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iwonaz's review
5.0
Rest in peace Mrs S and the Matron you would’ve loved Good Luck, Babe! by Chappell Roan.
aj_16__'s review
4.0
✨ bless queer literature and the big fat tears it gives me ✨
I cannot quote enough lines from this or this entire review will be filled with them.
This book is very much reminiscent of The Portrait of a Lady On Fire and Written on The Body by Jeanette Winterson for me. And I loved it so so much.
I need a 1000 more re-reads of this. I need to seep it in tea and drink it.
(Even though it made me cry at the end)
I cannot quote enough lines from this or this entire review will be filled with them.
This book is very much reminiscent of The Portrait of a Lady On Fire and Written on The Body by Jeanette Winterson for me. And I loved it so so much.
I need a 1000 more re-reads of this. I need to seep it in tea and drink it.
(Even though it made me cry at the end)
booksarebrainfood's review
3.0
Mrs S by K. Patrick ✨ 30
I want to give this book its flowers because it got me out of a slump and that is not easy to do!
Mrs S follows a young woman who works as the Matron in an all girls boarding school. As a queer woman she often feels out of place in this institution that values tradition and religion, but she soon falls for Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife who is seemingly her opposite.
The yearning in this book would put you into a coma, my god. The tension that K Patrick builds is really masterful and enveloping. The writing is stunning and I really liked the subversion of this growing trope of identity being muddled when entering an affair with a married person. This book says a lot about belonging and being lost and craving acceptance.
I did feel like this book could have been a lot shorter…
I want to give this book its flowers because it got me out of a slump and that is not easy to do!
Mrs S follows a young woman who works as the Matron in an all girls boarding school. As a queer woman she often feels out of place in this institution that values tradition and religion, but she soon falls for Mrs S, the headmaster’s wife who is seemingly her opposite.
The yearning in this book would put you into a coma, my god. The tension that K Patrick builds is really masterful and enveloping. The writing is stunning and I really liked the subversion of this growing trope of identity being muddled when entering an affair with a married person. This book says a lot about belonging and being lost and craving acceptance.
I did feel like this book could have been a lot shorter…
bethal's review
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
The perfect sapphic ending to my year!
Ultimate, unbridled yearning: hand grazing, longing stares, withheld breaths. The good shit!!
You can absolutely tell Patrick is a poet. The prose, though occasionally confusing, was lyrical, poetic, melodically disjointed in the right way. The ending was a little rushed and sudden without much reason but all in all, I really enjoyed it!
Very bittersweet and very much ‘Good Luck Babe’! Also, sapphic friendships!! Excellent!
I look forward to reading more of Patrick’s work. Especially the poetry!!!
Ultimate, unbridled yearning: hand grazing, longing stares, withheld breaths. The good shit!!
You can absolutely tell Patrick is a poet. The prose, though occasionally confusing, was lyrical, poetic, melodically disjointed in the right way. The ending was a little rushed and sudden without much reason but all in all, I really enjoyed it!
Very bittersweet and very much ‘Good Luck Babe’! Also, sapphic friendships!! Excellent!
I look forward to reading more of Patrick’s work. Especially the poetry!!!
sindsreads's review against another edition
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
this was not what i thought this book was gonna be like. this writing style, not my taste.
difficult to read and get the hang of, 296 pages of choppy, stark writing that had no flow whatsoever, i didn’t know what was happening half the time.
writing aside, this book, set in the 80’s i’m assuming, explores suppressed desire and struggling identity. the nameless protagonist, 22, feels out of place in her life and has a somewhat awkward personality. she meets the headmasters wife and finds herself irresistibly drawn to her. mrs s; confident, elegant, unapologetically herself. she is the opposite of our protagonist and they find themselves entwined in a secret relationship for some time.
makes sense for our protagonist to feel lost in a world where different sexualities and identities are not yet discovered or accepted. where a desire for something ‘taboo’ seams into a desire for human connection, desire for love and understanding, and a desire to understand oneself. a young adult who finds comfort in someone who seemingly has it all together; until she doesn’t and starts questioning her own identity.
i feel like the dynamic between the two had no substance, which again i blame the writing style. this was a no from me.
miaheartsbooks's review
2.0
I wanted to like this much more than I did but ultimately found it quite dull and unremarkable and very nearly didn't bother finishing it. The only part I was really engaged in was the friendship between the narrator and the Housemistress, I didn't really feel sold on the central relationship with Mrs S or what its appeal was supposed to be. I almost wish the focus was more on the pupils who seemed to be up to far more interesting things. Also, a clearly very deliberate writing style but one that I found just created too much distance and opaqueness.
kimnarby's review
5.0
This book demands you to pay attention, and be patient. It was a slow burn for me, but ultimately one of the most beautiful books I’ve ever read. I loved the way the author spoke about lesbian culture, and the relationship between the protagonist and the other queer teacher at the school. I could not recommend it more and will definitely be rereading it at some point.
foggy_rosamund's review
1.0
DNF at P.160
How can a book that is about some of my favourite subjects - gender, being queer, a relationship between an older and young woman, and is set on a campus - be so unbearably boring? I kept trying but after a while the annoying stylistic quirks - no quotation marks or even a new line for dialogue, for instance, and no one is given a name - became too much for me, coupled with the relentless tedium. I don't know how this missed the mark so badly!
How can a book that is about some of my favourite subjects - gender, being queer, a relationship between an older and young woman, and is set on a campus - be so unbearably boring? I kept trying but after a while the annoying stylistic quirks - no quotation marks or even a new line for dialogue, for instance, and no one is given a name - became too much for me, coupled with the relentless tedium. I don't know how this missed the mark so badly!