Name: g.m.'s review of Boy Parts by Eliza Clark
Item: Boy Parts
Rating: 3.5
Author: g.m.

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.

hessensitive

I don't go away after I've had my photo taken. I have to look at myself everyday, so a collection of selfies, for me, is less of an exercise of narcissism, more a record of my own gradual decay. 

The way blue collar business men are referred to as 'suits' similar to how Bateman refers to attractive women as 'hard bodies' in American Psycho. 

Eddie, Eddie, Eddie from Tesco, shall I compare thee to a heavily discounted piece of meat on the reduced shelf at the end of the day? Thou art cheaper and, hopefully, fresher. 

He's my favourite kind of boy to shoot, I think. A nice boy. A boy who works a demeaning job and has the subtleties of his beauty overlooked by glamorous women and the industries of the aesthetic.

lily

You know, you want to think you're... You want to think you're not like other women, but you are, you know. You're still... that's still how the rest of the world, how men are going to see you. Like, I know you hate labels, but like... You live in a woman's body. You're vulnerable. No matter what you think, you're vulnerable, and sometimes, you'll need other people. Friends. Me.

I order cabs, I make men go away, I make drug deals happen, I get us into places. In the land of the borderline autistic, the man who can make eye contact is king. I've known Finch for three years and he's never looked me in the eye once.

The kind of boy who's bewildered, and grateful, and will gaze down the barrel of my camera and do anything for me.

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 read it on the bus. Flo's theory about me having Borderline Personality Disorder is this weird long-standing thing, and I'm sure if someone else tried to give me a diagnosis without being qualified to do so, she'd be the first person to jump in with accusations of ableism.

Ryan glares at me. When Ergi leaves, I stop crying.

'It's fucked up how you can turn that on and off, Ryan says, handing me the water, the napkins.

'It's fucked up that you sell coke, I say. 'That's all wrapped up in child slavery and shit.'

Ryan looks outraged. Ryan thinks it doesn't count as harassment if you're good looking, and Ryan thinks he's good looking.

Najwaf

yasmini

He's a vision in polyester, a checkout movie star; he's the Oscar Isaac of random boys

She liked Harry Styles a few years ago, and now she likes that white-bread, absolute fucking baguette of a lad from Call Me by Your Name. 

kemi

‘Excuse me,’ I say. I go down to the toilets, where I spend five minutes slamming the balls of my palms into my face, and my thighs, screaming with a closed mouth. I hit my head till my ears ring, then sit on the toilet with my skull between my knees, till the ringing stops and my breathing is steady. I smooth down my hair and my clothes and go back to the table. Sera’s brow is crinkled, the worry lines on her forehead are deep. ‘I’m fine,’ I say. It sounds snappy, so I smile at her. ‘I’m fine.’

sophia

She liked Harry Styles a few years ago, and now she likes that white-bread, absolute fucking baguette of a lad from Call Me by Your Name.

Natalie Stenson

Oliwia Prokorym 

Nicki

Tough read only because Irina is so unlikeable… worth it though for the ending! 

g.m.

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.

Lili

Really engaging & got me out of my reading slump, but I can't shake off the feeling that Irina is just like those male photographers who takes photos of almost naked conventionally attractive women with minor physical quirks & calls it 'art'. 

Also, why did she give Patrick Bateman 'are the things I do actually real, am I monster?' vibes at the very end?

Really engaging & got me out of my reading slump, but I can't shake off the feeling that Irina is just like those male photographers who takes photos of almost naked conventionally attractive women with minor physical quirks & calls it 'art'. 

Also, why did she give Patrick Bateman 'are the things I do actually real, am I monster?' vibes at the very end?

abi a

Daisy Cooper

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.

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.

gülsu

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?

The cover piqued my interest, however overall it was just really boring. Apparently this book is supposed to be sickening and compulsive, but there was hardly anything. And i kept waiting for something to happen- which i almost got there but then no. nothing. I really don’t get the point of this book. However, i liked the unreliability of the character, and i quite liked how insufferable she was.

Aimee :)

Elisavet Rozaki 

I spent my free time inside the mind of a complete female psychopath/manipulator and it was SO MUCH FUN.

ghost girl in satin

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

Regan Martin

Mary Marshall

Rodrigo Figueiredo Severino

Support women’s rights and also women’s wrongs.

This book was definitely entertaining but felt like it tried to hard to be overtly subversive and edgy. It had so much potential ultimately did not end up doing much for me. i should stop taking recommendations from tik tok. 

Ned Summers 

Kendall McClain

Perfectly horrifying, have thought of this ever day since I read it truly amazing! Second fav of all time right now

risa

did i like this? yes. would i recommend it to anyone? no! 

Nicki &
Boy Parts by Eliza Clark

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