Thank you to Ravenna Press for sharing this title~

Pipette is a narrative told in flash fiction style, with each chapter under a page in length, tiny snippets pieced together over the lead up and throughout the initial lockdown months of the 2020 pandemic.

The declarative, statement of fact style to the writing gives the reader the impression that they have happened upon someone’s journal. The journal, so to speak, belongs to Elle— a college professor, obsessive exerciser, dog mom, human mom, veteran, and former lab worker; as readers we weave with her in and out of her toxic relationship with Henry, slog with her through the mundanity of her daily goings on, and travel with her into the ethereal, dream like states she pays a guide to take her to in order to unravel childhood traumas. I can say with absolute truth that nothing and everything happens in this book. Whether she is recalling deeply unsettling childhood memories, walking us through the fights with her lover, describing in detail her ritualistic breakfast, or outlining the intricacies of taking a blood sample, each element of her life is treated with the same tone, urgency, feeling— & in doing so, the reader is fully immersed into Elle’s mind. At times I felt I had too much to hold onto, and other times, nothing at all. Personally, I found this to be very captivating. I loved the sense of truly just being with a character, day in, day out, to share the everyday experience.

This book falls into one of my favorite categories— no plot, just vibes. If that’s your thing, I would recommend. If you need a lot of plot, this isn’t for you!

A flash fiction style novel that captivates you from its beginning lines. We follow a middle aged strong and independent woman who is forced by a sudden breakup to reinvent her life and find happiness within her own self during the pandemic. All the events are depicted in a diary-like form, which makes it a very bingeable read. She is emotionally mature although still healing from trauma, enjoys exercise and has her priorities crystal clear.

Overall, it was a very good reading experience.

I would like to express my gratitude towards the author, her team and NetGalley for the opportunity of enjoying this ARC ahead of time.

It’s a short novel told in flash fictions. Kinda refreshing seeing the writing style, addictive too, like going through tiktok or instastories. But it also kinda feels I’m reading someone’s diary bc it feels really personal. At first we can see that this Elle is a very determined 51 year old woman, she used to serve in the military and worked as a lab technician. She was also an athlete, a professor, and a writer. But on top of all those achievements I think she got underlying problems with men. There were some hints about her being abused by her father and grandfather, maybe her uncle too. And how she casually mentioned that she slept with her uncle right after her aunt’s death. They were just briefly mentioned, tho. But maybe we also see our traumas that way. Especially if we haven’t realized that it was our trauma. Maybe it’s our defense mechanism, to not talk about it so much, not acknowledging it, thinking that it wouldn’t define our life so significantly. This book was set during the pandemic. I like reading a story told from other perspective during the lock down era. It seems so long ago, but it’s only been two years. And the pandemic isn’t really over yet. I’m giving it 3/5⭐️. A fast paced refreshing story. I’ve always dreaded thinking about growing old. But this book just told me that age is just a number, you can still do anything you love at any age, given the determination.

I really enjoyed this one. Flash Fiction gives it a different kind of flow, making the story go fast.
A lot of different feels come across the pages in this one.
Relationship issue, juggling many parts of life, and of course COVID.