Review: We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves, by Karen Fowler

I hated this book until after the big reveal (page 77). If it hadn't been a holiday gift from my brother, I would have given it up long before that. The narrator is entitled, and it's all about her and her messed up family with their troublesome secrets, which she is not going to share with us yet.

The first real action, on page 7, involves a maniac drama queen screaming a her boyfriend in the college cafeteria, "You want space? I'll give you space!" And knocking over table and chairs. Our narrator gets swept up in the drama and ends up in a jail cell for a few hours. It's hard to see why she'd be drawn to the maniac. And you won't find out until at least 70 pages later.

I'll be kind to those who prefer to read the book in order, and keep spoilers below the fold. But my recommendation is to skim the first 77 pages, and then dig in.  The story is fascinating after that. It even feels like the narrator's voice changes.

 

 

How would it affect you to be raised as a twin with a chimpanzee? You'd be, like Rosie, a bit of a monkey girl, right?