I’m a Fan

I was a little bit torn on how to review this book. I did not find it (at all!) enjoyable to read. I like dark and twisty but this took it a little too far into the territory of being upsetting vs. suspenseful? It’s unhinged, with a very messy narrator and you know I hate a messy narrator! Still, it’s literary and weird and it made me feel things (and any book that makes you feel things should be taken seriously!). So I gave it a B because it is well-written and very smart, because it tackles race and class in such a sharp way, because it’s a sharp, smart book in general. But the relief I felt upon finishing it was tremendous. I was so happy to move onto something else. The book opens with the unnamed narrator telling us that she stalks a woman on the Internet who is sleeping with the same man she is sleeping with. Neither woman is married to him; he also has a wife. This woman is an influencer type, with a seemingly perfect (albeit shallow) life. She is referred to only as “the woman I am obsessed with.” The man is referred to only as “the man I want to be with” and he is not a good man. For much of their “relationship,” she is only allowed to email him, never text. It’s clear that he is a horrible person yet our narrator takes every little crumb she can get. The book felt like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Super unsettling and upsetting. I hated it but I also appreciated it?