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(Content note: sexual assault)
Finishing An Untamed State left me at a loss for words.
Roxane Gay has long been one of my favorite essayists. She writes with this superhuman sense of empathy, of pathos, of strength. All of that is on display in State, and I know I'll follow her wherever she wants to take me as a reader.
That said, An Untamed State is not an easy read. I knew going in that it wasn't going to be bunnies and fields full of flowers, but it is still more horrific than anything I've rea ...more
Finishing An Untamed State left me at a loss for words.
Roxane Gay has long been one of my favorite essayists. She writes with this superhuman sense of empathy, of pathos, of strength. All of that is on display in State, and I know I'll follow her wherever she wants to take me as a reader.
That said, An Untamed State is not an easy read. I knew going in that it wasn't going to be bunnies and fields full of flowers, but it is still more horrific than anything I've rea ...more
I held my hand over the page a couple of times, reading through my fingers as if that could stop the words from being there. Beyond that, I just read and read and read for hours on end (it's 3 am as I write this, so....) I ran out of tissues more than once.
The sharp way Gay punctures straight through the brief fairy tales Miri relates pierced me every time. And the falling in love story - never mind it in juxtaposition to the bad to come - was so sharply observed and charming and left me in no ...more
The sharp way Gay punctures straight through the brief fairy tales Miri relates pierced me every time. And the falling in love story - never mind it in juxtaposition to the bad to come - was so sharply observed and charming and left me in no ...more
The thing about this book is that it is obviously very good, in that it has lots of literary merit and you care about the characters and they are fully drawn and so on.
But if you are a sensitive person, reading this book will upset you a lot. It will give you violent thoughts about fictional men, and make you so, so sad. It ruined my whole day and then the next day too.
But if you are a sensitive person, reading this book will upset you a lot. It will give you violent thoughts about fictional men, and make you so, so sad. It ruined my whole day and then the next day too.
This is a really difficult book by subject matter, which is why it took me so long to read. I needed a lot of very long breaks. It was a compelling story, but the prose felt very uneven. Sometimes it was fantastic, sometimes it was...less so. I really didn't like how it randomly switched between first person and omniscient third. As a reader, I need some signaling in the structure of the text if you're going to do that. Or better yet, pick one damn POV and live with your choice. CW: this book is
...more
This is a really hard read, and I cried a lot. It's a very good book. But it's a really upsetting, harsh read.
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Pretty harrowing to read, but well done
May 24, 2014
Sduff222
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May 27, 2014
Ashton
marked it as to-read
Sep 30, 2014
Elizabeth Ruth
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Oct 11, 2014
LaTarsha
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Nov 10, 2014
Kathy
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Dec 27, 2014
Suzanne
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Jan 02, 2015
Maggie
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Jun 11, 2015
LdyGray
marked it as to-read
