Chloe Caldwell

This was one of my first recommendations from Book Riot's Tailored Book Recommendations service, and I ordered a copy immediately. as soon as I picked it up I was HOOKED. A fast read about a young woman who moves away from home for the first time and very quickly falls deeply into an obsessive relationship with an older married woman. It is also her first relationship with a woman. This book is largely about her feelings and reactions to that relationship, but it is filled with women, from her close relationship with her mother to her (mostly female) friends and coworkers There are some aspects of the relationship I wish she would have spoken about, but their absence makes sense given the diary-like narration. I loved this.… (altro)

A nice collection of essays, though read in succession there are some stylistic flourishes that become redundant. Caldwell uses a motif of beginning each sentence with the same phrase that makes many of the essays read more like writing exercises than pieces building towards a finished whole. A quick review of the long list of initial publications for the various essays reinforces this first impression.

Overall, the essays are concerned with sex, drugs, and youthful choices in a way that is meant to be shocking but really wore me out. Without a grander conclusion to push towards, the shock value is all that's left, and there's really not enough that shocks me for me to love this collection.… (altro)