I have many friends who really enjoyed Brutes by Dizz Tate, but I must say it just wasn't for me. On rare occasions I am able to read from teenage narrators without it being a blockage for me, but unfortunately that wasn't the case for me with this one. I eventually DNF'd this book but I think for the right reader it would be wonderful.

This book wasn't for me. I really tried finishing it but the characters and plot wasn't as engaging as I expected. Hopefully, Dizz Tate writes more books so I can read their other works.

I meant to review this ages ago and realized I hadn't yet. I read this last year so it's a bit fuzzy but I remember loving it a lot. The prose was like a fever dream, dizzying and unsettling. Sometimes a bit confusing, but entirely worth the ride to get to the end.

One of those books I lived inside while reading. Haunting in the same exact way as the ghost of heat rising off pavement. Loved loved loved this book. If it were 200 pages longer I would still wish it were 200 pages longer.

While I wouldn't call Brutes a must-read it was quick and charming; Florida has a way of keeping my attention.

A strange book, written in an unconventional way and reminding me a lot of early Sofia Coppola, BRUTES is a gritty coming of age novel that was a quick yet enjoyable read. There is a lot to read between the lines here - hard to tell if there is something sinister going on, if there actually is a crime to be solved, or it's just Florida vibes of bored teenage girls. We move through time, we have different and sometimes hard to follow POVs, but it still packs a punch and left me wanting more. I didn't always know what was going on, but it was fun and surreal nonetheless.

This one was a DNF for me. I can see why the reviews are so polarized, as I’m sure for some folks it is an absolute hit, but I couldn’t connect with it.

This book would be a great rec for fans of eliza clark or maybe, pretty little liars. I thought this was fun and I enjoyed reading it but I wouldn't say it has really stuck with me.

What a hypnotic, heart-felt, page-turner. I loved every inch of Dizz Tate's debut. Definitely for fans of THE VIRGIN SUICIDES but also perhaps Celeste Ng's EVERYTHING I NEVER TOLD YOU. Anyway, I can't wait to read whatever Tate does next.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

Brutes, by Dizz Tate, is one interesting book. At first I thought it was me, that couldn’t follow along. But then I got the tempo of the story and it started to make sense. But I don’t think it was supposed to make sense, who knows. The writing was very good. The girls in the story are barely like able and along the way the preachers daughter went missing.. Yikes.. for only three stars, I did keep reading. I couldn’t stop, actually. I gave this book 3 stars. I want to thank Netgalley and the author for my copy, for an honest review. It was my pleasure to read and review. Again it wasn’t my favorite read but it wasn’t the worst.. what are your thoughts?

a dizzying, hypnotic novel exploring the claustrophobia and obsession of teenage girl friendship. intrigued to see what this author writes next!

This. This. THIS. I was compelled from the very first page. I loved the voice and the language of the writing and the haunting confusion of the plot. I listened to the audiobook but now I want to buy a hard copy so I can underline every single page.

I don't think this writing was for me. I didn't feel drawn in or connected in anyway. I truthfully feel like I rushed to get through it. Again, just not my kind of read no matter how much I wanted it to be.

As oddball coming of age novels go, this was…fine, I guess.

We’ve seen this before, every last bit of it,so unless you don’t read much in this subgenre you won’t real get anything unique out of this.

I don’t know that total uniqueness needs to be a requirement for coming of age, but the book did need to either have at least some original or unusual aspects, or it had to be exceptionally well written. Unfortunately Brutes doesn’t really achieve either of these things. It’s by no means a “bad” book. It just isn’t a good enough book to be acceptable when the content isn’t anything novel.

The missing girl in a small town and the narrative perspective of the other girls in that town is a good but shopworn trope, and the setting didn’t help the tired topic much here. There are a lot of books employing this trope and doing a better or more unique job of it.

Comps to The Virgin Suicides are, um, not accurate. Read that or We Run the Tides instead.

I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

REVIEW TO FOLLOW.

This was my commute read on the train back and forth from the Denver suburbs to the city, and it's definitely the kind of book you want to be reading if you're in your "stare out a moving care window and romanticize your life, hot-girl-sad-girl-lit" era. While I found the overall writing to be well=done, I found the story to be disjointed and confusing for the sake of being "out there," with no real focus. The book felt like it was trying to capture some feeling that has already existed in books before and has now become more of an aesthetic than anything else, and now in the year of our Lord 2023 it doesn't really do much for me other than create a really beautiful coffee table book.

dizz tate's debut novel 'brutes' left me wanting for more. not sure i wanted more of, but it overall felt lacking. the premise is quite simple. told through the collective voice of a group of teenage girls in small town florida, the story follows them through the months leading up to the disappearance of another local girl, sammy. interspersed through this narrative are flash forward scenes to some of the individual girls as adults, and where their lives have taken them since young adulthood. while rich with descriptions of the dank, oppressive florida heat, the story didn't do it for me. it felt like it wanted to build to something but wasn't entirely sure what. while the story did wrap up, it wasn't entirely satisfying, and ultimately the story was a bit of a meandering mess. it's relatively short, so read if this sounds up your alley, but i'd recommend skipping it.

Description:
In Falls Landing, Florida—a place built of theme parks, swampy lakes, and scorched bougainvillea flowers—something sinister lurks in the deep. A gang of thirteen-year-old girls obsessively orbit around the local preacher's daughter, Sammy. She is mesmerizing, older, and in love with Eddie. But suddenly, Sammy goes missing. Where is she? Watching from a distance, they edge ever closer to discovering a dark secret about their fame-hungry town and the cruel cost of a ticket out. What they see will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives.

My Thoughts:
I thought this was an interesting coming of age story. The writing felt almost lyrical at times. I felt the ending was somewhat abrupt, but overall a good read.

As soon as I heard that BRUTES by Dizz Tate is The Virgin Suicides meets The Florida Project I knew I had to read it! The Virgin Suicides is one of my fave books and extremely nostalgic for me since I first read it when I was a teenager. I still have my movie tie-in edition! Love how these two covers speak to each other. Reading Brutes brought me right back to memories of my teenage years. This novel is weird, moody and captivating. The story is told in multiple perspectives of a group of thirteen year old girls in Florida and their reminiscing of the past will never let them go. There’s a touch of mystery and the writing brings forth that coming of age time when emotions are intense and reality is fluid. I loved how this novel focuses on friendship. Another great 2023 debut!!

A strange blur of a novel with some redeeming qualities, but this ultimately fell a bit flat. I admire the exploration of girlhood, the description of setting, and the collective perspective that was used throughout most of the book. First-person plural doesn't always work for me in long form, but I do think it was the right choice for a novel where these girls act as one entity. "We would not be born out of sweetness, we were born out of rage, we felt it in our bones."

There are chapters in the story that are told from the singular first-person perspective of the girls in the future. I am not sure these chapters added anything to the story. I was hoping for some tie-in, some payoff that didn't really come. It felt like a bit of a distraction from the story's strengths (the setting, the unique narrative style) and therefore took away from my experience. Then, the ending was a bit disappointing—too ambiguous for me, personally.

I think this is one of those novels where if someone told me they loved it or they hated it, I would understand either way. For me, though, I'm sort of indifferent.


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