DNF. Picked up on the recommendation of it being “weird and quirky” had no plot and kept going anyway. With no warning before beginning that there would be animal violence got to the middle where they decided to just start murdering animals just cause… ( )

3.5, really. I'm not sure how to feel about this book, which I wanted to love more than I actually loved. A lot of great things in this book, but something is a little off, so the story beats didn't hit me as deeply as they should. ( )

I don't think I've enjoyed a novel about the trials and tribulations of a disastrous family this much since Douglas Coupland's [b:All Families are Psychotic|3379|All Families are Psychotic|Douglas Coupland|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1405992884l/3379._SY75_.jpg|91467]. Kristen Arnett's writing is visceral, down to the most minute detail, characters are so acutely drawn you feel connected to them. ( )

I enjoyed this so much. Made me think so much.

To start this off I want to say this book has a LOT of content warnings, including: minor pedophilia, sexual abuse, coercion, and morally ambiguous relationships.

The main character, Jessa, is so rigid, so broken, that she is reminiscent of the animals that she taxidermies. I loved her - she is so relatable, and once she finally comes into her own, she tries so hard to mend what's broken, even when she doesn't know what she's doing - that she doesn't understand the things that make other happy. It's not a coming of age story, but more of a "coming into one's own" story and I am a huge sucker for it.

The descriptions are so raw, sometimes bordering vulgar, but it's all appropriate, so vivid, so true to life that you can easily see yourself as Jessa, sitting in the Florida sun, thinking about the disgusting parts of life. And the prose flows wonderfully, makes everyone feel as if they're holding their breaths, waiting for the next moment they can come up for air. Love it. ( )

Jessa is a taxidermist. So was her father and her grandfather. She always felt close to her father and admired him. He taught her everything she knows about the profession, and she tries to emulate him. So when she came into the shop one day to find him dead from suicide, her entire image and perspective of him changed. And now she is left to care for the family and keep the shop running by herself.

Jessa, her brother, Milo, and their mother each deal with the loss in different ways. Jessa turns inward and aloof as she grapples with her new understanding of her father while carrying the burden he left her with and the anger at him for doing so. Milo hides and is missing in action much of the time, leaving his children in the care of this mother and sister. Their mother uses creativity as an outlet, posing the taxidermy in sexual positions in the shop window. Milo’s children help keep the shop going by bringing in new taxidermy through questionable means.

Underlying this family’s present state is their loss of another family member, Brynn. Jessa and Brynn became friends in elementary school. As they grow older, Jessa falls in love with Brynn, and they begin a sexual relationship Jess knows that Brynn will never truly be with her in the way she desires. As Milo grows older, he and Brynn become flirtatious and eventually get married. This breaks Jessa’s heart but serves as a way to keep Brynn around. Until one day, Brynn leaves them all.

Throughout the novel, each character learns to break their unhealthy habits, especially in relation to their emotions and how they think about and react to one another. By changing the ways they approach each other, they see each other more fully and this allows them to finally grieve their losses.