Sarah Rose Etter

"Etter brilliantly, viciously lays bare what it means to be a woman in the world, what it means to hurt, to need, to want, so much it consumes everything." --Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist "I loved every page of this gorgeous, grotesque, heartbreaking novel." --Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties A surreal exploration of one woman's life and death against a landscape of meat, office desks, and bad men. The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in. Twining the drama of the everyday -- school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents -- with the surreal -- rivers of thighs, men for sale, and fields of throats -- Cassie's realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty.

The Book of X

*The Believer Book Awards, 2019: Editors' Longlists in Fiction *The Northern California ‘Golden Poppy’ Book Awards 2019, Fiction longlist *A Best Book of 2019 —Vulture, Entropy, Buzzfeed, Thrillist "Etter brilliantly, viciously lays bare what it means to be a woman in the world, what it means to hurt, to need, to want, so much it consumes everything.” —Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist "I loved every page of this gorgeous, grotesque, heartbreaking novel." —Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties A surreal exploration of one woman's life and death against a landscape of meat, office desks, and bad men. The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in. Twining the drama of the everyday — school-age crushes, paying bills, the sickness of parents — with the surreal — rivers of thighs, men for sale, and fields of throats — Cassie’s realities alternate to create a blurred, fantastic world of haunting beauty.

Lindy

Despite bearing the marks of being workshopped to hell and back, The Book of X remains simple, almost juvenile. Provides fodder for a case for declaring a twenty year moratorium on magical realism-adjacent feminist-inflected fiction. Similar in theme and approach to You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, which I now appreciate more.

A surrealistic novel about living with a disability, infused with love, family relationship, bullying, isolation, friendship, and many other things. Pedih :(((((. The surrealistic aspects felt random sometimes, but it still resulted in striking world-building and momentous events. The writing's pretty good, the characters are rootable. I was happy and sad for Cassie most of the time. I took hits the most from her complex relationship with her family, and the lifelong treatment for the knot on her body. Sugar water injection? It could be a satire for so many things, kinda funny and dark at the same time. The last chapter was a bit abrupt, but I guess that can happen in real life too. Anyway, our perception of time changes as we grow old, not to mention while grieving. And people can just be unlucky like that. Learning about the reality of disability for the bearer through a surrealistic piece like this kind of both eases and enhances the emotional impact. Also, the knot might be physical, but just like other symbolisms in the book, I think it can also be read as other things. As such, the book might also speak to anyone carrying any externally unacceptable burden, something objected to be fixed, and something that might be painful on its own, but also brings miseries and alienation for all the wrong reasons. As we root for Cassie, perhaps in this mirror of a book we can also see that being different doesn't deprive people of the right to happiness and wishes to be loved. This book is painful as much as it is realistic. But if the world is unkind, we don't have to be too. I'm wishing Cassie peace wherever she is now.

It's available as an audiobook on Scribd. But this book has quite an irregular form. Better enjoy it in writing I suppose. Don't forget to check the CW.

Rosie Vulaj

i feel sick. reading this at a grieving point in my life was NOT a good idea. still a beautiful read regardless

Caitlyn Baldwin

4.25 ⭐

This novel definitely has the mildly unsettling eeriness of magical realism. The author uses descriptors beautifully to paint an immersive landscape and narrative

The Book of X

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