This was recommended this to me after i’ve said countless times that female main characters similar to the main character from My Rest and Relaxation and A Certain Hunger are bad for my mental health and leave me feeling like shit. But it’s one of my friends favorites and she said it was “different” so I gave it a try. Before I give my criticism, I want to say that I think the book was objectively good, well written, a page turner so if you’re into this type of stuff read it. But why did no one tell me that Irina, main character, was a rapist and a sexual sadist. I’m not sure why but reading about rapist raping people feels not right. I know if it was a man’s perspective I would have NEVER read it but bc it’s a girl it’s okay??? And i’m a girl’s girl but i don’t get why this book is so popular and recommended constantly. Also im tired of reading books when the main character doesn’t eat and is hot because of it. When i read the reviews i felt like no one was saying this so lmk if im crazy
by Accomplished-Will407
31 Comments
I felt the same exact way when I read it. And everyone was like unhinged girlie/American psycho if it was a woman. UMM NO. She’s just a bitch in my opinion. Not to go against your thoughts on the books, but I didn’t find the writing all that amazing. But overall, I agree with you!!
I regret to inform you tiktok recommended this.
I also recently finished this book. I couldn’t stop reading it but also don’t quite know what to make of it. I think there is something darkly compelling reading about a female character that is so unapologetically vile and selfish and contemptuous towards almost everyone.
The more I hear about booktok the more it sounds like a viral marketing strategy for books with “problematic” elements
You might enjoy Penance from Eliza Clark, but I agree that Boy Parts was over-hyped and I found it kind of “meh”
I’m currently reading this one and wish I had checked trigger warnings before I started. However I do agree that it’s written well. StoryGraph has a system where readers can add content warnings when they review books, I usually check there to see if a book will be triggering to me. Looking at it now StoryGraph does have content warnings for this book that list all the things you’ve complained about.
I didn’t love this book. For me it was just alright and is a bit overhyped. I also found the >!’I killed someone in college and got away with it’!< twist to feel a little unearned and like it was done for shock value more than a considered plot twist. I had also just recently read *Woman, Eating* by Claire Kohda, which was very thematically similar and has a similar plot arc (except add vampires) and I thought it was a much better book. So that definitely affected my enjoyment of *Boy Parts* too cause I just kept feeling like I just read a more interesting version of this same story.
>I know if it was a man’s perspective I would have NEVER read it but bc it’s a girl it’s okay???
When did the point of portraying something in a book become endorsing it or saying it’s okay?
You should be giving the side-eye to your friend for violating your trust and consent. I loved all three of these books and would throw several more out there, but they aren’t for every one. If your friend literally pushed this book on you after she had ALSO read Summers and Moshfegh and knew how you felt about them, she is objectively not a very caring friend.
You should pick up “Practical Magic” by Alice Hoffman. It will cure everything that ails you. 🤎
I really liked Boy Parts! The protagonist is one of the worst people I have ever seen in a book, but I think there’s some sick enjoyment to be had watching fucked up people do fucked up things. It was really bleak how she basically doesn’t face any consequences. But I can totally understand this not being someone’s cup of tea.
I think I’d feel the same way if I read that book too
lol that’s like saying reading a book where a murderer kills someone feels “not right.” of course it would feel “not right” it shouldn’t be right, ’cause it’s murder. same thing goes for rape and other negative heinous things in life but at the end of the day shit like that happens and people like that MC you mentioned exists and it is unfortunate and it’s a shitty life but you can’t expect the publishing market to cater only rainbows and unicorns and world peace? that’s simply a futile expectation. and it was recommended by “booktok” so of course it’s shitty I mean what did you expect?
it was okay.
Was Lolita an endorsement of the main character’s actions? I think not. It was an indictment.
Some of you are sorely lacking in critical thinking, I fear…
There are good reasons why reading or watching something can make you uncomfortable and you don’t need to apologize for it or justify your tastes. You can stop reading a book if you don’t like it. It’s quite simple, actually.
Personally, I tend to think that art should always be allowed to be uncomfortable. You can write a great novel about pedophilia (Nabokov’s *Lolita* or Alissa Nutting’s *Tampa*, though the former is certainly the better of the two), or incest (Otessa Mosfegh’s *Eileen*), hell, a Candian writer named Barbara Gowdy has written stunning short stories about necrophilia, freaks and child abuse. But you don’t have to read any of it.
Incidentally, I liked all the works mentioned above, but I hate what I call “misery porn” — books like *A Little Life*, or Wally Lamb’s *She’s Come Undone*. Those seem exploitative to me, whereas in Barbara Gowdy’s stories, or *Eileen*, there’s always a sort of silent grace, an unspoken tactfulness that doesn’t push your face into the pain and suffering.
I encourage you to learn to say no. To your friends, but also to a book or movie. If you don’t like it, put it down. Your life is time is valuable; don’t waste it with things you do not want to do.
In 10th grade, I read a book called the House of Spirits because a teacher recommended it since it was closer to my lexile (1750L at the time) than most books I read (which cap at 1000L). This book was extremely well written. The use of language was good, the use of different perspectives was good, the fact that spanned at least 50 years (and probably longer) without feeling like a narrative or history book was very well done. It is probably the most well-written book I’ve read since J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings (which is phenomenal in how well it ties itself together, especially when you read the Silmarillion and get a lot of context behind all the random names that aren’t given much explanation in the main series).
Despite all the praise I give it for being well written, however, I hated the House of the Spirits. The amount of gross s-xual stuff that happened in the book is frankly disturbing, and it’s downright disgusting in a scene near the end of the book where an adult gets ‘turned on’ by having a 7 year old—yes, a _7 year old_—girl in his lap. If that’s not bad enough, one of the main characters also had a habit of going around his plantation (I assume that’s what it is, though I can’t remember enough about it so I could be wrong. It’s at least a community that he owns and manages) and r-pes peasant girls. The author goes into disturbing detail about all of it.
I realize this isn’t talking about the about mentioned, but thought I might as well share a similar story about an experience I had with a recommended and well-written book that I despised.
i have kinda complex feels about this book cause i agree it was well written and has some cool themes. but, first of all, it was not enjoyable to read because everyone in it was either cringy and/or an AWFUL person. and i did not find it to be a page turner, i found it very predictable and drawn out; easily could have been a short story. obviously, her being awful and fatphobic is all part of the narrative that she is in fact murderous and morally flawed. but the way the book kinda doesssss suggest to you that some of this behaviour is motivated by how terrible all the men she speaks to are and how impossible it is to exist as a woman feels …. like a perversion of feminism at worst and making a worthless point at best. the book only includes very gross, insecure, clueless men. and then seems to be making a Social Commentary about that. like maybe include a normal ass man in the book and then maybe irina doesn’t have to be some weird martyr. anyway !! agreed !!
Nowadays there are so many books like “My Year of Rest and Relaxation” and I genuinely don’t understand why they are so popular.
So, as a thriller and horror reader who enjoys them, a lot of the perpetrators are men. Sometimes it’s different or unique for the “bad guy” to be a woman. I enjoyed this book even though it was a tough book to read, especially right after Bunny for me. But I think it’s never “Ok” To do horrible acts. No matter who the “bad guy” is. Just different perspectives and themes. In this case, it was interesting to me that the perpetrator was a woman. If you don’t like these kinds of books then do not force yourself to read them. We all have different thresholds for entertainment. My best friend and I only intersect in books at very light domestic thrillers and historical fiction. That’s ok! Don’t feel like you have to enjoy or appreciate anything except what you do!
I get what the book was going for, trying to write a female narcissistic sociopath struggling to reconcile her bloated sense of self-importance with the fact that, in the real world, very few people will ever view her the way she wants or give her the things she thinks she deserves. The problem is that it’s very difficult to write a character like that and not have the audience be repulsed by them.
I honestly thought I saw more in this book than there actually was. There were some hints sprinkled through the narrative that suggested that maybe she isn’t as hot as she makes out, and I was kind of expecting that to play into the story somehow, but apparently I was mistaken. I was expecting her constant idiotic risk taking with regards to dragging dangerous dudes home to have actual consequences, but that too seems to have been a false flag. I was also kinda half convinced that the big photography show she scores would turn out to be a cruel joke.
But no, she’s just an amazing photographer whose (kinda banal sounding, if I’m honest) body of work really is underappreciated gold. She really is hot as all fuck, even described as looking ten years younger than she is despite being chronically malnourished. And her risky encounters with men usually end with her getting out almost completely unscathed. If the book had ended with the tearing down of the metaphorical curtains, and forced the protagonist to face the fact that her “success” is largely just because she peddles porn to a specific class of pervert and is INCREDIBLY lucky, then we might have had something here. But no. She has a breakdown because talking to a rich dude breaks her spirit? Because her constant sexual violence isn’t properly appreciated?
“Unlikeable female protagonist” is popular right now. This book is a great example of someone wanting to write for a popular trope, but not understanding how to implement it into a plot that the reader can get something from. Yes, these narratives can be done extremely well, but “lol, here’s a few weeks in the life of an end stage deluded narcissist” is a tough nut to crack. Boy Parts, in my opinion, failed the assignment.
I think most importantly, you need to create boundaries with your friend. That recommendation without warning is not okay.
I love horror movies for example, and I’ve delved just about as deep as horror films can get to the point it’s borderline snuff. Dealing with rape, pedophilia, brutal brutal brutal gore, etc. None of them are my favorites and I don’t own any of them, but I think comes a point in every horror fan’s journey where their curiosities lead them down that rabbit hole, and that’s okay. If a friend, asked me for a horror recommendation, I would not tell him/her to watch ‘A Serbian Film’ or some off the wall fucked up shit. That’s simply not right, it’s not cool either.
It sounds like your friend basically conned you into reading rape porn, and I’d sit on that one and decide how you feel about it if I were you. If you already have some type of relationship that is open to that type of media, that’s cool, but it doesn’t sound that way from this post.
I loved it, but I love books with unlike main characters.
Emotions are always subjective because they’re illogical, and that because everyone’s different.
In this case, though, feeling as you say you do about a protagonist who is also a rapist is probably the right call. I think that’s the point of the book.
You’re always going to stumble upon weird books, and that’s okay. As long as you remind yourself of who you were BEFORE you read it, you’ll be okay 🙂
Well your friend didn’t lie when she said it was “different”…but being a reader means learning what type of books you honestly like. After a while you can generally get a feel for what a book is about just by reading the plot summary and the first 15-20 pages.
I don’t think it’s about man rapist or woman rapist. I doubt the books is endorsing or even trivializing rape because it’s from a woman’s perspective. It just is? It’s clearly meant to be shocking or say something.
Lolita is a book about abusing and kidnapping a little girl from a pedophiles perspective, I would read boy parts in the same way.
If something is too uncomfortable for you, you can and should stop reading.
I like darker books but they’re not for everyone.
Hot take: I did not enjoy this book 😂 it was NOT a page turner for me, I didn’t really get into it until around page 200, I know it was purposeful to make her insufferable but the lengths Clark went to in attempts to show her niche interests fell flat because they were SO niche that I wasn’t even following.
I mean, a little bit I think that was the point. Because she’s a girl “it’s ok”. Irina herself was like wtf? If it were a man doing this, the girl would be screaming down the hallway by now. So idk if it’s a narrative on pretty privilege or what. But the narrator is even like this is disturbing why are you not disturbed?!!!!
Does anyone have an opinion on whether there is lack of truth in the story. I definitely enjoyed this book, I laughed out loud at some of Irina’s behaviour and found some of the London night life behaviour relatable to what I’ve seen people do through the years. I’ve seen a fair amount of critique of the book on this sub and on [r/horrorlit](https://www.reddit.com/r/horrorlit/) but one thing I havent seen is people address that the narrator is unreliable.
A lot of the conversation stems around how Irina ‘gets away’ with her behaviour BUT I don’t buy that we are always in the truth of the actions, one of the things I enjoyed was the way it felt like the truth was becoming more unstable under my feet and how Irina’s loss of reality was portrayed through this, I finished out the book wondering if she was still sat at the dinner table or hell the whole book could have been a fantasy.
Also on the critique of the “main character doesn’t eat and is hot because of it” again I wonder is this is Irina’s perspective of herself, she *thinks* she’s hot and desirable but Flo’s commentary is that she is too thin. This could be the unreliable narration element skewing perspectives!
Just some thoughts, this is probably one of my favourite books this year, will try Bunny soon have seen that come up as recommended also and coincidentally saw it in a bookshop yesterday so taking the sign!