The Female of the Species by Mindy McGinnis
I'm not even sure what to share. I wasn't fully sure what I was going into when I read this book. I didn't know the number of triggers there were. I didn't know that it would be so brutally raw that my heart would race and at times I thought I would throw up. I didn't know that I would be in the middle of a test and want to just scream as I read the pages leading up to the climax.
If that doesn't tell you enough about this book I'm not sure what will. This book has everything that high school can be. It takes me on this path I didn't ask to be a part of but I couldn't stop reading. (I would like to note that I'm writing this right after finishing it and my hands are still shaking from the ending).
This book has it all and this review will not be spoiler free, just to warn you.
My thought on the topic is so everywhere, I'm not even sure this will make sense. I'm going to list all the triggers I can think of when I was reading this novel. Rape, molestation, death, alcoholism, underage drinking….
I must give McGinnis some props though. I think she did a good job of showing each of these. I'm not sure I could do it the same way.
Her characters were something as well. I went on a trip with them. We felt things together. We connected. They showed me the story in the best way I could ever think of.
The cover may have you thinking this book is simple and sweet but it ripped right into me and I can't look at the world the same. One thing that stuck with me wasn't the killing, or the sex or even the rape culture this book shows, it's this small line, "are you interested in her." For me as a person, I don't really fall in love. I'm more of a person who thinks someone is cool and don't realize that they are detoxing until someone said something or we break up. This book had me going on this love trip and I think it's really changed the way I see the world.
At the end of this book, I started thinking about the genre this book falls under and I couldn't think of it. Maybe romance, thriller maybe. From Google, I found that it is a contemporary YA novel. Do I think this fits that novel? Yes to a point.
To focus on my usual parts, characters, and plot:
The characters were good. I think they work well with the story. The story you tell should impact your characters and your characters should impact the story. Without what each character when through, the story would have come out in a very different way.
Was I always happy with the characters' choices and wish I could be there to yell at them? Yes. But what this the best part? Also yes.
As I do more and more reading in finding it easier to get into the characters and feel what they feel. Great prose also works. McGinnis' decision to write the novel in the first person with rotating pov characters was a make or break the decision of the book and I'm very happy she wrote it that way.
I think the one thing I could say against this book would be I didn't see how some chapters connected right away. A few left me thinking why did she add this? It would take another chapter or two for me to fully understand why but it always came.
I will say, if you are thinking of reading this novel, be warned about how triggering it can be and how emotional it can get
~ Kimberly
~ Kimberly
