What an...interesting book.

I was drawn in by the cover and absolutely bowled over by the story we got inside. I received the audiobook version from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review., so let's get into the reviewing.

Let me start by saying, this book was wild. I was a 10-year old girl once and I honestly do not believe 90% of this went through my head at any point. I am certain Molly has some unresolved traumas from all the things she's gone through that her father hasn't addressed, but he also doesn't seem to strict on her behavior or language. It also makes me question if our narrator is fully reliable or trying to make herself sound grown up and "cool".

The way she writes her pen pal is quite horrible, I wouldn't have wanted to respond to her letters, but he does make an appearance in the second half of the book when Molly runs away to Chicago to try and find Jeanie and see the World's Fair.

For me, this book was just a little too much to be fully believable as a 10-year old coming of age. It was a bit too crass and aggressive which, sadly, isn't something I fully enjoy. This certainly could be up your alley if you like an angsty read, with characters constantly pushing to see how far they can stretch before others break. It's not a bad read at all, it's just not my cup of tea.

This was chaotic and wild and I loved it so much. I chuckled to myself throughout the whole thing but also found myself really thinking about certain things for a bit towards the end. I almost never reread but I'd reread this one for sure.

oh boy, i shouldn't have just assumed that this was a flashy title meant to draw a reader in.

i got about 7% into this book and stopped. within that 7% the following things happened:

- a 10 year old talked about her nipples
- a 10 year old pulled a used tampon out of an adult
- a 10 year old calling people "lesbo" multiple times
- this same 10 year old and adult excessively used "fuck" and variants of "retard". i stopped counting at around 20 usages.

this was all in the first 7%.

i like satire and i don't really mind stuff that's gross (melissa broder has done this super well). but what we have here is a super edgelord book about a ten year old that doesn't act, speak, or think anything like a ten year old and an author who woke up and decided to set their story in the 90's so that they could use their book as a vehicle to say as many slurs and offensive things as possible.

at the end of every bad/mediocre review i do try to say who this book would be for and the truth is, i don't know.

what i read gave me the same feeling that i get reading some of gillan flynn's work - artless, unnecessarily edgey and offensive, and ultimately soulless. great news, though - after deciding this i found out gillian flynn apparently loved this one. that tracks! i wish i had known that prior. maybe this is for fans of hers, idk.

anyway, this will be a book for someone, but it wasn't a book for me.

signed,

a lesbo

NOPE NOPE NOPE. I never DNF advanced copies, but I simply cannot and will not finish this book. The writing is terrible, the language is foul (I'm no saint, but I can't stand the r-word every two sentences, especially from a 10 year old's mouth), and the characters are atrocious. I usually will say a book just isn't for me and to go ahead and give it a try, but this time I'm very strongly recommending you avoid.

Kittentits is an imaginative coming-of-age story about a ten year old girl who is motherless, cusses like a sailor, and lives in a co-op living situation where she can see ghosts. She becomes enamored with another tenant that moves is who is also motherless and cusses like a sailor. It is a wild ride of faking deaths, seances, dead mothers, grief, and friendship. This book reminded me a lot of the movie The Florida Project. It was a fun ride.

It takes a lot to surprise me in a book and I was hooked from the first paragraph. What a strange ride from start to finish. Expect nothing. Just hold on tight and let this story unfold.
Podcast review to come.

Unfortunately, this book is a DNF for me. I honestly cannot even remember the last time I intentionally chose to not finish a book, but it was probably over a decade ago. I especially struggled with giving up on this one since this particular book was a NetGalley ARC, and it's important to me to complete ARCs even if they're not working for me.

Listening to this book made me uncomfortable in a way that I just wasn't willing to sit with. I'll add that I love a good "weird" book. I can get behind an unlikeable protagonist, and I wasn't even that put off by the constant swearing. What I couldn't deal with was the profoundly offensive language--ableist slurs, fatphobia, ageism, etc.

I'll read weird books. I'll read gross books. But I just don't feel like dedicating my time to reading offensive books.

First off, many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this book as an audio ARC! I greatly appreciate it!
Look at that cover! Read that description! See Gillian Flynn vouching for this book! I had such high hopes for it!
Alas, they were dashed by the most obnoxious character voice I have ever come across in my life. And I've read a lot of books with teenage main characters, so I'm used to obnoxious main characters. The fact that this kid is ten makes it even worse. No ten year old talks like this, and if they do, they need some serious help. Even without the rampant, completely unnecessary r-slurs, the writing is just so, so bad.
The story itself had potential, and that makes it even worse, because what a waste!
One out of five stars for Kittentits. Biggest disappointment of the year so far.