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In the Red by Elena Mauli Shapiro, 2014

Edgy and perhaps mildly erotic. It sort of lacks a heavy underlying problem but is stark and desperate.

Bleak.

3.5/5

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In the Cut by Susanna Moore, 1995

I was way too about this book. I might even call it a new favorite. It's sickening and exploitative and hilarious and sexy. Cracked up a bunch and then got lurchy and anxious with images of obscene vividness in my mind while my stomach was medically extracted.

Heavy sav factor. I guess I was vaguely reminded of Less Than Zero but these obviously aren't teenage losers and it's generally way more hardcore.

6/5

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Sharp Edges by Jayne Ann Krentz, 2010

Uneven ratio of steamy romance and mystery, and I don't really care about it

2.5/5

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Dark Rooms by Lili Anolik, 2015

Angsty teen mystery lamenting on loss and grief. It tackles the themes successfully but it's not a highly complex kinda ordeal. Someone dies and someone's always gotta wonder why.

3/5

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Quiet Dell by Jayne Anne Phillips, 2013

Fictionalized look at a true case of serial murdering and mail order predators seeking widows. It has elegant but dry prose, and has some good moments amongst the trial aspect but really shines early with the dramatization of the family's last days before being tortured and murdered in a torture murder garage.

3/5

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The Orchid Thief by Susan Orlean, 2000

I sure did learn a lot about orchids and now I might kinda want one or two or eight hundred of my own. Also was generally entertaining and well humored but it's not my preferred journalistic thing.

3/5

^I had no idea that that was a real book.

what'd you think it was, a parfait?

I thought it was an ebook that they made up in Adaptation.

it's an adaptation