Thank you NetGalley and Dreamscape Media for this ALC.

I’m sure Stephanie Willig is great. I could not listen to more than 5% of this novel. It was not for me.

Kittentits by Holly Wilson follows Molly a ten year old girl in 1992. She si living with her dad, who was blind up until they had a fire and a beam hit his head and a Quaker woman in the House of Friends. Jeanie is a young woman that is recently released from prison and is staying at the House of Friends and Molly want to be friends with Jeanie more than anything, however, Jeanie has her own agenda. This was a funny coming of age book that will leave you wanting more. Molly is very niave and needs a bit more adult supervision for a 10 year old.

It’s 1992, and ten-year-old Molly is tired of living in the fire-rotted, nun-haunted House of Friends with her formerly blind dad and their grieving housemate Evelyn. But when twenty-three-year-old Jeanie, a dirt bike–riding ex-con with a shady past, moves in, she quickly becomes the object of Molly’s adoration. When Jeanie fakes her own death, Molly runs away to Chicago with a stolen credit card to meet her pen pal Demarcus and hunt down Jeanie.

Oh wow, I loved this! I didn’t know what to expect when picking this up, but I definitely didn’t expect the level of craziness it had. It was so bizarre, it was right up my alley. So glad I stumbled into it.

At the heart of the story, it was a bittersweet, heartwarming coming-of-age about finding connections (or grasping at them) and the meaning of life. Even through dead people too (literally).

This was my introduction to the author, and now I want to read more!

Kittentits is an unforgettable debut that beautifully marries absurdity with heartfelt emotion. Set in the early '90s, it follows ten-year-old Molly as she navigates life in a Quaker commune, grappling with her mother’s death and her overly religious father. The cast is filled with quirky characters, and the sharp humor provides a perfect counterbalance to the deeper themes of grief and loneliness. Molly's friendships with Jeanie and Demarcus shine as they bond in uniquely impactful ways

This book is highly inappropriate and offensive. I would rate it zero stars if possible. I stopped reading at 3% due to the sexualization of a ten-year-old main character, fatphobic comments, frequent use of the R slur, excessive swearing by a child, racial stereotypes, microaggressions, and an inappropriate scene involving a tampon. This book should be removed from your imprint as it reflects poorly on your selection process.

Kittentits! I felt confident I was going to love this from the title alone. What could be more fun than kittentits? Reminds me of the David Wong series about Zoey.

There weren't many comfortable feelings while listening to this one. The MC is a 10 year old that has a very "rich" vocabulary. From the start this one was a wild ride. The narration was done well with Willing managing to read it with a straight face.

I’m honestly not sure what I just read. The complete disconnect with what was happening in this book, coupled with the fact that our mc is a 10 year old was highly uncomfortable. While I’m perfectly fine with cursing, I feel like in this book it was excessive for use as a shock factor. And idgaf if your book is set in the 90s, the use of the r word is really not acceptable.

What a weird, weird book! So much swearing and aggression and rage, and it’s hard to decipher what’s real and what’s not. But if you ignore all that and just read Molly’s story, it’s a wild, captivating ride.

Kittentits was a really wacky and wild read. I loved the protagonist being a young girl, it was executed perfectly! I would read more from Wilson.
enjoyed narration too.

Consider this unrated as I DNFed it. Not even the promise of necromancy on prom night could rescue this for me from the annoying internal monologue of the MC. I did not care for the style or the setting. The story did not grip me.

Kittentits by Holly Wilson focuses on Molly, a foul-mouthed ten-year-old kid navigating her trauma, old and new, in the only way she knows how: creating chaos and writing to her pen pal. Set against the backdrop of the 1992 Chicago World’s Fair, this book combines magical realism and an absurd amount of nostalgia. I mean, this book is positively dripping with nostalgia. Holly Wilson really captured the essence of what it was to be a kid in the 1990s. 

Generally, I’m not a prude when it comes to language but it soured my experience of the story, even though the words used would have been politically correct and fitting in the time period. In particular, the “r-word” really took me out of the story each time it was used, and it was used a lot. Additionally, there were a lot of stereotypes projected onto her pen pal Demarcus and it again gave me the ick. While those generalizations and prejudices may have been authentic for someone like Molly in the early 90s, it didn't feel necessary to the plot.

Stephanie Willing managed to give each character a distinct personality, while also successfully bringing a 10-year-old in Molly to life. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Dreamscape Select for the opportunity to listen. All opinions are my own. 

3.5 out of 5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I think a lot of people do not expect certain literary work. This book got to what it sought out to be for sure! The shock value and literary work coincide with each other in a beautiful way.
I was definitely on the line and continued to listen to this audiobook because I was curious to see what happened next.

Downloaded this one purely based on the title and cover. I didn't get it, it wasn't for me at all. Like I just didn't get it. I didn't see the storyline- I didn't get the plot or point. Was it just a story without a real point? Was I not really missing anything?

With a title like that and a cover that goes along with it, you just never know what you are going to get. I’m not gonna lie, I was drawn in by both. And boy, am I glad I judged a book by its cover!

Meet Molly. She’s one of those kids who you know is just going to burn the world down around her. Either in a good way or possibly a bad way. She’s that gum smakin, keep a close eye on, definitely have health insurance on, big personality, rambunctious ten year old, she’s got spunk in ten fold. Mollys digs are not ideal. Her living situation is just plain terrible. It’s a dump, possibly haunted, and should be condemned. Did I mention she lives there with nuns and her formally blind dad? No, I’m not making this up!

And I haven’t even got to the good part. Just when Molly is about to combust from her totally lame surroundings, in moves Jeanie.

Jeanie is not someone you would want a kid to hang out with. Not to mention a kid that already had a sketchy past, and not only is this Jeanie gal a poor influence, she’s also in her twenties and an ex-con. Just sounds lovely right? Well, little ol’ Molly is obsessed. And Jeanie isn’t having it.

Well Jeanie goes missing and Molly is now on the hunt for answers. So what’s a gal to do now? Turn to her pen pal Demarcus of course. So, now these two little hoodlums are on a quest for another hoodlum. This hilarious action packed comedy will tug at your hearts, tear your eyes, and laugh your tushy off in one grand adventure that features a seance, world fair, and a hot air balloon escapade.

I really enjoyed this book And I wish I owned a copy of it because I just loved these quirky characters so much!

This book really didn't make much sense to me. I understand it's from the point of view of a pretty crazed little girl but it was hard to follow her thought process in relation to what was actually happening/had actually happened. Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

The character voice in this book was unique and fun, and if certain words don't bother you then I fun you'll really enjoy this book! However, I am sensitive to 'the r-word" and it was so heavily used that I ended up not finishing this one.

I wanted desperately to love this book. The title, description, and overall plot and character development describe the kind of quirky book that I usually devour, but this one fell very flat. I enjoy a little profanity, and find it charming coming from kids' mouths at times, but the slurs were unnecessary and felt like sandpaper every time and while the magical realism was completely captivating and believable within the context of the story, the "realism" plot pulled me out of the story. I liked the characters, but never felt invested, and the ending was just.... not quite right.
I was expecting a fun, slightly subversive romp and I'm still not sure what it is that I got, but I didn't love it despite really, really wanting to do so.

A feral, heart-busting, absurdist debut about Molly, a rambunctious and bawdy ten-year-old searching for friendship and ghosts.

unfortunately i was not able to download the audiobook before it was archived. i really need some kind of reminder built into the netgalley app for archive and publication dates!

I’m not a prude but the language was just terrible in this book, every other word is the r word from a 10 year olds mouth, it was just too much for me