Honestly this one was a tough read. It is a very slow starter and I didn't love the dialog at all. Seemed like a robot wrote it. It is all about social media and being absorbed in yourself and I think I hated every character in this book. Too be honest I was glad when I finished it so I didn't have to slog through it any longer.

2.5

Plotless. Bogged down with jagged writting and even more jagged pacing. A whispering ghost of a Moshfeg piece with none of the panache. At first it seemed promising with its well written unlikable characters, original storyline, and constant building of tension. I waited for that building to present some sort of moment in the story where at least you would feel the slog paid off. Spoiler alert...it didnt. This is a stagnant story with stagnant characters at a snail's pace. ( )

An exploration of a sociopathic romance and the carnage it leaves in its wake, Baby is certainly a very unusual book. Cynthia is young and completely disconnected from virtually everything in her life other than her personal trainer, Anahera. The two launch an ill-advised plan to run off together on a boat they buy with stolen money. Their relationship wobbles between obsession, indifference and animosity as their world narrows to the point where they've sacrificed everything else in their lives. Then the unexpected appearance of other people into their bizarre idyll drives them even further over the edge.

Jochems, a debut author, has a deft way of chronicling the instability of the characters. There were times when the tension between them was so taught I could feel it. I also liked her satirical descriptions of millennial ennui -- Cynthia only seems capable of assessing the world around her when she's summing up the social dynamics of the characters on her favorite reality TV shows, and she sees the people in her life as similarly driven by melodrama. But Anahera remained a very elusive character, which made the ending somewhat confusing and unsatisfying. Still, a good first try for a writer with a lot of promise. ( )

This book was unique, but a bit disappointing. The problem with a sociopathic protagonist is that she was very difficult to connect to - I couldn't get a grasp on her character, her motivations, her emotional logic, etc. This was a fairly quick read, but kind of blah, lacked emotional heft. Some of the scenes will definitely stick with me, though. ( )

I just could not stay into this book. At first, I fully embraced the weirdness of it all. Cynthia's chaotic eccentricity and Anahera's aloofness to everything, including Cynthia's obsession with her. I was here for it. Their plan? Insane! Their relationship? Even more insane. But the book lost me somewhere in the middle of the story. Once they started bringing in other characters onto the boat, the story just came to a snail's pace for me. It felt like nothing was moving forward and nothing between the characters was developing.

Once I got to about 60%, I was ready to give up but then everyone was saying what a masterpiece this book is and how it's a great piece of dark satire about the millennial generation, but I'm sorry, I just didn't see it. I'm all for books that highlight the flaws and darkness of a generation, especially my generation, but after a while nothing felt like it was based on reality anymore or was a metaphor for anything. The story just became this bizarre jumbled heap of information so far removed from reality that I just lost complete interest. Maybe that was the whole point, but this book was just not for me. ( )