Book 66 - Theatre Kids are Fucked

Title: Trust Exercise

Author: Susan Choi

Genre: Coming-of-age theatre fiction

This workshop-y book is a story told in three parts, as three different people tell three different renditions of the same story. Over the course of the novel, the three tales build on each other to reveal most (but not all) of a whole story. It's a very cool idea, and the book ends up telling a very different story than the one you think it will be based on Part 1. We start with Sarah and David (don't get me started on those names), and some weird hook-up in a dark classroom during a theatre exercise with the teacher and all the other students present. Part 2 starts with one of the background characters from Part 2 complaining about how she was portrayed in Part 1, and switching between 3rd and 1st person throughout the walls of straight text (a paragraph break would have been nice, jeeeez) that make up her part. Finally, Part 3 is short and sweet, and while it's disturbing in an icky way and there isn't any obvious resolution, the ending still fits.

My biggest complaint is this: SOMEONE NEEDS TO TEACH THIS WOMAN ABOUT BEGINNINGS. I hated each and every story at the start - so much so that I considered putting it down, yes, all three times. Somehow, though, the writing seeps into your brain and then before you know it instead of rolling your eyes at every word, you're glued to those very same words and trying to do household things - brush your teeth, get dressed, make dinner - without breaking the stream of the story.

Rating: 🔫 🔫 🔫 🔫/5