A Girl is a Half Formed Thing - Eimear McBride

"Eimear McBride's debut tells, with astonishing insight and in brutal
detail, the story of a young woman's relationship with her brother, and the long shadow cast by his childhood brain tumour. Not so much a stream of consciousness, as an unconscious railing against a life that makes little sense, and a shocking and intimate insight into the thoughts, feelings and chaotic sexuality of a vulnerable and isolated protagonist. To read A Girl Is A Half-Formed Thing is to plunge inside its narrator's head, experiencing her world first-hand. This isn't always comfortable - but it is always a revelation."

I don't often review a book that I have stopped reading because I don't feel that I have a full view to accurately critic the piece of work, but I had to speak about this book. 

The content was something that I was truly interested in reading about and experiencing. A conflagration of pain, sexuality, abuse, trauma, religion and growing up. All themes right up my alley. I also appreciate authors experimenting with new styles of fiction, prose and testing the limits of literature. Without experimentation we cant progress. Despite what it might seem like in some other of my reviews, I appreciate every book that an author writes no matter how much I dislike it. Writing is difficult and we all have something unique to bring to the literary table. 

And this book is incredibly unique. So unique that I actually couldn't finish reading it due to the almost impossibility of comprehension. You either let this strange novel teach you how to read it, going right back to Primary School, and grow accustomed to its impressionistic voice, or you suffer through what feels like a migraine in print. I actually felt like I was having a stroke while reading this. I’m not convinced that pride of endurance is sufficient reward for completing. I might re try reading this book at some point as there where some paragraphs that where incredibly and poetically raw. McBride's epileptic prose style might actually be better suited to describing the depths of trauma then neatly constructed paragraphs. 

Age Rating 18+. Incredibly adult themes such as rape, incest, abuse, mental illness and more.