Fleishman Is in Trouble

Huh. I was excited to read this because it had been so hyped and so beloved by a lot of people I trust, so when my reaction to the first few chapter was “gross,” I decided to keep pushing through, figuring that surely this was leading up to something. And...it was...but it also kind of kept being gross to me? And I get that that's the point of this, to some extent, that all of these people are messy and complicated and we should pay attention to who we're sympathizing with, etc. But it felt weird for this to be such a recent book, to be honest? To me it felt like, “Oh, I know readers will only care about a straight white man so I have to trick them into caring about these women with my Trojan horse!” But like.....there are plenty of books about women that don't put me through all of this.I think my tepid response also has to do with the general current environment and also with [b:Machines Like Me 42086795 Machines Like Me Ian McEwan https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1552757135l/42086795.SY75.jpg 65638827] using up all of my allotment for dealing with “unlikeable” characters but like.... :/