A review by readingwithkt
Various Pets Alive and Dead by Marina Lewycka

Did not finish book. Stopped at 21%.
DNF @ 77 / 365 pages.

I found the start of this book pretty engrossing and felt that it had quite a fun and funny feel to it. I thought it was about an eccentric family and how they navigate their relationships with one another. We get the perspective of the parents and two of the kids (both of whom were of adult age). Seemed like it would be a hit!

And then there were references to a third child, a disabled child, and I realised that that child (referenced as being an age at which a social worker was talking about them moving into a place of their own, so presumably 18+) was not given a POV in the same way as the other family members, which didn't sit right with me. And then the child started to be described and I just felt really uncomfortable with the descriptions. Idk, maybe I was reading too much into it, but the muting and infantilisation of the disabled adult and the playing into stereotypes of disabled people just didn't sit right with me and I decided to DNF.

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