Pizza Girl

A lot of the bad reviews here are about how the protagonist is unlikable, or that there doesn't really seem to be a “point” to this book, but the way that Jean Kyoung Frazier writes about people feeling complicated, messy emotions and doing things that even they don't really know WHY they're doing is heartfelt and empathetic. There aren't any easy answers or explanations, but I never felt the way that things developed was nonsensical or just completely out-of-nowhere.

To me, this book nails the experience of sabotaging your own life without even really knowing why—as if you're watching your life go off the rails from the sidelines without being able to stop it. This isn't something everyone will enjoy or connect to emotionally, and that's okay. It's a book about complex people behaving in sometimes shitty ways as they try to figure out how to cope with the lives they're living, and I think it's quite a good one.

The cover promised a Korean-sounding Sally Rooney. It did have that typical detached voice and laconic style, but it was also completely bonkers in a way that was actually interesting.

Some clunkiness at times but also a lot of nuance to the main character and her relationships. A quick and worthwhile read.

I can definitely see why this book isn't for everyone. But, this book is definitely for me. A really good introspective literary novel.

The starting of the book was nice. But it boring real quick. Because of all the damn complaints of the fmc. I just did not like that part.. but towards the end when she hit yet another rock bottom, evrything changes. After that it was ok. The plot made a lot more sense after that.

Pizza Girl's struggle with the death of her father and her terror that she is too much like him is extremely relatable for me. Someone once said I was like my father and I wanted to shrivel up and die, so I get you, Pizza Girl. Jenny provided a welcome distraction from that and the other struggles in her life and Pizza Girl says if she'd never met Jenny, “I would've found something else to lose myself in—if you were pushed off a cliff, you'd grab hold of anything resembling safety,” and this is really all it is. Her obsession with Jenny was born of desperation for something, anything, that felt safe and comfortable and different to free her from her current situation.

I enjoyed the story, which shifted in unexpected ways. At times, I found myself wishing for more information about Jenny and her life, but I came to understand why that information wasn't included. This was Jean Kyoung Frazier's debut novel and I'm definitely interested in looking into more of her stuff!

I listened to the audiobook while reading the ebook at the same time, something I'd never done before. It took a minute to get the audiobook speed to match my reading speed well enough that it didn't feel super weird, it was extremely satisfying. Also, I noticed something: in two spots, the ebook had different text than the words spoken by the audiobook's narrator. By the content, I could tell that the stuff the narrator said was deliberately removed/changed in the ebook. A friend who often listens and reads at the same time told me this happens a lot. I find that so interesting! I wish I could do this more often to hear all the differences but alas, library availability of both ebooks and audiobooks doesn't always line up as perfectly as they did for Pizza Girl.

i had pizza while reading this and now I'm feeling acidic because of the marinara sauce

a 3.5/5

even though it started out well, the writing was pretty smooth and easy to get through. at times it was dull and even though the MC was kind of boring, I still wanted to know everything about her. I think this book was written well surrounding the teenage pregnancy, but also about how when everything is going well around you, you never feel grateful enough to appreciate it. her mom and billy were supportive and were there for her, but she wasn't within herself. you can tell for the most part that she was detached from her real self but it was not her fault. i don't have much to say about this book, because while I had slight fun, it kind of confused me as well. was the MC bi? or was she simply obsessed for a while? did she need a distraction from her reality? the fact that she was pregnant and had nothing going on in her life? maybe she was still grieving and while she was trying her utmost best to not be her father, the fear of becoming like him drove her into him exactly. i think the author did a good job highlighting the topic surrounding daughters' fear of becoming like their negligent/abusive fathers.

Nothing less than how we draw meaning from the world is the subject of this one. Reminded me of the alt lit I loved in college, but with more heart.

fucked my shit UP and made me sad, once again, that all books eventually have to come to an end. very happy that this book's particular one sat right with my spirit.

do yourself a favor and read this book...

This is so punk rock. While I finish another Asian-American novel wrestling with notions of identity, navigating micro-aggressions and the weighty calculus of being a “model minority” I get to follow it up with this debut from queer Korean-American Jean Kyoung Frazier. Her Korean-American protagonist Pizza Girl is 18 and pregnant. She's not wringing her hands about what it means to be bi-racial and raise a child who will technically be more white than Korean, or worrying about how her dopey white boyfriend and her Korean mother will get along (great actually). Instead she's a bit on the brink and actively trying to blow up her own life. She's sneaking off to her dead father's shed in the middle of the night to drink beers and watch infomercials. She's working pizza delivery and has maybe developed a bit of a crush on a middle-aged suburban mom who requested pickles on her pizza to placate her 7-year old son. It's an L.A. slacker novel that happens to revolve around a queer Korean-American girl I didn't know I wanted. While other writers are thanking George Saunders and Uma Thurman, Frazier is shouting out Tallboy who tackled the California neon cover based on a pizza shirt he designed that she owns. Frazier's just out here living her best life and I'm here for it.

2.5

The description sounded so good and i really thought I will love it but here we are. It was funny and had interesting parts but overall it was very boring. It's so short but i couldnt push thru without an audiobook on 2x speed which isnt good. I didint hate it, i like the writting style and the humor but thats about it.

This is what I'm fucking talking about. THIS IS WHAT I'M FUCKING TALKING ABOUT!! The protagonist is going the FUCK through it and I loved the prose of this. It's sweaty, it's gross, it's sick and thick and it sticks to your shoes like a puddle of orange soda in the middle of a pizza shop left unmopped. This left me feeling unmopped. I adored this.

Wow. Just wow.
I feel as though I should warn readers of Pizza Girl: don't just surface read this. It is fantastic.
I don't think I've ever read a novel that featured a character like Pizza Girl. The closest I can come to (and my brain just can't help itself, it constantly wants to compare what I am reading to what I have read before) is Ottessa Moshfegh's Eileen. But not quite.
Our main character is walking on a knife's edge. She is unconnected to life, pregnant, and without a goal or path to follow. She is unaware that the clock is ticking. I have known women like her, I have been her, but I have never seen a character like her in fiction before. Our beloved Pizza Girl's life, at this point, could go one of two ways: okay or bad. She's recovering from trauma (and if you think being raised by an alcoholic isn't traumatic, then you were not raised by one). She has a safety net that is just not good enough.
She is lost, adrift. And then she meets a woman who stirs up complicated feelings in her. Is Jenny her ideal adult, seen as a savior, a hand that might pull Pizza Girl back from the cliff's edge? It's all so very complex and absolutely fascinating. How often do we see female relationships like this in fiction? Never. It's not the female version of a bromance, I lack the word for it. It's not an obsession, perhaps a cry for help? Is Jenny just as lost? Frazier shows us again and again that the people in Pizza Girl's life who exemplify ideals (the perfect couple, the weak mother, Jenny) are not who they appear to be. It's all confusing because life is confusing.
My words cannot express how layered this is. I know I'll be thinking about it for a very long time.