Name: Boy Parts
Rating: 3.595714285714286 (175 reviews)
ISBN: 9781910312636

Eliza Clark

Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol, and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best-friend, and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention.

Boy Parts

Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle.

Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol, and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina’s relationship with her obsessive best friend, and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention…

Boy Parts is the incendiary debut novel from Eliza Clark, a pitch-black comedy both shocking and hilarious, fearlessly exploring the taboo regions of sexuality and gender roles in the twenty-first century.

it's an interesting concept and i like books that focus on unlikeable protagonists but at times it felt like there wasn't much else to the story other than us not being supposed to like the narrator. an interesting read and not at all bad but not one that sticks out as a favourite

sunny

I don’t think I was the target audience for this book. It felt very “millennial girl boss” at the start. When Irina starts to spiral is where the book gets really interesting, but a lot is left unsaid in her relationships with others by the end. 

Brynn Sklar

I like the idea of flipping the script and offering a sharp feminist exploration of power, control, and the performance of gender. Like, what happens when a woman becomes the predator? When she turns her gaze on men, reducing them to bodies, props, and subjects of desire? That part is genuinely interesting. 

But story-wise? It’s just mid. The plot feels aimless at times, and some parts drag without really going anywhere. I kept waiting for something to hit harder emotionally or thematically, but it never fully landed for me. It’s more about the vibe and voice than the story itself.

I like the idea of flipping the script and offering a sharp feminist exploration of power, control, and the performance of gender. Like, what happens when a woman becomes the predator? When she turns her gaze on men, reducing them to bodies, props, and subjects of desire? That part is genuinely interesting. 

But story-wise? It’s just mid. The plot feels aimless at times, and some parts drag without really going anywhere. I kept waiting for something to hit harder emotionally or thematically, but it never fully landed for me. It’s more about the vibe and voice than the story itself.

american psycho x my year of rest and relaxation lovechild?

march🐇

This now occupies a similar space in the cultural understanding within my brain as Charli XCX's brat and any other comment seems obsolete right now.

At first, I found myself confused and a bit bored by the self-destructive path of Irina. However, as the book progressed, it was fascinating to uncover the possible reasons behind her descent into madness, along with her wish for someone to finally intervene. The lines she blurred between justifying her actions for the sake of art and simply pushing boundaries were especially intriguing. This book just leaves you wondering what is actually happening and what’s simply in her head.

I didn’t expect this book to draw me in as much as it did, but I genuinely enjoyed it despite its dark and uncomfortable themes. If you’re looking for likeable characters, this isn’t the book for you.

lily

At first, I found myself confused and a bit bored by the self-destructive path of Irina. However, as the book progressed, it was fascinating to uncover the possible reasons behind her descent into madness, along with her wish for someone to finally intervene. The lines she blurred between justifying her actions for the sake of art and simply pushing boundaries were especially intriguing. This book just leaves you wondering what is actually happening and what’s simply in her head.

I didn’t expect this book to draw me in as much as it did, but I genuinely enjoyed it despite its dark and uncomfortable themes. If you’re looking for likeable characters, this isn’t the book for you.

armoni mayes

Wow this was honestly a rollercoaster from start to finish. I can not decide whether I liked this novel or loved it; maybe in a short while I’ll be able to give a more definitive answer. 

 Boy Parts  follows a 28-year old woman named Irina, whose job is slightly out of the ordinary. She is a photographer who takes pictures and films of men in a sexually exploitative light-and crosses boundaries and quite possibly breaking the law at the same time of some of the men and boys. She is in a way your typical unlikeable unreliable narrator but even crossing the normalcies we see usually in this genre. Anyone that is in her life from her ‘best friend’ Flo, to her male models, is constantly in the wrath of Irina’s jarring and off-putting nature. She’s rude, mean, vicious, and has literally no redeemable qualities.

There comes a point where a big secret of Irina’s is revealed-and it almost becomes her threshold of how far she is willing to go. Although, much discourse around this book discusses how Irina is able to achieve her fame as a photographer, as well as doing other awful things behind the scenes, and get away with all of her wrongdoing. Irina uses her pretty privilege as well as seduction to do horrible things right under peoples noses and no one questions it because she is a woman; so inherently unthreatening in the eyes of society. And because she is able to get away with so many horrid things, it begins to send her spiraling into wondering whether she did horrid things to begin with. 

My favorite quotes: 

 It's like discovering a new flower no one else has noticed. Pressed in a photo; preserved and filed away forever, ageless and lovely and all mine. 

I have to look at myself every day, so a collection of selfies, for me, is less of an exercise in narcissism, more a record of my own gradual decay.

I wonder what the fuck I have to do for people to recognise me as a threat, you know? It's like... am I even doing this shit? Have I even fucking done anything?

Something about the way Eliza Clark writes scratches an itch deep inside my brain and I'm simply doomed to be obsessed with her 

Boy Parts

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