First off I want to say I wanted to use like a bunch of titles for this post. I thought about the lyrics to the Smallville theme because you know, SAVE ME, DON’T CARE HOW YOU DO IT!!!! And a bunch of other stuff, but let me get to the post. I feel like I need a moderator while I write this, like boy was this book just terrible (so far), and I don’t want a MOMA repeat. So, the book begins with things happening, women getting beaten, and absolutely no positive male characters. Here is where one of my other titles kicks in. I really wanted to make a Orange is the New Black reference. This is very common troupe in feminist writing. For some odd reason feminist writers feel that the only way to write a strong female character is by writing male characters in a very poor, mustache curling, villainous way. Do they not see the irony in this? You want to prove how strong women are yet the only way you can do this is by writing males with paper thin personalities? Okay feminist writers, makes sense.

Poor feminist logic aside, the other thing that makes the book unbearable is all the exposition and repetition. In the first chapter Piercy is constantly reminding the reader how much Geraldo screwed over Consuelo, like Christ, I get it, GERALDO IS EVILLLLL!!!!! Piercy really wants to emphasize how a man has destroyed this woman both physically and mentally. Even though Dolly’s naivety and idiocy plays a huge roll in why Connie is currently stuck in a mental institution, Piercy focuses on writing in a way that puts the blame on Geraldo and Connie’s brother Lewis. And that second chapter was just so pointless. I understadn it is meant to give us a bit of a background on connie, but that could have been accomplished in a few pages. Chapter 2 ends up consisting of Piercy going into an unnecessary amount of detail over every little thing, with the worst part being that it ends where chapter 1 pretty much begins. There was no point in making this the second chapter. This should be swapped with chapter one. I assume this was some sort of attempt to make the character interesting before elaborating on their past as some texts do, but the chapter doesn’t make Connie an interesting enough character to warrant wanting to know more about her. Even Orange is the New black was able to do that well (even if it was the only thing they did right).

Overall, this book is awful, at least for now it is. It might get better as it seems that the first four chapters are just exposition, but from what I’ve read in reviews the books has some really interesting themes. I’m just going to hope the book gets better as you get deeper into it, but based on Connie’s character I really do not have high hopes. Lastly if your curious about the mentioning Brad Pitt in my post, please, PLEASE, go watch 12 Monkeys, it is a great Sci-fi film, in which the main character also spends quite a bit of time in a mental institution through out the film.