Member Reviews

This is an excellent book for fans of surrealist writing and academic settings. It is told in an unconventional way with multiple points of view and a number of vignettes. The structure of the book was a little challenging for me, but for those who enjoy experimental literature and shocking content this will be a fun experience.

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This manuscript kept its word to its title becuase to me it was a school, a lesson in the potentiality of literature and a lesson in utter creativity. I have finished it a couple of days ago and I have been pondering, searching in vain for words to describe it. School is as elusive as the thoughts you have in the brief space of mind before falling asleep, it's intention slips from the page and through your fingers leaving you with the electric sensation of having never read anything like it before.
In such a few pages Pabán Freed synthetised the essence of modern youth in its unglorious, complex facets and the ghostly tendrils that technology seductively and destructively wraps around them.
However, there's nothing predictable in such narration nor pedantic.
I would also like to highlight the structure of the novel itself, which whith its intricacy helped the plot to deliver the effect wanted.
We follow different and unrelated characters living personal problems, but through each story we get glimpses of the others', a brief movement out of the narrative eye that envelope the reader with suspiciousness, with a cagey feeling of something bigger happening outside of our knowledge.
Moreover, we can find different narrative styles and genres such as a feverish monologue dictated by drugs making the reader lose the perception of what is real, a grim suicide letter exploring the dark web and the mission of communism, an extremely well crafted manifesto about literature.

This book was many things, I got lost and I found myself back together in different shapes but enriched nonetheless. It was like walking into a maze and coming out of it with a clearer vision.

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This book really wasn't for me. I'm not sure if the format just didn't work as an eBook but I found it too confusing to tell who was speaking and to follow conversations. I do think it has worth though, it's perhaps just a bit too cerebral for me.

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I got this as an arc on Netgalley and it will come out in September. Half of the profits of this book will go to organizations working with incarcerated and formerly incarcerated trans people. How can I explain how much I liked this book while simultaneously explaining that I didn't understand most of it? It's complex but good complex, it reads like a rant and an old time British book and an exploration of society and a bit body horrory and just ah.

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