Not for me

So apparently this book has depths and metaphors that I’m just not getting. Admittedly, I didn’t read to closely because, like, 40% of this was just awkward, graphic sex scenes and that is super not my bag. There’s also another very valid reason I didn’t like this book but I’ll do my best to push it below the fold.

Okay, quickie plot. Our protagonist, whose name I’ve already forgotten, is a PhD student in Phoenix who has been stalled for years on her thesis on Sapho and filling in the blanks (yes, I remember her thesis subject, but not her name). She has a rather unglamorous breakup with a long-term boyfriend she wasn’t sure she wanted to be with anyway, but has a very hard time getting over him so takes her sister up on the opportunity to house- and dog-sit somewhere on the coast of California. Here she starts group therapy for sex/love addiction and starts to learn about unconditional love thanks to Dominic, the diabetic pup full of slobbery affection.

Spoiler alert: She kills the damn dog. This book can fuck off forever.

Also she meets and falls in love with a fishman. More merman than Shape of Water, if you’re wondering, but don’t worry, the tail bit starts just low enough to still allow for the necessary equipment. Ugh. I just can’t get past the graphic nature of so much of this to give it the consideration that I guess makes it a queer novel. There’s the “falling in love with someone regardless of what they’re shaped like” but there’s also a sex scene to rival THAT from Fifty Shades.