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I loved this book so much that about halfway through I actively tried to read slower so it wouldn’t end. I also truly don’t understand the negative reviews for this book?? What were people expecting? Did they want it to be blatantly political? To feel prescient? To have order? Lol. The funny thing is to me this felt like the most political book I’ve read in recent memory, the decadence of western civilization on full display.

I loved the constant class comparison. I loved the air of disillusionment that permeated through the book, each page more ludicrous and emotionally detached than the last. I loved the way Zaher would create build-up and then leave me hanging.

While reading I was constantly developing expectations, like the author was about to really say something and challenge the status quo. But then it always kind of fell flat, or she never quite went there, or the narrator shifted gears. The first time it happened I didn’t get it, it felt weird to read and it made me a little uncomfortable and all of the one star reviews came to mind. But soon I realized maybe it was an intentional and brilliant literary device, and perhaps the entire point of the book.

I loved the way it felt like Zaher was playing tricks on me with the flighty and fallible narrator. I went in with zero expectations, partly due to the mixed/negative reviews, but this book ended up revealing a deep wisdom through its playful poking at humanity—that we live in a world of corporate aesthetics divorced from nature where money is king; and that above all we yearn for beauty, even if it’s a force of oppression, even if it’s at our own detriment.