Hello, everyone! Long time lurker, first time poster. I’ve gotten into reading again, and I often feel full of thoughts so I wanted to get them out.
TW: Self harm; sexual, physical, substance abuse; suicide
GIrl In Pieces is a dark and grim book about Charlotte Davies who’s had every horrible thing imaginable happen to her. It’s a wonderfully well written book, and you can tell that Kathleen Glasgow used to be a poet because of the kind of verbiage she opts for.
I didn’t like the book.
I was struggling to put into words why I didn’t like it, until I got to the author acknowledgements. Glasgow herself struggled with self harm, and dedicated the book to all the girls who self harmed. And that felt condescending. There were a few mechanical issues in the book too, because the story is about how Charlie falls in love with a musician named Riley West, and Riley’s not even mentioned until two hours into the book.
All the characters and settings and environment that you familiarized yourself with for the first two hours of reading are tossed aside, and only mentioned as afterthoughts. It’s so odd to establish an ensemble of characters, then dismiss them, and establish new ones that you’ll go through your story with.
There were a lot of character hiccups too, where characters, like Riley, behaved uncharacteristically for the plot to happen. Riley cheats on her and attempts physical abuse. The issue is that it’s never been implied that he’s that kind of person, and I know the retort is that you never know a person is abusive until it’s too late, and I get that. In real life, that happens, but as a storyteller, your responsibility is showing that before it happens.
Charlie (Charlotte) is also an unreliable narrator. This isn’t established either. That’s not something you can just tack on at the end without thought.
I don’t know, man, I wanted to like the book, because Charlie is a gloriously complicated and messy character, but the story tries to be grounded and also melodramatic at the same time, and it just comes across as condescending. I don’t feel like I was treated as a reader with any respect, with such complex themes being hammered into me with absolutely no depth.
It’s an incredibly well written book, but it made me mad. I read it in a week, I don’t think I’ll read it again, but I really wanted to. I wish she handled the story and subject matter delicately, and with a bit of nuance. Currently, it has all the subtelty of a flail in a china shop.
I’d recommend the book to others. Disappointed by how aggravatingly meh it got. Enjoyed reading the first half, got irritated towards the second half. 6/10.
by ShiningAstrid