was originally published in 2021, you can't say "well it was a different time and you can't apply today's standards to the past." 2021 is recent enough that everyone should know better.

On that note, I am deeply disappointed that the @thebookerprizes would legitimize this type of language by longlisting Eurotrash for this year's International Booker Prize, and I'm equally disappointed with @serpentstail for giving this author a platform.

More...

marshalls_library's reviews 200 reviews

marshalls_library's reviews
200 reviews