Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this book is delirious and sparkling and mocking and joyous and horrifying and reality I LOVE it

Girlhood is such a simultaneously bizarre, fragile, robust, and liminal experience and this novel does an exceptional job at capturing the mythological and social facets of girlhood and womanhood (at least, a specific mid-century suburban type of girlhood and womanhood) that successfully stabs at its reality in a way that very few "realist" novels do. I think the book warrants reading upon reading upon reading to tease out all of its subtexts and tricks and themes. I think a kind of post-structuralist linguistic reading would be deeply productive and fascinating - the book plays with language and syntax in such a way that I believe its mirroring the process of language production to draw similar attention to the way that gender and identity are similarly and differently mediated through language and social engagement. Really really standout.

I'm adding this to the category of books that makes me feel like the author has used the book to cast a spell of some kind - along with Mona, Yellow Back Radio Broke Down, Near to the Wild Heart, and Dhalgren.