I’m a moth to a flame when it comes to anti-heroines. Give me more female MCs who are messy, crude, nasty, and unexpected. Unlikeable? Yes. A f*cked up, dark sense of humor? Even better. Boy Parts’s Irina is a toxic sociopath!

She stood out to me, and that makes her unforgettable, IMO. The notion that characters – especially female ones – ought to be likable is something I fight against. I fight it by reading books with dynamic female leads who are unconventional.

This book is dark. Very dark. And it has strong existentialist overtones. (Boredom is a state of being.) (There is no pleasure in anything.) Clark keeps a running commentary on gender, art, privilege, and the female gaze. It’s strong.

I keep seeing American Psycho as a comparison title, and I'm afraid I have to disagree with that. This vibe is more Ottessa Moshfegh’s My Year of Rest & Relaxation.

Triggers include self-harm, alcoholism, substance abuse, sexual violence, and eating disorders.

Honestly loved this more than I anticipated! It was gripping and the subversion of certain sexual proclivities was interesting to read. I also enjoyed the twisted homoerotic dynamic between the protaganist and her best friend. The only aspect I thought was lacking was the way in which the protaganist interacted with her art practice-- it felt unfinished.

I have mixed feelings about this book (add it to the list of Sydney's most recently read confusing books!) But honestly, the main character Irina is crazy. I really really REALLY disliked her character!!! I was also expecting something different with it being in the horror genre. Was it supposed to be lowkey cryptic and psychological? I don't know. At the same time, it wasn't as edgy as it was meant to be. I feel like I kept waiting for something to happen, but nothing ever did. I just got more pissed off at Irina as time went on. I am giving this book 2 stars solely because the writing was amazing (otherwise it would be a 1)

Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for my honest review.


Just couldn’t do it! I kept comparing it to A Certain Hunger (even though they are unrelated) and could not find something I enjoyed about the MC.

This was SO GOOD. You're torn between laughing at Irina's antics and wondering if she should be in=patient somewhere. Irina Sturges is a 28-year-old photographer on sabbatical from her bartending gig. Her photos are very niche; her models are guys she meets here and there, and she photographs them in all manner of costume and undress. She starts to have a mental breakdown somewhere along the line and you're wondering if it's all the drugs and alcohol or all the abuse she'd been through. You're also wondering if the things she thinks happened actually did, or if she's just disassociating or if society just gives her a pass because of her beauty. An amazing feminist Patrick Bateman-esque protagonist. I both loved and loathed her.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for this e-arc.*

Thank you so much to NetGalley for giving me the chance to read this book early!

Ever since seeing it all over UK booktok, I was devastated that I couldn’t access it in the US, until now. A bourgeoning genre I love is the literary fiction that centers unhinged women. And this book did not disappoint me. It is both shocking and hilarious in the dark and complex ways it explores gender and sexuality. As with any tale of unhinged, off-the-rails women, Irina is hard to root for sometimes, but that just adds to the appeal of the story. Sometimes, fiction should shock you and make you question your perspectives—and that is exactly what this book does.

For fans of The Things We Do to Our Friends and Other People’s Clothes, this is a dark comedy that is not to be missed.

Started, but quickly decided this was not for me.

Many thanks to #NetGalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This one has been on my TBR for so long, so I jumped at the chance to review it.

Boy Parts doesn't have as much of a plot, as we are following our main character as she spirals. Some of the slang went over my head, but it was easy to figure out.

Though I wouldn't recommend this broadly, I think when it finds its audience, they'll absolutely love it.

Whew, this book was extremely gripping, particularly in the second half. I found the development of the main character (and, to a lesser extent, her "best friend") incredibly well-done. I read a lot of books with questionable or unlikeable main characters, and this is potentially one of the most terrible main characters I've ever read, but it rang completely true and genuine throughout. I found the book to be a really interesting look at consent, violence, class, art, and how gender and society influences the perception of all of those things. Despite how strong I felt many aspects of the book were, I do feel like there was some unrealized potential there. The exploration felt a bit aimless. I didn't come out feeling like there was a strong statement made, and I'm not sure whether it is a book I will continue thinking about.

3.5 rounded to 4 stars

*2.5 rounded up to 3 for simple rating*
Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for my copy in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

"Boy Parts" by Eliza Clark is a weird one. I had some issues with Irina just because I knew "artistic" types like her when I was in my early 20s and my god were they stressful and emotionally taxing to be around. I absolutely related to her though cause I too dropped out of college (I went back and love it) but I understood that feeling of disillusionment, loss of identity, and the like. Irina ends up getting the opportunity to revive her photography career which I'm not really sure of. We're told that Irina was basically an up-and-coming photographer who had won all these awards and accolades but I don't know, it just seemed really vague and like an authorial way of telling us "She is special so you should care" and honestly, I think I would have liked Irina more if she was described as mediocre or just okay at photography. I mean even the subject of her groundbreaking photography of random men in feminine clothing is questionable. Don't get me started on the weird physical stuff she does to her subjects...it's just weird and not artistic (I know art is subjective but for me, it made no sense and didn't seem to hold anything artistic).

All of that said, I didn't put my kindle down. Okay, I lied. I read this in-between my other ARCs and my grad. course readings and often, I would find myself with a headache after reading this. It's not bad necessarily, but it can be hard to keep reading since Irina is sort of a terrible person. It definitely seems to be a deliberate choice to make her so unlikable and make her narrative so unreliable because it tells us just how deluded she is within her own mind and reality but she's still an unlikable person. On top of that, her "artistic" personality is so insufferable. I don't have to like the main characters/narrators of a book to like the book but because the book's voice and narrative is so heavily reliant on Irina, it's difficult to push through.

Overall, I didn't hate the book but it wasn't my favorite. It WAS scary but not jumpscare scary. I was mainly scared because I knew/know people like Irina.

Sorry, this dark satire does not seem to be for me. I am finding it too heavy to digest and it’s not necessarily the writing but maybe the plot. I could not go further than 24% and leaving it here for the moment.

Since I have been unable to finish reading the book, I am leaving average rating of 3 stars.

Boy Parts is a dark and twisted tale of obsession and identity. I felt disturbed and intrigued by the characters. 5 stars.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Genre: Literary Fiction

Boy Parts is a fictional novel written by Eliza Clark. The book revolves around the life of Irina, a young woman who is struggling to find her place in the world. After dropping out of college, Irina moves to Newcastle, where she starts working as a photographer. She also takes part in an online art project, through which she meets a wealthy and peculiar man.

This man becomes Irina's patron and starts paying her to take provocative photographs of men that can sometimes be described as disturbing. She becomes obsessed with capturing their vulnerability and agony in her photographs. All this will open for Irina the door to a world of sex, drugs, and depravity that she never imagined existed. Soon she begins to wonder if her art is taking her too far and if she is really ready to deal with the consequences of her actions.

Irina, a lady who is both intriguing and strong, was unaware of the extent to which she had influence over the male subjects of her photographs until much later. Eddie was yet another fascinating and fragile character that appeared in this story. On the other hand, I liked the mother the most. Simply put, I enjoyed reading the scenes in which she interacted with her daughter very much and would have liked to see more of those scenes in this book.

Boy Parts is an exciting and thought-provoking book that examines issues of power, sex, and art. Readers will be left wondering about their own boundaries and ambitions since it paints a rough and unvarnished portrayal of modern life. The book has many trigger warnings, so be sure to be aware of them before picking it up.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC of this book.

3.5/5... not sure how to feel about this one

Irina is a photographer, in what seems to be a very loose definition of photographer. She is said to have gotten numerous degrees and acclaim for her photographs, but to me, it's unclear what is special about her photography beyond the pure shock value of them (maybe that's the point? that they aren't in fact revolutionary, just perceived to be so?). The premise of her photos is that she picks up men off the street, dresses them up in female clothing, and then essentially beats them and assaults them with questionable consent.

She has a few friends, all of which she seems to hate. Same goes for her parents, her job, her self, etc. The big reveal at the end (or about 75% of the way through) is perhaps surprising, perhaps unsurprising. I found it to be a bit dull, and then to be immediately questioned one second later.

I did find the book fairly compelling, even if I'm not really sure what the plot is beyond categorizing a descent into madness. I enjoyed the combination of text-email-narrative, I like how it was easily woven into the narrative. I do think I would read this author again.

To me, her character was very easy to hate. Her narrative is extremely disconnected from her reality, which is of course intentional. But for me, that makes the reading experience extremely tedious. I also question her motives in any and all of this (if there are any). If she's meant to be a serial killer-type, it doesn't come across all that well.

I do also feel as if a lot of plot lines that seemed to be important, ended up going nowhere. That is a frustrating experience for me as a reader.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for providing me access to this book in exchange for an honest review :)

Insufferable main character and absolute whiplash from the plot twist had me slightly intrigued, but then the unnecessary animal cruelty ruined this for me. Really did not add to the plot/character development at all.

I knew Boy Parts would be a book that would be WAY outside of my comfort zone with the sexually explicit content (which, it was), but I liked the discussion of gender roles through our very problematic but societally-accepted "pretty" female main character. Her artistic process would be seen as edgy and her work talked about much differently if she were a man, and all of that is touched on within the book. On the other side of the coin, the things she was able to get away with as a conventionally attractive woman showed the double standard women live with, and I appreciated that commentary. The way she sees other women and herself was also very interesting to me. There is a lot of psychoanalysis that can go into this book, if you're into doing that with characters.

What kept this book from being five stars for me was (1) the rather abrupt ending of the book, which left a lot of unanswered and open-ended questions (ambiguous endings, man! That's fine, mostly, I just wanted more resolution for this story); (2) there was little to no character growth, so be forewarned. If you don't like messy, dysfunctional, dislikable main characters, this book isn't for you; and (3) just the general content being what it was for me. Sex usually makes me uncomfortable to read about, and this book is very sexually explicit.

There are heavy content warnings here, especially surrounding sex, consent, and drugs, so please consider that before reading. Our female main character is also not likeable, and generally a terrible person the whole way through the story as well.

This book is already published as a hardcover under a different publisher, I believe, but the paperback under Harper Perennial publishes May 9, 2023. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for allowing me advanced reader access in exchange for an honest review!

I read an eARC of Boy Parts by Eliza Clark. Thank you NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks.

Irina is an irredeemable, manipulative character, with what almost seems interesting views on art, but also just seems very shallow and self-centered. If nothing else, the way she thinks about art and the way it plays to the story and the rest of what is going on within Irina’s mind and through the story is interesting and engaging in a way that is only slightly understood at the beginning of the story, and not truly explored or understood unless you read it all through and take a moment to dwell in the horribleness of it all and start to question what the purpose of Irina even is.

Take into account that this book is more of a character study than a book with any sort of plot or any character progression. You’re not here for triumph or fall, not of Irina, not even of the side characters. Even with the last scene being what it was, I felt like the main character was who she essentially was and was where she was in her life at the beginning of the story, she’d just manipulated more people and lived more of her life how she wanted and somehow she still wasn’t satisfied and she was left unable to capture what she really wanted and needing to continue taking her photos.

The imagery is very striking. Paired with the sleaze that Irina invites in as a product of manipulating people to be her models and then who she sells her photos happily to because he pays her lots of money.

I have to give this book a rating, but this isn’t a book I really like giving a star rating. This is the sort of book I’d give a “WTF did I just read? But I totally want to read it again in a few months”. Sort of rating, so take that as you will.

This book was gripping and terrifying. Probably the scariest novel I have ever read. It will be fascinating to see the made for tv or film adaptation

Eliza Clark can do no wrong in my eyes. The story is unhinged in the best way, and I’m here for all the female rage. I’d LOVE to get penance! 🖤

This book was a RIDE. It was like a rollercoaster, and we were just screaming along the track, and I CAN'T look away. Boy Parts is a raw and brutal book with an unlikeable main character who also serves as a very unreliable narrator. I questioned so many things during my time with the book, including what I was okay with reading.

One thing that stood out was the quote: “Do I have to smash a glass over the head of every single man I come into contact with, just so I leave a fucking mark?” This book has a lot to say about sexual violence and power dynamics and I honestly think I'll need a reread to glean everything I can from the book and its message.

And, honestly, I look forward to it.