What did I just read? I'm at a loss how to answer that. This is a terrible book. I did not like it. I tried to finish it but couldn't. So at about 50% I skimmed to the end and then wished I never read the end. Seriously!!?!!? There are women like this in real life? That would be very sad.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I’m a Fan is about a lot and Sheena Patel does a lot in this short book. It’s about obsession, art, anger, longing, privilege. It’s about the ongoing process of growing up forever, while everyone else seems to have grown up, full stop. It’s about wanting more for yourself than what you truly desire, and succumbing to settling for man that won’t text (or in this case, email) back. It’s about hate watching your situationship’s other lovers both to bolster and punish yourself. It’s about the unattainable dreams sold by white rich people to those of us who can’t bank on daddy’s money and connections. It’s about making the wrong choice, over and over, for the mirage of an imagined perfect future. Patel’s passages are bursting with energy, clipped and frustrated, and bounce from reflection to rage and break neck speed. The emphasis is less on a straightforward narrative and more of a snapshot of our main character’s messy brilliant mind - her thoughts and feelings on the world at large as well as her current moment. There are some lovely rich passages that I’ll be thinking on for a long time. I must say, I’m a fan.

I’m a Fan is a messy and at time hard to read book about power, race and obsession. I’m going to be a fence sitter for this one. I loved it in small doses and find that I’m still flipping it around in my thoughts. This is likely a polarizing book due to its desperate narrator and stream of consciousness, but as much as it was an uncomfortable read Patel’s commentary is witty and sharp and everything about I’m a Fan is original.

The vignette format and poetic feel of I'm a Fan was easily my favourite aspect of the book; the short 'chapters' made it easily digestible. I will say that the run-on sentences did get a bit tiresome, as did the narrator referring to people as "the man I want to be with" and "the woman I am obsessed with." I found it endearing at first that neither of these people, both of whom play a massive role in the main character's life, were named, but IMO, it eventually became a cliche.

I was not expecting I'm a Fan to be as culturally relevant and necessary as it was. It tackles things like obsession with social media, male entitlement, a woman's 'shelf life', asymmetrical or one-sided relationships, and racism. The fact that there is no set plot or even a character arc highlights the presence of these crucial topics all the more, providing the book with an urgent social and political commentary on society and the racist & patriarchal structure that holds it together.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for providing me with a digital copy of I'm a Fan by Sheena Patel to review. All thoughts are my own and are not influenced by any third party. #ImAFan #NetGalley

I'm A Fan was wildly entertaining with an interesting premise, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much substance lied underneath. Our nameless narrator is having an affair with a nameless man who has affairs with many nameless women, and the narrator becomes obsessed with one of these women in particular: a white, wealthy, Instagram-perfect influencer. Sheena Patel perfectly captures the modern anguish that comparing yourself to others online can bring, blended in with the psychological whirlwind of dealing with an emotionally unavailable, manipulative partner. Sheena Patel didn't hold back at all on her critical observations on influencer culture, particularly that which ties itself to a colonial, capitalist mindset, curating a perfectly-tailored, effortless-looking lifestyle that almost always begins with privilege and builds itself on appropriating and exploiting others. This book was timely and unflinching, short enough to read in a day, and packs a punch.

3.5 Stars.

A single person narrative of a woman recounting her experience of an affair she's having with "the man she wants to be with" whilst he also has an affair with "the woman I am obsessed with". An unfaithful partner herself as she has a boyfriend, the story is basically her analyzing the affairs and all actions of parties involved.

Coming off as outsider looking inward our insecure and annoying narrator still has a great sense of awareness in everything as we are exposed to all her inner thoughts. She's desperate for a different life, and naturally, its the life of the people she's obsessing over, so it's easy to hate her. There are definitely moments where you feel like the narrator is just in a toxic relationship which she should've just walked away from, but you can't help what wonder what comes next.

Mostly a societal/status reflection -but also with major undertones of racial, sexual and gender roles- I will say this one is worth the read. It's different and I do feel like this is the kind of book you either love or hate. Its easy to connect with as in reality, who hasn't done a deep dive through social media into someone who's path you've crossed with and been curious about?

Guess I'm a fan.

I am absolutely in the minority here so just going to start with that...

I could not finish this one. I think it was attempting to be a rather wry and transgressive look at being a woman in their 30s, obsessing over a man you know you can never have.

I have been there okay!! But this was just painfully pathetic pining drivel for a stupid white man who is the epitome of a red flag. I couldn't get through enough to see if the protagonist would have a come to Jesus moment.

I do appreciate the arc though!!

DNF - I was sure this book would be up my alley & I was so excited to read it but, by the time I reached the 30% mark I had grown tired of the whiplash. The narrator is at once an abuser dedicated to filling her senses with the life of other people like a film marathon, while also attempting to dictate social inequalities & injustices in between. I found the disparity between these narratives to be jarring given there is no proper base on which to rest either of them - the narrator is relatively shallow as a character & therefore leaves the reader will little traction by which to grip the plot. I didn't so much mind the gory way in which she approached her sexual endeavours & relationships but to have sequences of boot and gallery gazing amidst the soliloquy of actual detrimental aspects of our social & cultural world was strange. I grew tired of listening to her talk about things because she wasn't adding anything to the sentences but repeating the same information over & over again like a smooth stone touched only by the ocean waves.

This has the potential to be good & with cleaner editing & a more clear direction, I think it could get there but, as it stands, the current version is not for me.

Unfortunately I really did not enjoy this - by about 50% through I realized I was dreading picking this back up (despite the short length). By the description, this sounded like something I'd really enjoy but I think this suffers from some poor marketing. The structure is non-linear and reads more like a series of essays or diary entries than a cohesive novel - which is fine, but not what I expected based on the synopsis.

My biggest critique is that this felt like two separate discovery writes that were merged together at some point without much intention. The voice of the two sections could not be more different; you have an unhinged narrator with little to no grip on reality as she grapples with an unhealthy obsession of others interspersed with poignant essays that articulate the role social media plays in broader societal problems (racism, patriarchy, cultural assimilation). As stand alone entries they're certainly not bad, but the contrast is so jarring it feels like each gets continuously interrupted by the other.

The writing style is very much a stream of consciousness style, but I found the execution to generally read more as rambling, incoherent and repetitive. The exaggerated and near satirical nature of the narrator's life really took the focus away from the heavier subjects, and detracted from my enjoyment from the (in my opinion) well-written essays buried somewhere in this.

Ultimately, I don't think I was the target audience for this (if you liked Assembly by Natasha Brown, I think you'd like this for similar reasons). There is some interesting analyses into social media algorithms and how they perpetuate racism, but some observations felt contradictory to others and left me confused as to what represented the views of the author versus the character she had created.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced electronic copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.