This makes me look like a philistine, but there you have it. This sat on my bedside table for over a week and I never could get past page 9. Not my cup of tea. ( )

This book might be a literary milestone in its portrayal of the inner turmoil and despair of a very lonely woman, but personally I just can't seem to enjoy reading books that have no real plot. ( )

This featured a clearly mentally unwell woman who muses on her tragic past and obsesses about herself, her appearance, and men, and sex with men, while drinking vast amounts of alcohol and resenting the fact that she has very little money. She was very occasionally dryly funny, but otherwise everyone and everything was unpleasant, unlikable, hostile.

Possibly the most depressing book I have ever read (and I've read 'A Little Life'). ( )

This is a deceptively short and easy book. While it can be read quickly, the constant morphing of reality makes the simple story difficult to read, to the point where the ending hovers between a dream-state and reality. Alcohol, despair, and loneliness are all themes that permeate this novel and while it is bleak and grim, it is also punctuated with hope and liveliness, which brings the reader back for more... only to create a vortex back into the depths of sadness.

While I can't say I loved the book, it certainly didn't leave me indifferent, more a sense of unease than a revelation of the human heart. There was also a feeling that none of us are immune to such a fate. ( )

A story about a woman who has been hurt and used by her husband, who no longer believes in anything or anybody, and would just as soon die as anything. Surprise ending. ( )