Dark, raw, unlikeable main character, and at times disturbing... would definitely recommend! Just check the trigger warnings before you choose to read this book. Boy Parts is not for everyone but it is for me.

I was excited for this one, but I think I was hoping for more Overall, I did not enjoy this which is sad because this is the kind of book that seems right up my alley!

Without a doubt, this is one of the weirdest books I’ve read (although, I don’t necessarily mean that in a bad way). The main character is quite frankly an awful human being and simply psychotic, but she was also very interesting to read about. If you’re looking for a book with very chaotic energy or one with female manipulator/femcel vibes, this'll probably be right up your alley. I actually really enjoyed this book and appreciate it for the pure train wreck it is. My only complaint was that it dragged on in the middle and was pretty repetitive, but it was definitely a very interesting character study. It was a cool twist on the traditional horror novel. I read a review by someone named cass on Goodreads that I think sums it up perfectly — “american psycho but for hot girls.”

Thank you NetGalley for the copy :)

Irina is beginning to find success in the art world she has been trying to break into. But the possibility of her newfound fame has caused her to self-destruct as she seeks some semblance of a normal life. As she tries to balance her new world with her past, Irina struggles to maintain the friendships that have been all-consuming yet have sustained her through tumultuous times.

I don’t even know where to begin with this one. It was challenging to get into the plot as it seemed to be missing the details that I felt were essential to the story. As it jumped around, we never really understood why Irina did the things she did. It’s easy to piece it together and understand why, but I personally would have liked more of a detailed backstory.

Overall this novel had an almost nightmarish quality with an artsy flair—an interesting read but not one of my favorites.

The publisher provided ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yes, yes, yes! I realize this book will not be for everyone, but it was certainly for me! This book has an unlikable and unreliable narrator and will take you on a ride!

If you look up “Target Audience for Boy Parts” in the dictionary it would just be a photo of me. It’s me hi I’m the problem it’s me, etc etc etc. It’s weird, it’s gross, it’s gay. I love Clark’s voice. The unreliable narrator is perfection. It rests somewhere in between “just vibes” and having an active plot. All that said, I don’t think this book is for 100% of the population… But if it sounds interesting and you don’t mind a bit of grossness or weirdness, then maybe this book IS for you!! How exciting!

Never has a book been able to completely creep me out, and the next line make me chuckle from the blunt British humor that was characteristically so out of touch. Boy Parts is a very dark lampooning of rape culture that is grimly uncomfortable. Irina has a history of being a victim of sexual violence from men in power dynamics, whether it is her teacher or a guy at a party whom gave her drugs and alcohol to the point she was barely conscious. This as resulted in her trying to mirror the violence and do the exact same thing to men in her own fetish art by using the power dynamics of the artist/model. However, it becomes very clear she can not independently perpetrate the same violence as patriarchy. Her relationship with Eddie, the checkout boy from Tesco, is made more complex because she is unable to acknowledge that him being a low-income, man of color, that has also experienced male violence, changes their power dynamic completely. Irina's distorted, violent perspective prevents her from seeing compassion and power dynamics beyond men and women. She seems to spiral further and further, and truly becomes the most unlikeable main character I've ever read. Lastly, I mainly docked points because this was not the most enjoyable read because of how graphic it was and the sexual violence. It did grow on me once I finished and thought about it more. Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the book!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my honest review of Boy Parts

An unlikable protagonist that I found myself rooting for in a way.
Eliza Clark did an incredible job inserting us as the reader right inside the head of this unhinged female character. So well, that by the end of this book I felt dizzy!

I want to give this five stars because I love a book that is unforgettable and leaves me with feelings I wasn't expecting to feel. But a four just feels right. Its a book I won't go around recommending and maybe a little afraid to admit I enjoyed lol

If you read bunny and need something to feed that strange hunger, pick this up next!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for my honest review of Boy Parts

What a dark, disturbing, downward spiral. This is totally out of what I normally read but could not stop tuning the pages. The characters are unlikable, felt like a total fever dream. Could not tell what was real and what was a drug induced fantasy. This is for a niche audience and be sure to check trigger warnings because it is not for the faint of heart.

First and foremost, thank you to Harper Perennial, NetGalley, and all of the publishers for an eARC in exchange for an honest review of Boy Parts by Eliza Clark.

Despite the three stars I’m giving Boy Parts by Eliza Clark, I am a little disappointed with the feeling that I got towards the end of this book. Initially, I was having a great time with this book. I thought the narrative about the contemporary art scene was hilarious and her takes were so delightfully awful. However, the book goes down a very dark path that was a bit too much for me in my current state of mind. I find myself reading a series of books about self-destructive and violent women. Boy Parts is my third after The Piano Teacher and A Certain Hunger so it’s safe to say that I am probably a little exhausted with this narrative of disturbing, murderous, and slightly femcel women. I also watched Tár recently so yeah, I’m tired.

That’s not to say that this book isn’t good or that others shouldn’t read it but there are some things in here, particularly the focus on rape that rubbed me the wrong way. The main character, Irina Sturges is a Northerner who has been raped and currently inflicts the same sort of harm on the average, mostly “effeminate” men she photographers. She is twenty-eight years old and takes explicit photos of men she deems as average and weak. She noticeably doesn’t interact with more masculine men, she prefers them to be skinny and young looking, almost like prepubescent boys. If they look “too manly” she is uninterested. In fact, Irina likes to surround herself with people who are mentally and physically weaker than she is. She is nearly 6 feet tall and her best friend Flo is emotionally dependent on her. She treats the people around her like trash and when she is challenged by a posh and accomplished female artist named Sera later in the book, she breaks down.

I know a lot of people like Irina but they are all men so I guess Eliza Clark does a good job of using something we would see normally but showing us this through a female character. As an American, I found the British humor and bluntness refreshing in the early parts of the book. She pulls no punches with the inner dialogue and even the conversations Irina has with people in her life made me laugh a lot. Beyond the problematic aspects of Irina’s personality and her interest in murdering weak men, I think this is a book that I would probably have fun with if I read it at a different time. I think it’s a good commentary on the predatory aspects of the artist and subject relationships and it shows how fake the art world can be. On top of that, it digs into the fact that white, cis, and attractive artists can literally produce disturbing smutty work and people will want to shove them in amazing galleries and heavily promote their work.

Irina is obsessive about her work and focuses on showing the perfect boy at her show. She is still obsessed with the boy she killed and sees him often. She wants to recreate him in her work and is very unstable mentally.

The writing can be gory at times for people who enjoy that but it straddles the line between being amateurish and great. It’s heavy-handed but the writing has some moments when it can be weak with a lack of substance or passion. Sometimes I felt like I was reading a teenage edge lord type of boy’s journal from LiveJournal or something back in 2004.

Anyway, there were some interesting ideas but the execution was average. Not bad for a debut but I wanted more.

irina is never given a diagnosis, but it's easy to see that something is wrong. in particular, her desire to make a mark on a world that doesn't let her no matter what she does, makes it easy to root for her despite some of her more violent tendencies. i wouldn't necessarily call it wanting to connect, but rather wanting to right the wrongs that women have to face in the arts and in life in general daily. clark plays with the cycles of abuse that force people to acquiesce so well that it kept me hooked.

i did not finish this. in fact, i read literally just the first page and decided the writing style just was not for me. i'm sure another reader will like it more than i did, though:)

Very odd but AMAZING. This reminded me a lot of “Bunny” but a more successful version of it.

I would read anything this author put out

Brilliant! Boy Parts, her debut novel, follows a woman’s fetish photography career and her unhinged internal monologue as she is taking degrading photos of men. This reminded me of what if Patrick Bateman was actually a British woman by the way her thought process is comedic yet severely dark and deranged. Not at all for the faint of heart, there are a lot of TWs for this one. I’m adding this to my favorites list and I cannot wait to read her next book Penance when it’s released.

There must be more strategically subversive books out there, but you’d have to really look.
Desperately trying to, at the very least, be the new Trainspotting, and landing flat on its arse, Body Parts is a story of a young woman, a photographer of explicit subjects and a general girl about (London)town.
As a reader you get to follow this useless behemoth of a person, as she sleeps around, indulges her kinks, and takes photos.
I say useless, harsh as it is, because there’s nothing interesting or good about this person. Nor any people surrounding her, for that matter. Well into her twenties, she isn’t even finally self-sufficient, munching off her family’s largesse.
And I really do get what the author was going for here – I mean, she telegraphs it loudly enough. Looks how raunchy and subversive it is, look how frank about sex and sexuality we’re being, look what an unflinchingly honest representation of this wasted generation we’re presenting.
But it’s just sh*te. The sort of sh*te critics love which explains why the book garnered so many favorable blurbs from so many different culturally-significant sources.
But ironically enough, culturally significant this book isn’t. And it’s really all it’s trying to be, too.
What this novel is…is tedious, unpleasant, unlikeable, unengaging, and thoroughly uninteresting.
It’s also notably unfunny for something being promoted as a pitch-black comedy.
The writing itself isn’t a total disaster but with a ship-sinking plot like this it barely matters.
I’m sure this is the sort of book where user mileage will really really vary. These are just my two cents. Thanks Netgalley.

This book is intentionally disturbing and has an intentionally unlikable main character. I hated the main character and the things she did to Eddie, but the book was really well written. It is more character driven than plot driven. This book can be summed up into two words: dubious consent. There is very little communication between characters when it comes to consenting to sexual activities and there are graphic sexual assault and rape scenes. If you liked My Year Of Rest And Relaxation, you might like this book.

I've been on quite the rampage of finding books that lean into the chaotic minds of women. This was another one where I can fully say with my chest that this is <s>American</s> British Psycho.

I like seeing women in this light despite it being a heavy topic. Irina is cold and calculating and never lets up. She aware of her flaws and doesn't care - which makes it better. Each chapter focuses on her relationship with a specific person and gives insight on her past and present.

Overall, it's another unlikeable, unreliable, unreliable, and uneverything female character that plays on our "what-ifs" and "could-bes" because most of us know we could never do anything like this.

Clark has won me over and I will be reading her next book as soon as I can. (Someone tell me how to get my hands on it now!)

An incredibly likable unlikeable narrator; a simmering darkness that is compelling but not self-indulgent; and powerful meditations on art and gender. I LOVED this book and hope that this release will get it into many more hands.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial and Paperbacks for the e-ARC.

One of my favorite books of the year. Gritty and engrossing-couldn't stop reading even though it was hard to at times.
Absolutely incredible. I cant wait for her next book to release!

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read and review this book. I have since bought a copy!

I absolutely tore through this unhinged romp. It's like if My Sister the Serial Killer (by Oyinkan Braithwaite) were written by the sister and she was a coked up artist. It's a darker and angrier They Never Learn (by Layne Fargo). I absolutely love reading female rage, and this is nothing if not angry.

The MC lives in a consequence-free world of her own beauty (and her obsession with it) and the fetish art she creates. She is devoid of any real connection, and when a connection threatens, she plays with it to see how far she can push it until she's permanently kept it at bay. She revisits her art's evolution as she puts together an exhibit for a gallery, and in so doing we see how she's pushed the limits on safety, fetish, consent, and exploitation. And yet no matter how far she goes, she's never met with the resistance or consequences she thinks she'll encounter--so she just keeps going further. As the reader, I was amazed at how I, too, became desensitized to how far she pushed things. My original shock and dismay at some of her behaviors gave way to acceptance even as she pushed boundaries even further.

This book has a propulsive energy--it's coke-fueled, hungry, and attention-seeking. It is so fun to read (but not for the squeamish).