Welcome to Litsy!

I‘m struggling to decide how I feel about this book, because it‘s undoubtedly well done, but it‘s also difficult to read and near impossible to recommend – even long after turning the last page, I feel unsettled and upset by it, which is undoubtedly the point. Full review: https://keepingupwiththepenguins.com/trust-exercise-susan-choi-review/

Was initially so into this book as a former high school techie, I loved how in depth it went into analyzing the lives of theatre kids and their over-involved director. And then the second part comes and it‘s very ambitious but it makes for a more distanced experience. I can admire more what Choi is doing here vs getting into the story. But what a climax there is to the second section! Chekhov would be most pleased.

Starting this book, I had no idea what it was about. With about 7 pages left, I had no idea what it was about. Here are the feels:

1) an unending sense of unease was the theme
2) it‘s labelled as a coming of age/romance, but I‘ve never been more disgusted with the opposite sex while reading
3) it was uncomfortable and confusing and maybe meta?

I‘ll be confused for a while. If others have read it, please explain it to me. 🤣

⭐️⭐️.5

Trust Exercise by Susan Choi is a novel split into three parts:

• Part 1 follows two high school drama students, Sarah and David, under the tutelage of their manipulative drama teacher, Mr. Kingsley, who uses intense trust exercises to blur reality and performance.
• Part 2 reveals that Sarah and David are characters in a novel written by one of the students, shifting the narrative to explore the nature of fiction, memory, and authorship. ⬇️

I don't get it.

This one is almost a "pan" for me, but I gave it a pass because it has a few phrases and descriptions that I appreciate. I suppose the narrators are meant to be unreliable or at the very least inconsistently informed, but I had trouble figuring out the relationships between the characters. The timeline was also challenging as there were few differences in tone between the segments set in the 80s, 90s, 00s, and 10s.

I have mixed feelings about this book overall, but I love this quote (although I disagree with the comma).

"Obsession is an accidental haunting, by a person not aware she's a ghost."

I am posting one book per day from my extensive to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it, I just do. Some will be old, some will be new. Don‘t judge me - I have a lot of books. Join in if you want!

#ABookADay2023

I NEVER do this but… this one‘s a DNF for me.

I feel like I‘ve been reading this too long for me to only be on page 70. I‘m clearly not connecting with it and since I soooo cherish my summer reading, I think it‘s time to move on to something more enjoyable.
🤷🏻‍♀️

While I appreciate the experimentation of this novel, and I found the characters compelling, it stopped working for me eventually, I became less interested; was it because of the twist? Maybe, but I‘m not sure that‘s it.

The “unreliability” theme is a tough dance to pull off; like balancing on a wire—you don‘t want to go too far one way or the other. I think in this case she might‘ve tipped too much.

The first half was cool though.

We almost never know what we know until after we know it.

On balance I liked this - it was certainly original and a bold choice to write what seemed like the first half of one book and then the second half of a completely different book. I enjoyed having things left up to me to decode, I found the level of pretentiousness appropriate to the setting so I minded that less than some people.

Continued in comment

I don‘t really do New Year‘s Eve or New Year‘s Day much but I am excited for a new goodreads reading challenge and working as hard as I can at the #bfc2022 fitness challenge. I don‘t find New Years that significant at all apart from as the time the goodreads challenge switches over lol

Today I did an aerobics workout for #bfc2022 and did a decent chunk of reading around my teaching in the afternoon. Feeling pleased with myself 🥰

@wanderinglynn

The first half of this was a slog, and I‘m still debating if it was worth going through it to get to the more interesting second half. It featured a couple of narrative tricks that didn‘t *quite* land the emotional punches for me I think they were meant to. It‘s between a so-so and a pan for me, but closer to the latter.

⭐️⭐️• It feels so pretentiously written, it‘s almost funny but also perfect because ✨theatRE ✨ people are generally pretentious. But it‘s also totally ridiculous and hard to read. The last two sections read better, but can‘t make up for the long slog of a first section.

This was a bit like reading a puzzle. It wasn't your average novel. It uniquely switches gears smack in the middle of the book and it took me a while to adjust, but once I did, I really wanted to find out how it ended. Certain things were implied rather than stated outright. I ended up a little confused, but I rather liked it. The book will stick with me.

3/5 for this one. I am not sure what I just read. I haven‘t stopped thinking about it since I read it. I am not really sure whose story was true and whose wasn‘t.

I‘m ready for May with my #BookSpinBINGO list!

You ever have a book on your wish list that once you read it you are left thinking "why in the world did I have this in my tbr?"
That would be this book for me.
I don‘t understand what actually went on. It was all over the place. Am I suppose to like any of these people? What the heck happened exactly?
I give it 2.5 stars only because I didn't stop reading it. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't good. The cover says it's "electrifying" ?
No. #false

Each part is worse than the one before.

#Two4Tuesday @TheSpineView
1. Quarrel in Live and let Die and Doctor No.He helps Bond, he trains him, he saves his life and then....dies. it's so tragic and Bond doesn't even seem particularly cut up about it.
2.I loved Trust exercise and then...that end.Completely pointless and made me feel like there was no point reading the book at all.

Nope. Couldn‘t get through it. Didn‘t care about the characters and the writing style was a tad annoying to me.
#doublespin #bookspinbingo

November #bookspin list - here we go again!!

@TheAromaofBooks

I couldn‘t do it. I just wasn‘t connecting with it. I‘m sure I‘ll try it again at a later date, but today it is a #DNF for me.

I just couldn‘t connect to the plot or characters. It feels a bit overwritten to me.

#bookspin #bookspinbingo #doublespin

I started the audiobook for Trust Exercise while I work today so I could make traction on my October #bookspin

I‘m having a really hard time getting in to this one. Has anyone read this one? Should I stick this out? I‘m not normally one to abandon a book, even if I‘m not enjoying it because I find I often like it better in the second half.

Let me know what your experience has been with this book!

Just another #ManicMonday #letterT
📚Tagged book 👍🏽
✒️Amor Towles
🍿Titanic
🎤Train
🎶Take Me To Church
https://open.spotify.com/track/7dS5EaCoMnN7DzlpT6aRn2?si=XlTUPh4PQnK2eZBBE_Sk2g

I have tried to read this book three times in the last year. The first part is hard to get through. So I picked it up again, determined to finish this award winning book. I finished it but I did not enjoy the book‘s structure, plot or characters. I am guessing I missed something clever that is above my head but it all felt uncomfortable and contrived. Hopefully my next read will be more satisfying.

TW: statutory rape

Not sure how I feel about this one. The beginning involves a lot of graphic sex between teenagers, and in some cases, between teenagers and adults. I would have bailed if it weren‘t for my book club, but then the second half took a turn for the much more interesting and thoughtful commentary on the 1st half, but I still had to get through the 1st half to get to the 2nd half and I resent that.

I‘ve been on the waitlist at the library forever! Very mixed reviews on Litsy. Let‘s go!

Endlessly inventive, stirring, provocative. I thoroughly enjoyed this. One of the smartest books I‘ve read in a long time.

“Heartbreak will come to seem like a rather luxurious reason for pain.”

Ugh. I usually enjoy National Book Award winners but this book was not for me. I had to push myself to get into, finally got there, then it switched to a new point in time and I hated that section, then the last section was a let down. Definitely would not recommend.

This year's National Book Award winner, Trust Exercise, shares a similar theme to 2018's winner, The Friend by Sigrid Nunez.

While the two are very different books, both authors take a look at what is fact and what is fiction in novels. 2 of the 3 narrators sound very similar to one another, but overall they do a respectable job narrating the audiobook. I can't say I loved this book, but I liked it.

Overall rating: 4.01 stars

A "trust exercise" indeed. I want to be one of the cool kids who adore this, turns out I might not be ☹️?
Without ruining it for future readers, here's hint about what you're reading -- not all is as it seems. But how far does the author take this concept? That's what unsettled me about the whole reading experience. What exactly can we believe? I appreciate this style, but ultimately, I don't enjoy second guessing myself through an entire novel.

Listening to this book is a 'trust exercise' in and of itself! I'm nearly halfway and trying to make my mind up about this. 🤨
#audiobook #libby

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I really didn‘t love this at first. Sarah is absolutely insufferable. The story is overwritten and underwhelming. But, when the timeline and narrative style shift, the story cleverly reveals itself. The second bit moves effortlessly between first and third person, providing much more information, broadening the scope, and making sense of part one. Then, another shift. Brilliant ending.

🎧🧩 Another puzzle completed! About to wrap up the tagged audiobook as well.

#audiopuzzling

🎧🧩 I‘m a little over halfway through this book and can‘t quite decide if I love or hate the style shift. We‘ll see!

#audiopuzzling

This book is written in such an interesting way - switches from third to first person sometimes in the same paragraph, characters' names change in different parts of book. By my low rating, I'm not saying it was a bad book; rather, it simply wasn't for me.

#TOB2020

I only read Choi and didn‘t like it much so I am not objective today. In fact I don‘t really care who will be today‘s winner 🙈

What I did like about this book: it made me reflect on my own HS years and on the power Dynamics of my teachers.

What I didn't like about this book: this book needed trigger warnings, why trigger warnings aren't added to book and Audiobooks is a mystery to me.

Second, what the hell is with that ending?? I thought the author was gonna go one way only to be thrown in a completely different direction...

Okay so once again, I get to a part in the story and find myself wondering if what I am listening to is consensual behavior by two characters... And Lord it's never mentioned before hand that this will come up... And it's starting to piss me off... Ugh.

Look, trigger warnings are helpful for me they help.prepare me to deal with the emotional heavyness of a scene in the book, so that I can continue to read it. Maybe I am over reacting.

Started reading this book this week, I am loving the narrator and the overall story. It's flowing well and is good at keeping my attention.

#TOB2020

4/5
I really didn‘t know what to make of this book. I kept thinking about it for awhile. It wasn‘t the easiest book to get into but once it grabbed me it didn‘t let go. The writing is both beautiful and jarring at the same time. And I couldn‘t stop thinking about the very different narratives from these women. I judged them and how they dealt with their “experiences”. And because I saw myself in all of them, I judged myself and continue to do so..

Definitely not a book for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. I loved how much it challenged me as a reader, how I can‘t stop thinking about it since finishing it, and how much I want to talk about it with others.
In style, it gave me vibes of Fates & Furies and also The Unchangeable spots of Leopards.... two books I adore. So although this books themes of truth, storytelling and perception may not be the most original, it totally worked for me.

Just starting part 2 of this book (which I‘m loving) and feeling a bit picked on! 😂
What‘s wrong with my name anyway!!?! 😂

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I know this is such a divisive book but I really liked it. The first part is full of teen angst and emotion, but I think you have to know that and take it for what it is. The second part I found fascinating. I love how this book made me think. It was more of a slow burn and I found it worth sticking through to the end.