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A review by emilypoche
Feral Creatures of Suburbia by D. Liebhart
3.0
Thank you to Victory Editing Net Gallery Co-op for providing this ARC for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
(Trigger Warnings: cancer, terminal illness, hospice care, suicide, self-harm, bullying, transphobia, antisemitism, racism, gun violence, school shootings.)
Feral Creatures of Suburbia is the story of a community in the suburbs of Albuquerque dealing with the oncoming violent episode at a prep school. At the same time the main characters remain tethered together through family, friendship, and their work lives. Balancing their relationships with the turmoil going on in their private lives becomes difficult and starts to impact their choices.
I think that the author clearly had a lot of tenderness for the characters, including the character who ends up being the mother of one of the violent offenders in the book. It was clear that the author was inspired by the works of Sue Klebold, which was confirmed after the fact by the acknowledgments.
The main issue for me was that the character of Crystal seemed to exist to link some characters together, but at the end of the story her elaborate secondary plot did little to move the story forward. There was a lot of labor put into the story, but it seemed disconnected and almost like it was shoehorned in so the author could add some thoughts about death and dying. It didn’t hurt that Crystal was a difficult character who was abrasive, selfish, and stubborn. Her personality was so odious that when she started her ‘life lessons’ I felt totally disengaged. The idea of this super-smart healthcare worker who people respect even though they’re dismissive, condescending, and rude is overplayed. The idea of the intellectually superior jerk is annoying at worst and dangerous at best. She was not a nuanced character but it was clear the reader was supposed to really find connection. She was an off putting focus character and it made me disconnected to the other narrative, which centered on the parents and children.
I think another point that was less successful was that the generational gap between Mayra, the gen Z character and the author was glaring. The worst offense was the sentence that stated “His oatmeal is slay…” It showed the author knew enough to look up slang but the awkward misuse broke the first-person narrative illusion.
Overall, I think the book is a good choice for someone who enjoys a story of parent-child relationships. It also touches on some phone/connectivity issues that teens face at schools today that didn’t exist in past decades.
(Trigger Warnings: cancer, terminal illness, hospice care, suicide, self-harm, bullying, transphobia, antisemitism, racism, gun violence, school shootings.)
Feral Creatures of Suburbia is the story of a community in the suburbs of Albuquerque dealing with the oncoming violent episode at a prep school. At the same time the main characters remain tethered together through family, friendship, and their work lives. Balancing their relationships with the turmoil going on in their private lives becomes difficult and starts to impact their choices.
I think that the author clearly had a lot of tenderness for the characters, including the character who ends up being the mother of one of the violent offenders in the book. It was clear that the author was inspired by the works of Sue Klebold, which was confirmed after the fact by the acknowledgments.
The main issue for me was that the character of Crystal seemed to exist to link some characters together, but at the end of the story her elaborate secondary plot did little to move the story forward. There was a lot of labor put into the story, but it seemed disconnected and almost like it was shoehorned in so the author could add some thoughts about death and dying. It didn’t hurt that Crystal was a difficult character who was abrasive, selfish, and stubborn. Her personality was so odious that when she started her ‘life lessons’ I felt totally disengaged. The idea of this super-smart healthcare worker who people respect even though they’re dismissive, condescending, and rude is overplayed. The idea of the intellectually superior jerk is annoying at worst and dangerous at best. She was not a nuanced character but it was clear the reader was supposed to really find connection. She was an off putting focus character and it made me disconnected to the other narrative, which centered on the parents and children.
I think another point that was less successful was that the generational gap between Mayra, the gen Z character and the author was glaring. The worst offense was the sentence that stated “His oatmeal is slay…” It showed the author knew enough to look up slang but the awkward misuse broke the first-person narrative illusion.
Overall, I think the book is a good choice for someone who enjoys a story of parent-child relationships. It also touches on some phone/connectivity issues that teens face at schools today that didn’t exist in past decades.