Reviews with content warning for Body shaming - Dogs of Summer

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Reviews tagging 'Body shaming'

Dogs of Summer by Andrea Abreu

20 reviews

james1star's review against another edition

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challenging emotional funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This book was okay I guess, I’m not too sure really on how to review it in all honesty. It certainly started well and you get the sense from page one Abreu is not going to hold back. Whilst it’s a little (well lotta) unpleasant to start a book with a girl making herself throw up, I did actually love the rawness and no-self-control aspect of these characters, preparing myself for a no-shits-given read. The book is all from the POV of an unnamed ten year old girl given the nickname ‘shit’ by her friend Isora and their poverty-ridden life in the hills of Tenerife. The first three quarters of the book just follows these two as they go about, not really doing much and it’s for sure more of a character-driven novel. I did like this to start and Abreu does give us a good character study and represents the harsh life of those living in Tenerife with a big divide between the locals and tourists well. But… it does get a bit much after some time with repetitive scenarios of gross bodily functions with the reading experience becoming quite uncomfortable and sickening to be frank. She presents female sexuality, puberty and growing up in an raw light which I appreciate but it does get too crass. I don’t mind crass books and can forgive them sometimes but the more it went on I didn’t get any sense of a true message or crux to it so maybe she was just adding these in for the sake of it? The book leads up to a climatic event and onwards I really began to dislike it more so, I don’t think the topics were presented all that well and it’s just quite an irritating read.

Like I said, this is quite a difficult book to review because I think the translation is really what let it down. I’ve read lots of reviews (well more so the comments on these) and it’s apparent those who read the original Spanish rated it higher and it was received better there. This is a book that is meant to be representing poor Spanish women in the Canary Islands so when I, a working class cis-presenting man who’s lived my whole life in London, reads this I can’t grapple the culture and life to the best of my ability. That’s not to say I can’t rationalise and see things from other’s perspective but maybe some books just aren’t meant to be translated and possibly this is the case for Dogs of Summer which is a shame. The nuance of Abreu’s craft in regards to the story and character studies was likely lost in the translation process. However, there still are some Spanish-speaking reviews that rated it low.

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victoriakvitnes's review against another edition

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medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.0

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taylorsevalia's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Content Warnings

lidia7's review against another edition

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challenging medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

Content Warnings

rayannotates's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Content Warnings

savvylit's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Dogs of Summer is a fast-paced novel about growing pains, toxic friendships, sexual awakening, and violence. Andrea Abreu captures the feelings and frustrations of growing up so effectively that I often felt uncomfortable - like I was reading a ten-year-old's journal. I genuinely cringed as I imagined their antics and interactions with friends. Dogs of Summer is a reminder that children can be cruel as often as they can be incredibly intuitive.

One of the primary highlights of this novel is Abreu's writing style. Translator Julia Sanches has maintained so many playful and downright funny slang terms that both girls use. The slang and matter-of-fact narration are what really make this book feel like an honest peek into someone else's childhood.

Content Warnings

paperknotbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

My feelings about this book are complicated: a small part of me thinks “ew,” but it’s full of endearment. There’s so much innocence to the narrative voice, that I can’t help but feel charmed. There’s a lot of descriptions of shit, and wedgie picking, and awkward sexual experiences, but they’re compared to quietness of Barbies, or the colorful markers, or whatever is inside that box of licorice.

The story covers little snippets from a summer in the early aughts, with focus on minute details from our 10 year old narrator’s complicated friendship with a girl from her neighborhood named Isora. For example, a chapter could be called “Jesus’s Little Head,” which is a small detail of an engraving on the headboard of her friend’s dead mother, and the story is about an early childhood lesbian experience.

This book won’t mesh with you, if you’re squeamish about basic bodily functions, because there are a lot, and they are… I guess graphic is the word I want here. I will not forget this book, for sure!

Thank you NetGalley and Astra House for allowing me to consume this amazing book… even though I kind of forgot I had it and let the license expire, but I bought the book before I realized the license expired. Oops! It was grand anyway!

Content Warnings