#mostly dead things

[lgbtqreads]

Fave Five: Queer Literary Fiction about Grief and Mourning

Mostly Dead Things by Kristen Arnett Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn You Made a Fool of Death With Your Beauty by Akwaeke Emezi Some Hell by Patrick Nathan Broughtupsy by Christina Cooke Bonus: Coming next month, Model Home by Rivers Solomon

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[bookdepositori]

Almost halfway through Mostly Dead Things, so I figured I’d take the chance to pause and put my thoughts down on paper. Going to try not to spoil anything that happens outside of the first chapter.

First of all, the prologue chapter at the start of the book REALLY grabbed me. Nothing happens in it that isn’t revealed on the back of the book, but regardless, the atmosphere and vague tension in it really hooked me.

Though now that I write this 170 pages later, I worry I might be losing interest a little. I’m still very intrigued by our lead character, Jessa, she has a very unique disposition that makes perfect sense considering all of her past experiences you learn about. Though right now she feels like the only character I have a solid grasp on and some of the prose doesn’t quite do her justice I feel.

One frequent tendency Jessa has is to mentally dissect other women she meets in the same way she dissects animal carcasses for taxidermy. This is incredibly interesting to me and I feel it says a lot about Jessa as a character, but every time you’re given a sentence about Jessa observing the lines of muscle under someone’s skin, it’s immediately followed by a line where she straightforwardly admits shes looking at them the way she views a carcass. I feel like this is something the reader would realize without it being blatantly told to them. The reader given concrete explanations for all of Jessa’s intrusive thoughts like this feels like a missed opportunity for some subtlety to me.

Then there’s the other characters, which are all on the opposite end of the spectrum, as in I feel like I don’t know as much about them as I should being this far into the book. Jessa’s brother, Milo, is in almost every chapter of this book, but he doesn’t feel like much more than a foil to Jessa. Jessa is rough, hardworking, and closed-off while Milo is scrawny, lazy, and emotional (though, now that I think of it, I don’t think I’ve seen Milo be emotional, Jessa just tells us that he is). Then there’s Jessa’s father, the character who this entire novel revolves around, but I feel like I know less about him than anyone else in the book. Half of the chapters take place in the past, but most only mention him off-handedly despite everyone mourning him in the present. At a certain point I think I sort of forgot about him, I don’t even remember his name. It’s apparent to me now that Jessa’s parents’ relationship was a rocky one, and I’m hoping by the end of the novel, I get to see more of that now that Jessa’s mother is starting to play a bigger role in the part I’m at.

While some characters feel a bit flat to me, they all at least feel believably to me, with the exception of one. Throughout the first chapter, characters are described to you with every flab, bloat, and blemish that adorn their bodies. From the beginning, it’s apparent that these characters are not idealized in any way. The exception is at the end of chapter 1 when Jessa is introduced to a woman named Lucinda. Lucinda feels almost otherworldly with how polished and unflappable she is in Jessa’s eyes. I know this is partially because this is a first-person narrative and Jessa is biased towards her, but by the end of the second chapter, Jessa is already making confident character judgments about Lucinda and the book doesn’t seem like it intends to disprove her. Every time she appears it feels like I’m suddenly in a different world to the rest of the book. While every other character is imperfect and unpredictable, Lucinda feels almost like she’s Jessa’s idealized imaginary friend.

While I do feel like some of the writing is repetitive and lacking in nuance, I’m still interested in where the book is going. I’m very attached to Jessa as a character and I’m at least interested to see what she makes of herself. I’ll update again soon once I’ve read more.

[quinnfebrey]

this is making me crazy

“where’s your seam? where do you crawl out?”

[calvinandhobbes]

Love was the steady burn of acid indigestion. Love was a punch in the gut that ruptured your spleen. Love was a broken telephone that refused to dial out. [...] love makes you an open wound, susceptible to infection.

Kristen Arnett, Mostly Dead Things

[tlbodine]

My pal Rodney has this awesome YouTube series where he highlights first chapters of Wattpad books, and he hosted my novel THE HOUND today. Y’all should come give it a listen!

[biandlesbianliterature]

This Queer Summer Novel Is A Weird, Wonderful Ode To Central Florida

As a teenager, Kristen Arnett had a secret girlfriend. They never mentioned their relationship to anyone. But that was the '90s in Central Florida, and it wasn't the right time or place for Arnett to tell people about her relationship. "For me, it…

[universitybookstore]

New from Tin House Books, a remarkable debut novel by queer writer Kristen Arnett, Mostly Dead Things. (Check out the NPR review here.)

[maryannmackey]

On his days off, he stayed in bed until midafternoon and then ventured out to the kitchen for a sandwich before passing out on the couch again. He looked tired all the time, skin grayed out and hair lank with grease. His polos were never clean. Brynn sometimes did laundry, but we both acted like kids on summer vacation. She let my mother do the chores as we hung out and watched television. When Milo came home he'd kiss Brynn first thing. She leaned into it so hard I could hear their teeth click together. 'You take such good care of us,' she'd say, drawing a line down his cheek with a fingernail I'd painted for her. 'Who else would love me so much? No one's sweeter than you, baby.' He'd look better then, and I knew it was all worth it to him- the long hours, the driving, just to come home to her and Bastien. Listening in on these whispered conversations, I tried to imagine myself in my brother's position and couldn't make the image stick. I knew what she wanted from each of us; the things we provided. I watched my brother work himself to death, saw how he was still able to be emotionally there for her, and wished I could be the kind of person who could do both. I came over every day on my lunch break from the shop, eating leftover crusts from Bastien's peanut butter and honey sandwiches. 'I like our little family.' Brynn snuck her hand into the crease of my elbow. I'd let it sit there, collecting sweat, mine and hers. Something I could take home and keep at the end of the day when I drank rum and Cokes next to the busted AC unit in my apartment. Drunk, thinking about what kind of person I was: taking from the people I cared about, taking because if I didn't take what I needed, I might die.

Mostly Dead Things, Kristen Arnett