Like a Bird

by Fariha Róisín

A revolutionary story of empowerment and redemption, Like a Bird is the highly anticipated debut novel from Fariha Roisin, author of the poetry collection How to Cure A Ghost
One of Vogue 's Most Anticipated Books of the Fall

Taylia Chatterjee has never known love, and certainly has never felt it for herself. Growing up on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, with her older sister Alyssa, their parents were both overbearing and emotionally distant, and despite idyllic summers in the Catskills, and gatherings with glamorous family friends, there is a sadness that emanates from the Chatterjee residence, a deep well of sorrow stemming from the racism of American society.

After a violent sexual assault, Taylia is disowned by her parents and suddenly forced to move out. As Taylia looks to the city, the ghost of her Indian grandmother dadi-ma is always one step ahead, while another more troubling ghost chases after her. Determined to have the courage to confront the pain that her family can't face, Taylia finds work at a neighborhood cafe owned by single mother and spiritualist, Kat. Taylia quickly builds a constellation of friends and lovers on her own,daring herself to be open to new experiences, even as they call into question what she thought she knew about the past.

Taylia's story is about survival, coming to terms with her past and looking forward to a future she never felt she was allowed to claim. Writing this for eighteen years, poet and activist Fariha Roisin's debut novel is an intense, provocative, and emotionally profound portrait of an inner life in turmoil and the redemptive power of community and love.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, LGBT, Contemporary, Queer, New York, Novels

300 pages, Unknown Binding

First published September 15, 2020

About the author

Fariha Róisín is a writer, culture worker, and educator.

Born in Ontario, Canada, they were raised in Sydney, Australia, and are based in Los Angeles, California. As a Muslim queer Bangladeshi, they are interested in the margins, liminality, otherness, and the mercurial nature of being. Their work has pioneered a refreshing and renewed conversation about wellness, contemporary Islam, degrowth and queer identities and has appeared in Al Jazeera, The Guardian, Vice, Village Voice, and others.

Róisín has published a book of poetry entitled How To Cure A Ghost (Abrams), a journal called Being In Your Body (Abrams), and a novel named Like A Bird (Unnamed Press) which was named one of the Best Books of 2020 by NPR, Globe and Mail, Harper’s Bazaar, a must-read by Buzzfeed News and received a starred review by the Library Journal.

Their first work of non-fiction Who Is Wellness For? An Examination of Wellness Culture and Who it Leaves Behind (HarperWave) was released in 2022, and their second book of poetry Survival Takes A Wild Imagination came out Fall of 2023.

They are a member of Writers Against The War on Gaza.

Reviews

[Adriane Hershey · Rating 5 out of 5]

i’m surprised by the negative reviews for this book. of course, people feel impacted by different things and are drawn to different types of writing, but the people who are so upset by this book seem to be angry because they expected it to be something it was never presented as.

i’ve followed Fariha for a few years and have always felt deeply moved by her writing, so i had high hopes for this story. but i also started reading Like A Bird with an understanding that it probably wouldn’t follow a traditional fiction structure or feel like any other fiction centered on similar themes. that’s not to say her style is inherently better, but just that i recognized Fariha’s unique voice and style immediately.

Like A Bird often feels more like prose than structured fiction. it’s a meditation on trauma, healing, recovery, womanhood, motherhood, gender, racism, capitalism. it is a vulnerable rumination on the pain of deep self-work, sometimes feeling like i was reading the diary entries someone had written while working through their darkest pains.

i saw a reviewer dislike how many topics this story covers, but the subjects it revolves around can’t be separated. they’re connected. Taylia’s trauma is tied to her gender, her race, her class, her parent’s own histories with those same topics. these are complex pieces of life that create a person’s identity when woven together, and to ask Like A Bird to sacrifice some of those nuances to more deeply explore a few chosen others would make it dishonest.

multiple reviews say the experiences in the story are unrealistic because it takes place in modern day and Taylia’s parents are liberals, so they wouldn’t just disown her after her assault. those people are missing the point, ignoring the many real stories of women who experience these traumas still today. the entire point of Taylia’s parents being liberals is that they are still overcome by their prejudices regardless. they’re still trapped by the sexist/racist beliefs of their upbringings — they turned their backs on their radical politics, they are fake progressives who enjoy the title of being liberals but do none of the work.

some of these reviews make me wonder if we just read the same book. many seem to be looking for inconsistencies and exaggerations in a story that is, more than anything, a deeply intimate view of the pain and liberation that come from self-acceptance, and the magical healing qualities of true love in all of its forms.

[M · Rating 1 out of 5]

I had highly anticipated reading 'Like a Bird', because I was interested to read a novel that explored shadeism, racism and gendered violence. The concept was interesting but the execution less so, it's not that there was no good prose but a lot of it was pretty bad tbh? Like a lot of the dialogue is really contrived and hokey and reminded me of a Wattpad fanfic. This novel makes Ann Brashares look like Virginia Woolf. It started well, but overall felt really unfocused (re: themes, plot, everything tbh) and had pacing issues. It's like a bunch of melodramatic and unrealistic stuff happened and then the story ended. The characters were very flat and two-dimensional, and I wish their personalities, motivations and histories had been developed better. I think more focus on the family and friend dynamics would have made for more effective storytelling.

[MK · Rating 1 out of 5]

The vulgar melodrama of this book caused my soul to leave my body. Hard pass. The author seemed more interested in describing the various wines the characters were drinking than developing an actually coherent and believable narrative and characters that felt human.

Also rather confused on why the family was Hindu when the author is Muslim (and has written extensively and eloquently about it?) Seems like a missed opportunity!

[C · Rating 1 out of 5]

**a few small spoilers ahead** I most enjoyed the scenes describing the main character, Taylia’s, relationship with her dadi-ma, the humorous and searing descriptions of Taylia’s parents’ relationship, and the backstory of her maternal grandparents. I felt those parts gave the characters dimension and relatability. But my problem with this book is that there’s no there there.

What I did not like was how the tone of the writing was all over the place. I think the first few pages were the best, where the writing felt concise, pithy and frank, a bit stylistically similar to Elena Ferrante’s voice, and darkly funny and jaded, a bit like Otessa Moshfegh. But that voice soon left and was replaced by abrupt, tedious dialogue.

I was turned off by the ineffective crudeness of the language (lots of mention of “pussies” and how men don’t take women seriously because of them); the one-dimensional cliched characters (mom is a cringey, upper middle class, highly educated, liberal white woman who tokenizes her Brown friends, dad is a brooding, misogynistic Indian man who wants to blend in with American whiteness, sister is a devastatingly beautiful charmer who everyone idolizes to Taylia’s detriment); and the general tediousness of the writing. I also found off-putting the unconvincing changes in tone—sometimes pensive, sometime crudely humorous, sometimes very reminiscent of the way people communicate on social media (e.g. often self pitying and self-serious without a trace of irony). Taylia gave us backstories for her parents, but then had zero grace for them (before they kicked her out), which I felt was an unappealing aspect of her character. The author also belabored points (she emphasizes that her older sister is “so fucking beautiful”) in a way that wasn’t really effective and came off as awkward. I thought the entire second half could have benefited from a good editor.

As an example of dialogue and character portrayals I found especially unrealistic, there’s an exchange between Taylia’s mom and the family friend/bad guy, Simon. I can’t imagine any teenager I know jeer at the mother of his friend’s parents, in reference to her daughter who’s standing right in front of them: “This one doesn’t talk too much, does she?” In this way, the characters felt like comic book villains who use women violently for sex and turn them against their family, and families—highly educated, cosmopolitan and politically liberal from the Upper West Side NYC in 2020—who kick their daughter out of the house because the family friend accused her of being sexually untoward, and a comic book hero, who never did anything to deserve her mistreatment and everyone who should love her just hates her (except for her sister). This and other plot points were so ridiculously melodramatic I couldn’t really take it seriously. So the book felt one dimensional while simultaneously trying to do way too much—from rumennations on the Holocaust to 9/11 to body shaming to astrology to the follies of Liberal Educated Upper Class White People, to post colonial identities to immigrant struggles to suicide to sibling rivalry to toxic parenting to the restorative power of friendships to finding one’s purpose. It broaches these topics but doesn’t explore most of them to a satisfying or interesting degree.

I am sorry for the mostly negative review, but this book left me feeling unsettled and disappointed. I really wanted to like it, but it fell flat for me because of the quality of the writing and the lack of creativity in the storyline. I just really wonder what was going on with this book’s editor. The basic plot has so much potential and the story is attempted to be told in a heartfelt way, but I felt the story tried to do too much without ever going anywhere, emotionally speaking. It had a lot of tedium and big flashy drama without moving my heart.

[luce (cry bebè's back from hiatus)]

An hour in and this book seems very much intent on painting the main character as being wronged and all fronts: her parents are nasty to her, they clearly prefer her sister, who is more 'conventionally' attractive and popular, who is also very mean to her. And the writing...: "my breasts were blooming and I hadn't yet figured out how to stand to obscure my nipples from perking outward like little meerkats in the sand".

[Kat · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was Not For Me™ and - I'm going to save you some valuable reading time here - probably not for you either.

[Cm · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rarely have the first few pages of a book managed to mislead me so utterly. I was there at the beginning, caught up and entranced by this unconventional New York family. But then the daytime-soap storyline kicked in. What complete and utter garbage. As others have pointed out, the melodrama is ridiculously hard to swallow. A moustache-twirling villain ruins our insipid heroine's life by drugging and raping her and then somehow persuading her well-educated, cross-cultural family to disown her... (and, btw, the rapist also dealt drugs to her beautiful WHITE PASSING sister and was indirectly responsible for her death. She is WHITE PASSING btw. That's very very important. I don't know why but it must be because the author mentions it every time the sister appears on the page, lest you forget). Anyway, it takes our heroine about three seconds of virtuous wallowing to land squarely on her feet in one of the most expensive, terrifying, chaotic cities in the world. 

The protagonist is so passive, drifting around fancy parts of Manhattan and Brooklyn and allowing rich, beautiful, diverse people to sweep her up and save her while she ruminates self-righteously about how much she hates white people and– disingenuously– about how much she hates herself. She is also ugly, btw. But this observation is also disingenuous because every hot guy who crosses her path throws himself at her. She decides to have an affair with one of them, partly because his East-Asian girlfriend is cold and bitchy (oops, that's a racial stereotype right there). And then she decides to quit her job and have a baby, and suddenly two years have passed and she still has no plan for how to live in one of the most expensive cities on earth, but that's ok because everyone else will pick up the pieces even with a kid in tow, while her savings are miraculously intact even though she is perpetually unemployed. God, it's tedious. And it's crap. This protagonist needs a prozac prescription and a job. A fictional fifteen thousand dollars sure goes far when you have no concept of money, huh?

[Sarah Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

*Slight spoilers ahead* I've long admired Roisin's writing and was thrilled to read her new novel. However, much fell flat for me. So much was left unexplained and I had a hard time believing the melodramatic plot. A family friend lures Taylia out to dinner knowing about her family trauma and loss only to gang rape her and then return her home to her parents while telling them she came on to him and was a disgrace? Then said liberal-minded parents who live in Manhattan kick her out of the house totally believing the rapist? This was a stretch and the rest of the book continued to follow a messy and completely unrealistic narrative with plenty of plot holes.

[MrsBunny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really wanted to like this book. But the writing is garbage, the character development is garbage. Just really bad.

[frootbatte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I typically dont write reviews because I feel like they wont be seen under the excess of other reviews, but this book doesnt have many so I will give it a go. Fariha, thank you for writing this book and giving us positive representation of femme solidarity. One of the main things I loved about this was the absence of men? If that makes any sense. I loved the little tribe Taylia managed to cultivate. I’ve read so many books about privileged rich white women and their addictions to decadence. This was new for me, and different. Your prose is wonderful. I’ve been around since your podcast with Zeba and was stoked to discover you published a novel.

Now for my critique. First of all, writing a book is hard. It requires discipline and commitment. This read like a first novel. There were times when the pace was too fast and time wasnt really explained. Some of it felt showy instead of telling. I think this book needed more pages and more room to breathe. There was so much to unpack and I felt like I wasnt given the entire story. It ended sorta abruptly too. I saw some comments that said the book was unrealistic in some ways but I dont think thats fair to say. I believe the issue was the lack of information that felt like things were happening inauthentically. Sometimes the dialogue felt too on the nose too when it came to the observations about race, class, and etc. It was hard to rate this book. I enjoyed it but I needed more.

Anyway I cant wait for your future projects. I’m a loyal reader now. I’m excited to see how you will grow from here.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Disappointing, since it does have so many components of fiction that I like: looking at race, patriarchy, female friendships and love, psychological pain and working through it in fits and starts with chosen family. The characters are 2 -dimensional, the prose heavy-handed, the insights sophomoric. I think I completed it out of inertia more than desire and, given how many books I’m eager to get to, I’m annoyed.

[Aeterna Luna · Rating 1 out of 5]

Really didn't enjoy this book. I appreciate that writing may help the writer process their life and difficulties, but it doesn't stand that people must appreciate it or must not state in a place for reviews that they didn't like it. I don't find this writing good or enjoyable or stimulating beyond the recognition of seeing my own life reflected back to me in some way.

[Alyanna Reyes · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated it so much!! The writing was terrible. The plot and characters made no sense because you didn’t understand anyone’s intentions. Everything was so underdeveloped. To make it worst the story was written like a really bad watt pad fan fiction. It had so many similes and descriptions that added nothing to the story and sounded so dumb. I can’t believe I wasted my money on this.

[Marl M · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s difficult for me to give such a low rating to this book, because many of the themes deeply resonated for me. Róisín writes a story of ongoing trauma that, for some, may seem unrealistic or exaggerated. For others, it makes you feel less alone... in this way, she holds space for those who can relate to the developmental trauma of growing up without secure attachment, without the love and support that children crave and need in order to develop a healthy self-concept — to believe they’re loved and lovable, that they are worthy. Then, she writes of more explicit trauma and of the way the world seems to crumble around you after you’ve experienced something irrevocable and are deprived of the most basic supports that might otherwise ease the blow. These are the reasons that I feel connected to this book and the reasons that I feel guilty being so critical. That being said, this reads as an obvious first novel. The prose will jerk from perfectly natural, to language that feels unnaturally casual or immature; then shifts again to a forced eloquence that, juxtaposed with the passages before and after, feels contrived. I did love this book in some ways, but the disjointed shifts in voice made it difficult to get through.

[Warped Warble · Rating 1 out of 5]

Her recent or perhaps perpetual grouse is that "South Asian " Representation currently is the preserve of "high caste Indians" and "Hindus" and as such she doesn't see them as representative of her identity ie that of a Bangladeshi, queer, muslim. Given what I just read, The latter two concoctions must purely for purposes of performance/profit. Her emphasis on her ethnicity surely must be a liability to those who share it, outside of her faith. One should not be reading anything written by a bigoted mind as hers on principle alone.

[Atharv G. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Edelweiss and the publisher for an e-ARC to review

I also posted this review on my book blog:

Fariha Róisín’s debut novel is an emotional but ultimately hopeful look at a young woman trying to come to terms with herself. Taylia Chatterjee is a young woman trying to navigate her life in the wake of a sexual assault that was immediately followed up by being disowned by her parents. The story follows her as she tries to find a community of people who she can trust and learn to love, even if that journey isn’t always so smooth.

The characterization in this novel is really incisive and excellent. Every character was not just a product of their backgrounds, though of course these informed their viewpoints and characters. This complexity is best portrayed in Taylia’s immediate family, her parents and sister. Growing up, Taylia believed that everything that was “bad” about herself was better in her sister Alyssa. Taylia’s perception of Alyssa and other people’s attraction to her informed her self-image for most of her life. The process of unlearning her image of Alyssa and by extension herself took most of the novel, but I felt that the journey was rewarding for both Taylia and the reader. If the deconstructing of Taylia’s view of Alyssa could be said to be the deconstruction of a myth, then the journey that Taylia goes through to come to terms with her disownment might be said to be a journey of trying to understand, even if not sympathize with, her parents and their decisions. Her mother and father’s proximity to whiteness (as a white Jewish American and a Bengali Indian Hindu respectively) is examined throughout the course of the novel, in accordance with the contradictions of their politics. They think of themselves as being forward-thinking, but are still invested in upholding certain class and patriarchal structures and mores. Taylia’s disownment compounds on the trauma she continued to experience from her assault, and Taylia’s sense of betrayal jumps clearly off the page. But as she continues to grow, and once she finally finds herself in a place where she can be loved by close friends and love herself, Taylia can finally learn to live with the trauma and betrayal.

Throughout the novel, Taylia continues to feel the presence of her departed loved ones, her sister and her dadi-ma (paternal grandmother). I like that the author was never concerned with whether the ghosts were real or just in Taylia’s head, but the only thing that mattered was that their presence and words felt real to Taylia and were instrumental in her journey to mourn and grow into herself. The passages describing Taylia’s time in Kolkata with her grandmother were some of my favorite passages in the whole novel. Taylia’s and her dadi-ma’s love for each other was so palpable and often in sharp contrast to the unhappy relationships Taylia had with everyone else around her. Dadi-ma was not only a light in Taylia’s life, but her mischief, affection, and liveliness were a shining light in the novel as well. Kat and to a lesser extent Tahsin play a similar role as a wise older confidante later in Taylia’s life as well, and after years of neglect it was beautiful to see Taylia able to open up to people who cared about her.

Another favorite aspect of this novel for me was the structure. While Taylia’s story post-disownment is told chronologically, the novel is peppered with memories of her life before. The switching between different times felt incredibly natural and reminiscent of the way thoughts and memories can appear at any moment and build off each other. I liked how these memories allowed us to watch Taylia grow in her understanding of her past. Through these memories, we see how Taylia’s perspective on her parents and her upbringing becomes more realized as the novel progresses. The novel’s end best exemplified the author’s skill at using time to tell the story, as the conclusion offered a circular understanding of the nature of time.

We need more novels like this that are unafraid to provide critical yet nuanced accounts of the ways certain social mores affect individuals. Taylia’s journey of self-discovery is so emotional, but the extreme care the story takes in exploring Taylia’s emotions means that the payoff of the journey is well earned. I was able to listen to the author’s virtual book launch with Skylight Books, which I found illuminating as to the author’s intent in writing this novel and only served to solidify my understanding of the novel’s main themes. This is a powerful debut that I would highly recommend.

[Nagma · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had very high expectations for this book after reading Fariha’s personal essays but unfortunately let down by this. Writing fiction is a completely different beast. Although it’s commendable to finish writing a book, this was pretty hard to read.

Although it had a lot of beautiful descriptions there were tons of equally cringy ones. Especially that line about being sucked like a mango.

I also noticed some editing mistakes like calling her grandfather Dadiji instead of Dadaji. But that may be because it’s harder to find a South Asian editor who would’ve noticed this.

Another issue I had was it pretty much read like a really long winded personally essay on cultural issues through the voice of a fictional character. It used the kind of Tumblr/Twitter language to talk about social justice in a very direct way. Which would have been more interesting in a show not tell way. I love talking about those issues too, but I would’ve love to see them through the story and not feel like I was being lectured on them through this character.

Also someone mentioned this but why make your Hindu main character use Arabic and Islamic references? Why not just make her a Muslim protagonist? That would’ve been more authentic. It felt a bit confusing because of that.

My main issue though was how flat and 2 dimensional the characters around Taylia were, and the plot seemed to have some tangents that didn’t fit in the overall story. I was left pretty unsatisfied with the ending despite hoping that things would improve. I actually thought the first few chapters were really strong but unfortunately didn’t stay that way.

[Ella Tutlis · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book made me feel so many things, as a survivor, a sister, and as someone stepping into loving myself. It made me want more for myself, from my friendships and lovers. I’ll have more to say soon but I’m still just processing.

[Jaden · Rating 5 out of 5]

A tonic.

[Dorrit · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is insufferable... did not finish, do not start.

[Enid Wray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! Yes, some of the characters could be fleshed out more fully - better to understand some of their actions - and yes, the plot has a tendency to lurch along from one coincidence to another at times, and yes, some of the prose feels like it’s trying too hard…

But... what a powerful testament to the strength of women - a community of women - who come together to nurture and heal one another… and, a powerful exploration of our multitude of intersections and dislocations… primarily those of race, religion, gender and privilege, of belonging and otherness, and of the continuing reverberations of inter-generational trauma.

It is also an interesting exploration of how we all have one moment that measures or defines the rest of our life… and that we have to forgive ourselves - and others - in order to seize that moment, and we most definitely have to show up for ourselves when that time comes.

Very reminiscent of A Little Life by Hanya Yanagihara, this is an important piece of work about a community little written about/by or explored in our Canadian literature (notwithstanding that the author is living in NYC - and oh, did I mention that this is also a love letter to NYC? It is…).

[Zibby Owens · Rating 5 out of 5]

Like a Bird was gritty and gripping and powerful. I read the book at night and was so disturbed and scared by some of the scenes. That's what a good book does; it makes you feel. I even closed my eyes when some of the moments happened because it was so hard to absorb. Yet, other moments made me laugh. I love that the author could sprinkle in those lighter moments instead of just telling a tale of doom and gloom because that's what's crazy about this world: where's there's a capacity for hateful, horrific acts, there's also an equal capacity for love and caring.

This book was beautiful. The writing style was lovely—a style so captivating and a little bit different with a unique voice that I kept reading and reading and reading.

To listen to the author's interview, you can go to my podcast at:
https://zibbyowens.com/transcript/far...

[Diana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beautiful prose, but the plot needs further development. Way too many potential subplots are introduced in the first 60 pages before the main action occurs; once the main action occurs (TW: rape) the book loses some of these subplots. The book needs more focus on one or few particular themes.

Also in regards to the trigger warning, I found the rape scene unnecessarily graphic. I personally don’t usually need to check trigger warnings before I view content, but the scene in this book shocked me. I’m not sure how to feel about it. It’s important to talk about assault but something almost about parts of this book felt trauma-porny to me.

[Andria Hall · Rating 2 out of 5]

BIG content warning: there is a really graphic scene of sexual assault, and it is described and referenced several times.

I bought this book because Fariha is a poet, and I was excited about reading a novel by a poet. This novel had lovely moments of prose, but overall, it felt like reading Instagram poetry (not necessarily bad, just not my personal favorite style). It was rather scattered and hard to keep up with, at times. I did appreciate that it felt like writing this book was probably really therapeutic for Fariha, and I appreciate the theme of feminine strength.

[teallreads7 · Rating 5 out of 5]

The most unexpected 5 star for me — I picked this novel on a whim from a locally owned bookstore. A few chapters in, I was captivated. It’s emotional, heart breaking and triggering, but there is a layer of honesty and hopefulness behind it all. It paints a beautiful story of becoming oneself without the influence of what others think or want someone to be. Taylia comes to find love in the people and places she never expected it to be.

[Deepika Bagchee · Rating 1 out of 5]

Was looking forward to it but really did not like this book. None of the characters were well developed they seemed like caricatures of themselves. She might be a good writer some day but not this one!

[Sandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, raw, poetic novel about loss, trauma, self care, growth and friendship. I think it was greatly written, personally enjoyed every page of the novel which is taking place in New York. Extra plus points for mentioning some of my favorites brunch places and restaurants in that book

[stephanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

tldr every sentence in this book reads like it was written by someone who runs a mental health infographic ig account

i've read a few reviews here and so far people arent talking about how awful the dialogue is?? like sorry but no one talks Like That all the time and it just feels soulless and like every other character is just a vessel for some new healing life lesson taylia needs to learn. also taylia was kinda a bad person even after all her healing and growth like when she meets roman's widow she just starts using her as a therapist and it's so selfish???

i also felt like romans death was used for shock value and i hated that. the way this was plotted in general was so all over the place that it was hard to tell what was going on and it really took me out of the story. like in one chapter taylia and alyssa are kids and then the next it's two years after alyssa's death and they don't even tell u she died properly so it's very confusing.

i'm currently watching my best friend go through the loss of a sibling, and so some of this book was helpful to understand what this is going to look like in the long term, but the poor writing cheapened its power.

LASTLY the metaphors i could dieeeee what is "hair stuck to her red lips like a venus fly trap" supposed to even mean????

[Nicole]

Read 09/23/22 - 09/27/22 DNF at 22% I really wanted to like this cuz the negative reviews are so harsh but unfortunately if I continue reading I would just be adding to the pile on. After learning she started this book at the age of 12 I just can’t unsee it. It just really feels like something an angsty middle schooler would write. I’m sure this was a super cathartic writing experience but the extremes of the plot and the frankly Game of Thrones level villainousness of the characters is just a bit too much.

[Saima · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really exquisite writing. Highly recommend.