Rating: 
Summary: Love in a Book
Review: I picked up this book not knowing what to expect, my cousin gave it to me as a gift. As I read this book I felt mesmerized and taken away with it's graffic description to love, and hate. I could not put this book down for a second until I could finish it. For anyone who wants to know the beauty and the grotesqueness of love.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK IVE READ SO FAR!!!!!
Review: I read this book expecting to be disappionted instead I was dazzled,this book is amazing and anyone who disagrees should stick to reading lame and unimportant books try a dictionary or somthing along that, after I read this book I immediately started looking for more of this auther's work. I would and have recomended this book to everyone I know IT IS AN AMAZING BOOK!!
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it in spite of everyone else's review.
Review: I read this book in 2 days after work. I liked it so much I got online to find other titles by Darcey Steinke. I was completely surprised to see how people trashed this great book. I thought it was great, thought Darcey is a great, unique author and I can't wait to read more of her writings.
Rating: 
Summary: weird, sexy, and interesting.
Review: i read this in about 5 hours. sometimes i think steinke overdoes it with the artsy-stream of consciousness style prose, but the story is good enough. frankly, jesse could use some therapy and a lifetime of prozac.i have lived in san francisco three years, and there's something about reading a book set in the town you live that makes its more interesting. and people say san francisco is not as decadent as it once was ? i guess it depends where you look.
Rating:
Summary: An Aquired Taste!
Review: I really enjoy books like this that have the courage to delve into the underworld of this society. It makes me thankful that I am able to keep my head above the waters of everything that may destroy a person in this reality. So if you enjoy peeping into a world that you may not survive if you entered yourself, then this book is something to check out. The underworld of sex, and frightening reality that YOU are your only savior is a wake up call to most that will never go to these extremes to find themselves.
Rating: 
Summary: My Mother and Father Made Me Do It!
Review: I truly hope that Steinke's other books are better. This particular book was so disappointing that I'm not sure what about this book (aside from the cover) is appealing to people.The basic story is that of a woman who is mad at her parents. Sleeping with strangers, being in love with a gay man, prostituting herself out to horny old men, and conversing with a little man, a Pig, and a woman named after an avenue in New York aside, this is the story of a woman who refuses to take responsibility for her own life. Instead, she blames all of the stupid things she does on her father's infidelity and her mother's lack of self-esteem -- typical suffering-artistic drivel from the early 90's. It is so glaringly obvious by the end of the book that Jesse's (the protagonist) supposed codependence on others is a mask for her own self-absorption. Even in the end, when someone very close to her commits suicide, her response is amazingly dominated by "I" statements. In fact, her claim is that he died for her. I found it incredibly difficult to muster any sympathy for this character. In addition to a protagonist that deserves no sympathy from the reader, Steinke further ruins the reading experience with descriptions that make absolutely no sense. "The bathroom smelled like anxiety" is a prime example. Taken out of context or in context, this description is rubbish. Does anyone know what anxiety smells like? If so, please enlighten the rest of the world. Quite honestly, I'm not even sure how I made it past the first chapter, which is riddled with similes. "Like a beetle," "like snakes," "like a used condom" -- Steinke has committed, in this chapter alone, the first act of murder of a novel by simile-overload that I've ever witnessed. Her use of metaphor is even more deplorable. Overall, I got the impression that Steinke, while writing this, would write a phrase, sit back with her hands clasped behind her head, smile, and say "Now someone will be impressed by that." For me, however, her language sounded like it was forced through a first-year poetry class filter. The plot is lost under all of this language. In truth, the story could've been written in a short story or, at most, a novella format. Instead, Steinke (and I use her own words) would "rather revel in some tragic poignancy." My advice to Steinke is that she should let the story be poignant on its own and let the characters create the poetry in their own language. Don't cover the whole book with your own self-important, psycho-analytic, suffering artist, poetic diarrhea. My advice to readers is ... avoid this book.
Rating:
Summary: A mediocre book
Review: I was at first enticed by the lured subject matter and depressing overtones, but soon found myself reading a rather mediocre book. Sucide Blonde is still compelling, despite a few dull and stereotypical characters. Namely the confused girl with the troubled past, the horribly depressed struggling bisexual actor, the amoral shameless whore, and the flashy obese woman longing for her younger days. It is quite easy to rush to judgement on this book, but despite some of its blandness, but there were a few redeeming qualities. The main character's, Jesse, descent into the seedy side of San Francisco with drugs and prostitution, was actually very interesting. This book borders very much so on erotic and doesn't cross into that realm that often, at some points it holds back. For those who enjoy a good story, despite a few cliches and trite subjects, this would be one to check out.
Rating:
Summary: I stand by what I wrote before (and I'm a good reader!)
Review: I wrote a review that is negative about this book and I happened to see these other reviews. I stand by my original statement. I am a good reader--I read closely. She doesn't have striking images--they aren't fresh. I have to wonder who could think she's a genius that has read some of this aloud? That's a good test for seeing whether or not dialogue works. My test got laughs. I don't object to the subject matter or the language. What I found vulgar was Steinke's use of this subject without much interest in her characters, which made me feel that this was all really just a poor exercise in writing for shock value. I don't buy the idea that she wrote shallow characters because these are shallow people. They aren't just shallow; they are ill-drawn. I think a writer of literature does more with the unspeakable than Steinke does (read Dorothy Allison to see what I mean) or go back and read _The Sound and the Fury_ again before you call this the work of a genius.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointed Books Like This Are Published
Review: I'm also disappointed in myself that I even completed this book! I trudged through the pages of sleeze and decadence hoping for some point or perspective on
why people make choices to abuse themselves or others and why they delve into the seedy side of life, but one never came. A waste of time and money.
Rating:
Summary: true, unadulterated insight
Review: It seems as though some of the previous reviews could not relate to the characters' horrible lifes; many probably just could not stomach the honast brutality of life. In this novel, Darcey takes the reader into the exact ways of whores, drug addicts, lonley obese woman, and confused homosexuals, bi-sexuals, and heterosexuals. The shallow characters, moody chapters, and brutal metaphors do add up to many "Did she really write that???" types of question, and like I said, it is hard to stomach, but for anyone who has ever lived just a day either perversely or drunk or high would know that the author knew the way the human mind works in such situations. Even those readers who have been sheltered from everything their entire life should still be impressed with this novel. Darcey does what few authors can, she takes you into a given town, city, or world and does not let you leave. I have read this book a "million" times. I still wonder where she gained so much insight into the "underworld".Final recommendation:If you have a weak stomach or get offended easily, stick with romance novels. But if you are tired of flowers, rainbows, and happy ever after LIES, read this book!!!!! It is a dose of reality.
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