In theory i love things that are weird and banal, but this was just lacking in that... i don't know. that thing that propels you through a book. i'll try getting through it later, i think, but there's just something missing for me.

I wanted to like this but felt the story was long and disjointed. I had a tough time connecting to the characters and the plot. A lot of potential but it fell short for me.

I recently finished Gunk Baby by Jamie Marina Lau and hoo - that book was weird. It's giving Fight Club it's giving Otessa Moshfegh it's giving Bret Easton Ellis. If you like books where there's not a whole lot of plot but there is a lot of interesting writing and a lot of sort of general ennui about suburbia about capitalism about malls you might be interested in this one. It wasn't really for me but the writing was really good and I think this author has a lot of potential - I will definitely be keeping an eye on them.

Wow, what a ride. This book’s strengths truly were the strong and compelling themes — orientalist, capitalism, consumerism, burnout. Despite the satirical and chaotic events, I liked the narration style of remaining somewhat neutral and unaffected — I think this really captured the malaise of day to day capitalism and working class culture in stark contrast with the radicalization aspects.

Unfortunately, I think some of these really compelling themes and strong passages (reflections on working directly with customers, consumerism, etc) were somewhat overshadowed by the execution of the plot. Some of the characters fell flat for me, and the execution did not match the lofty theoretical aspects. I appreciate a satire and comedy, but something felt mismatched here.

Regardless, I feel like I gathered enough to think about from the passages and scenes that I did find compelling. Thank you to Astra House for the ARC!

2.5 rounded up to a 3

The second half of this book caught my attention a lot more than the first. However for me, the reading appearance was quite sluggish. One minute I was really enjoying it and then in the next scene I’m taken out of the story and felt like I wanted to keep putting it down. I do like the premise of the consumer culture and how out of control it’s getting

I tried but this lost me. It's got a beautiful cover, an interesting premise, and an intriguing main character but I was unable to connect and DNF. Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC, For those who like experimental and literary fiction,

This book was so not for me. I usually love a book about a dysfunctional 20 something that's struggling and grappling with life (i love to be seen) but this book is a drag. I felt like every page took me about 5x as long as it should've and then there was just no progression at all. I can see why someone would love this writing and I think the story was interesting but I felt like I would've had a better time pulling my own eyelashes out. Sorry :/

They moved up the archive date without telling me and now I have a vendetta against this book. Astra Publishing House is now my nemesis. At least everyone on Goodreads says this book sucks, so I'm probably not missing out.

Gunk Baby had a strong sense of voice, and a clear mission. However, both of these strengths tended to be overwhelmed by a hard to define plot and a cast of side characters that were just slightly underdeveloped for my taste. I’m not sure that I fully understood the messaging, but the author’s style is very unique and I appreciated what it had to say about consumer culture at large.

Completely bonkers and purposely exhausting , this book deftly critiques life and protest amongst our capitalist hellscape.. I'll be thinking about this one for a while.

What a cover! What a book!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publishers for letting me read this title in exchange for my feedback.

Fight Club meets Convenience Store Woman.

Easy to read, smooth prose, hypnotic musings on the connection of the physical to the spiritual.

Anti capitalist support group showing the ills of anti capitalism; capitalist shill showing the dangers of completely subjugating yourself to the image of one specific kind of capitalism.

Neither side grasps authenticity. Neither side is really able to be cheered for.

Leen is… barely a human. She says things that “sound right” because she knows the they sound right, but without her convictions.

Interesting recurrent theme of media/film analysis and disassociation via drugs.

An idiosyncratic study of the hamster wheel of life, capitalism, and the religion of mass consumerism. ‘Gunk Baby’ had a mildly dystopian feel about it. Sure, it’s witty and cleverly written. Quite an achievement by this talented 20-something author who has rather a unique, unorthodox style. Yet it’s also perplexing and unconventional and is one of the most bizarre stories I have ever read. I’m still trying to fathom what it all means days after completing it.
My thanks to NetGalley and Astra House for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I made it just over a third of the way through before deciding not to finish. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters and the plot still hasn’t been made evident. The premise is promising and the writing is strong but I needed more by this point.

unfortunately this one was a dnf for me. I think I chose wrong and I do take fault for that. The cover is absolutely beautiful and I chose based on the cover. I don’t typically read humour. My biggest issue beside the wrong genre was the formatting and world building. I struggled with the sentence structure. I don’t know if this is because it’s still in development or it’s just a me thing but I struggled to read the sentences and still picture what was happening. The sentences constantly breaking took my focus out of the story. On both my kindle and phone the sentences where heavily on the left and they would
Break like this. With one sentence going left to
Right then
Breaking like this again. This happened a lot and i struggled heavily to read and understand what was happening. My other issue, again could’ve just been me, was that it felt like things were over explained, especially in the beginning. Again this could just be a me thing but it fettered me from being able to finish. I think for someone into the humour genre they will absolutely love this book. I just chose wrong. sorry