Beautifully written and captivating, very glad that this was recommended to me and will be sure to recommend it to others.

DNF @16%

This book had an extremely slow start with the pacing, and I could feel myself not getting into it. My problem with this one is that I was expecting a thriller/mystery for some reason, but I just got some version of bland adult literary fiction, and it didn't catch my attention. So I decided to set this book aside because life is too short to read bad books, and this one is one of those books in my opinion.

Set in 1980s New York City, the premise of this book was an interesting one, and that's what initially got me hooked. The plot reeks of lust and desire and the majority of the scenes were presented in a sexy and interesting way. However, I found the ending to be extremely anticlimactic, and I found myself regretting the time I had spent immersed in this book.

I have been dragging my feet about drafting this review because I didn't know what to say. This book was well-written and I think it brings up some crucial issues of race and class. I liked a lot of things about the book but ultimately I don't think I would recommend it. I found it uncomfortable to read, and not in a particularly good way. I was sad about the situations that the characters found themselves in (got themselves in!) The opening scene was so jarring and I kept thinking about it throughout the book, knowing that the trajectory of the characters was toward that scene. I liked the setting and the descriptions were wonderful. This is a good book to read for people who love to be challenged by the books they are reading and don't mind a level of discomfort while they read.

Sorry, could not finish this book! Thank you for approving me, but I felt that this book wasn't my cup of tea!

This book was kind of a hard and long read, strange too. The characters should've been fleshed out a bit more but I did like how the story said that life isn't easy especially in the 1980s.

Though this story has great potential, I find the telling of it to be boring.

I like to be able to read a story and imagine it as if I'm watching it play out. This story, however, was full of details, too many details, for my imagination to grab hold and enjoy.

Title: White Fur
Author: Jardine Libaire
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: Four
Review:

"White Fur" by Jardine Libaire

My Thoughts...

All I can say is this is was a unusual poetical love story as this author gives the readers the ending first and then worked the story forward as the story comes full circled by the end. So, what should the readers expect? Well get ready for a little bit of it all...from the gritty, raw and simply painful at times that will definitely leave one saying wow! We find Jamey Hyde who came from a rich family and then their was Elise Perez who was poor coming together being so very opposite. So, really what could one expect would happen for all that went on with these two that definitely seemed to be on quite a roller coaster ride? Now, I will say this story wasn't just with these two but also their families and friends. Would I say this story was similar to the Romeo and Juliet story? Yes, a little but I found this story was also filled with so much more raw grittiness with lots of emotions. Yes, this was a very obsessive relationship, with crime, some off the chart erotic sex scenes, so be aware of that fact among some other real issues that are full of 'trials and tribulations.' I did feel that the story went on and on a little bit that seemed to drag somewhat but the story did however pick up getting your attention as you continued on to see what was coming next and then we get a strange unexpected weird twist of a end. If you are looking for a love story that will be told in a very unusual way then you have come to the right place for "White Fur" will be the read I would recommend to you.

I really expected a modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet but unfortunately this was nothing like that love story. The main female character stalked the man she wanted and when they finally got together, lived like 14 year olds with no idea of how to function in the real world. I found so many inconsistencies in this book - for instance, how does a shop employee making minimum wage afford fancy acrylic nails and cornrowed hair, but can't afford food? The male character who came from a good family with plenty of money wore his camel hair coat nearly every day one winter until it was threadbare-those coats last like iron! I didn't think the story was well woven and could have cared less about their sexual exploits.

There are novels that are predictable, in the sense that you know exactly what you'll get out of them. I think of these novels as 'Hallmark-books'. You can't help but love them because they give you exactly what you need, but you'll also never be truly surprised by them. Then there are also novels that you go into with certain expectations, but that shatter those expectations within a few chapters. White Fur, for me, is the latter type of novel. I thought I knew what I was going to get and I was incredibly wrong. Thanks to Crown Publishing and Netgalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

White Fur grabbed me by the throat a lot quicker than I expected it to. Initially, upon reading the blurb, I was expecting a relatively straightforward, Romeo and Juliet-esque love story about the rich boy and the girl from the block whose love would defeat the class system with one fell swoop. I thought White Fur might be a breezy read. That is not at all what Jardine Libaire delivers. On the one hand it does deliver that "star-crossed love story", as the blurb so dramatically puts it. It does so explicitly, keeping no secrets from its readers as to the delight and the hardship of love. Writing humorously about humour is notoriously difficult, but I find that writing about love in a way that makes you want to love is equally as challenging. White Fur makes love something almost illicit, the thing we all secretly crave deep down but feel too ashamed to actually ask for. So we grab at it when we can, take in lungfuls and then scurry away again. Reading White Fur brings up a lot of emotions. You'll feel anger at the world, disappointment in people, understanding for their faults, a lust for love and life. White Fur, if you go into it with an open mind, will give you all of this and more.

Class is something I overlooked for a very long time, the ability to do so a privilege that comes from being a middle-class white girl. I thought the main struggles of our time were race and feminism, not realising that this triad of social constructs, race, gender and class, are intrinsically bound together, especially for those who draw the short straw in all three categories. I was aware that I was born lucky, yet the actual knowledge of it only occasionally truly sinks in. Reading White Fur was one of the moments in which it was once again brought to the forefront of my mind. On the one hand the story is relatively simple. Elise is a bi-racial young woman in the 1980s, trying to leave behind her the suffering and drug-abuse that is passed down the generations in the housing projects where she grew up. Jamey is a son of money, heir to an empire he has come to despise. Libaire adeptly shows both of their disillusionment with the world in its own way, drawing both stark contrasts between them as well as showing the connections they share. They attempt to reshape the world as a place in which they can exist and although the obstacles are occasionally overblown, they are also realistic. Libaire manages to describe both Elise and Jamey's, although especially Elise's, struggles in a visceral way that will stick with you.

Sometimes a novel's language can be too flowery. An author will lose themselves in their metaphors and the story sinks away, covered by too much language. Not every author can write in prose that flows so forcefully. In White Fur, however, it works. Jardine Libaire tells her story chronologically, except for a small teaser of the end at the beginning, but not in a straight-forward manner. Her prose moves in a way rapid rivers do, hurtling on, but also calming down, swirling violently and flowing quietly. Feelings cannot be described literally, I find, and so authors find their way around it. Libaire does it by describing small acts, sights, smells, snapshots of life, the noticing and appreciating of which says much more about her characters than page-long internal monologues. Occasionally the plot takes off in a slightly cliche direction, but Libaire manages these detours relatively well. In a way, White Fur does feel like something of a fairy tale, a dramatic play we hope ends well despite our secret fears. But it's a fairy tale of our life time, with real life horrors and real life dreams.

I adored White Fur, it sucked me in almost straightaway and didn't let me go until the last page. Especially Elise's story affected me a lot and after finishing the novel I miss her, in a way. I'll definitely be rereading this one. I'd recommend White Fur to fans of contemporary fiction.

A main character watches Challenger blow up, and has to hide his smile as he leaves the room. Fuck this book.

This book was provided by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I just finished White Fur and I feel torn between a sense of admiration for the writing and frustration with the story. I was immersed in the writing, it was unique, creative, and the descriptions of New York in the eighties made the city feel like a live character. My frustration was with the other characters, the people in the book. Jamie and Elise were at times endearing, other times they seemed plain stupid; but, as a couple I found them incomprehensible. Their friends and family seem one-dimensional in their efforts to separate the pair and nothing else seemed to define the surrounding characters; however, those efforts seemed completely understandable as the two were terrible for each other. By the end of the book—after what seemed like a domino chain of bad decisions—I felt mentally exhausted with Jamie and Elise, wondering what I would consider to be a satisfying conclusion for their story. Perhaps no particular ending would have left me with a sense of closure, since I felt so ambivalent about the characters' journey. I spite of this, White Fur succeeds is where it matters the most: in its words. It is interesting, well-crafted and poetic. I would go back to this book in paper format with highlighter in hand and I would certainly read other books by this author.

Written in a way reminiscent of 'Sweetbitter,' White Fur is a close examination of today's class struggles and understanding where your happiness lies within these barriers. While at first the novel seems to be about Elise Perez, the focus quickly shifts to her white privileged, Ivy League boyfriend, Jamey. With their relationship tenuous, sex and mutual hatred for what Jamey's family stands for keeps the couple together.

While I ultimately did not enjoy this book because of the strong focus on Jamey and Elise's sex life, as well as the shift in focus away from Elise and on Jamey, it was still an enjoyable read. A great addition to literary fiction.

White Fur by Jardine Libaire is a love story but not the least bit romantic. Set in the 1980s in New Haven, Connecticut and New York City, it chronicles the relationship of Jamey and Elise. Jayme is a preppy boy from one of the country’s wealthiest banking families while Elise is a rough around the edges girl from the wrong side of the tracks. They meet, as neighbours, while Jamey is studying at Yale – and it is lust at first sight. The love, which starts off pretty one-sided, only comes later on. Gritty, raw and steamy, White Fur takes the classic star-crossed lovers trope, and sours it a little. The ending is weak, in my opinion, but this is still worth reading if you like complex characters and lush writing.

Photo from Goodreads
General

White Fur by Jardine Libaire

Pages: 305 pages (Hardcover)

Published by Hogarth Press May 30th, 2017 

Genre: Literary Fiction, Romance, Contemporary 



Links: Amazon/Goodreads

Overall Rating: 3/5

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book from Netgalley, but that does not have a sway in my reviews. I am a human being with thoughts of her own, and I am not obligated to automatically give this book five stars.



The Review

When I first started White Fur, I was engrossed by the highly lyrical text and progressive scenes but as I continued reading, I began to question the writer's motives in creating a nonredeemable half-Puerto Rican character from the "wrong side of the tracks" who falls in love with a rich, most likely white, Yale senior. While there have been many contemporary adaptations of Romeo & Juliet that have played with the "wrong side of the tracks" trope such as West Side Story by Arthur Laurents, Perfect Chemistry by  Simone Elkeles, etc., these stories had redeemable characters that were developed over time. Unlike characters in those stories, it felt as if Elise, the lead female protagonist, had very little to offer other than grittiness and sex. 

Throughout White Fur, Elise was described as the type who is born to lose, who is loud and obsessive, lustful and wild. At one point, her intelligence is even compared to her lover, Jamey's. The author wrote:

Her intelligence isn't organized the same way his is. She never finished more than a few pages of a book, but loves to talk about what she read. She thinks in wild gardens, and his thoughts are espaliered into an introduction with a thesis, then supporting body paragraphs, and a conclusion. 
While this paragraph seems like a compliment, it also seems rather backhanded. It romanticizes the beauty in which Elise can find interest in books and thought, but in the end, she doesn't have the structure and education that Jamey has had. 

This book takes place in the 1980s so it would make sense that this book would have hints of classism, racism, and sexism, but as an adult living in 2017, I don't really care for that type of story. It doesn't appeal to me. As a reader, I want to see diverse characters who are redeemable and who defy gender norms. That's all I ask for.

I'm sure readers will easily fall for this story and from what I've seen on Goodreads, they have. The poetic prose, vapid romance, and tragic narrative are high selling points. But if you haven't read it and do choose to read it, question the racial dynamics of the character and question the author's intentions. She's a white author who stereotyped a POC character. As readers, we have the right to question why she chose to do that.

Am I missing something??

Whatever the author was trying to convey, I did NOT understand it.

Like, what was the point of the story?
What was the purpose of writing the book?
What is the reader supposed to feel/think when reading it?

This horse tranquilizer droned on for 300ish pages.........WOW!! Libaire could have easily squished the "story" into about 50 pages. It was so incredibly devoid of any meaning that I had to force myself to finish it simply so I could feel okay about reviewing it.

It rambled on and on and on about the same junk; the same people doing the same things in the same way for the same reasons. It is quite literally a book about nothing.
No interest.
No story line.
No point.

And the characters were beyond strange -- especially Jamey.
That boy had A LOT of psychological stuff to work through. More than most. And I'm not sure if the being insanely rich thing exacerbated his already deteriorating mental health or what, but Lord was he dis-turbed.

The only positive thing I can say about this book is that Libaire's writing style was amazing. Her attention to detail and her ability to make the reader think about even the most common thing in a different way was pleasantly surprising. In fact, its prose is the only thing that kept me from giving up on the darn thing altogether!

I am AMAZED by the high ratings and hyped-up buzz surrounding this book!
What am I missing?
Was I reading a different story than the rest of the people here on GR?! I'll never know, I suppose.
But what I do know is that this was NOT for me.

*An ARC of this book was provided by NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

Two young people looking for love. Everyone loves a great opposites attract story and that's exactly what this is. This story was very well written and the characters are very bold. The ending lacked some luster but overall I would tell a friend about it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

"So much of life is about standing on the curb, willing to see what rolls up." This book is gritty and raw and dirty. Kudos to the author for evoking equal parts revulsion, curiosity, fascination, and intrigue with a fair amount of impending doom mixed in. At times, I found myself getting lost in purple prose but the compelling characters and intriguing storyline kept me tuned in. I'm not sure what it says about me that I wanted a different ending. I'm frequently unsatisfied with neat and tidy endings and especially so here. Elise and Jamey's pointedly fatalistic story and consistent redolent sense of tragedy warranted a more complex ending. I'll stay tuned for future efforts from this author - an absorbing and engaging voice.