Shit, trigger warnings just for this REVIEW: loss of pregnancy. :/
“My body is a bloated corpse.”
As soon as I started reading this I realized this might be a book that was written for shock value. I don’t say that often, but this is about a woman that lives with an abusive husband, works in a meat factory killing chickens AND is repeatedly trying to produce a viable pregnancy but instead deals with many that end prematurely. It was immediately one of the most heavy handed books I had encountered in a while. Nothing about it is subtle. In fact, the main character refers to the man that she is in a relationship with as “Daddy,” and things get much worse from there. This is technically “literary fiction,” but it reads almost like an extreme horror.
"Deliver Me" is, to its credit, one of the grossest books I’ve ever read, which is saying something. It's not even the chicken factory stuff, it's everything else. (I don't know quite how to describe it, but this novel has terrible hygiene.) Sometimes there are stories that make me feel physically pained by what’s happening and this was one of them. The way Dee-Dee abuses her body because of her denial of losing the most recent pregnancy and the delusion of doing everything she can to try to fake it, (even if it's harmful to her), is tough to get through. At the same time, I saw Dee-Dee described in another review as a sympathetic narrator, but that statement is downright laughable. She’s kind of an idiot, she does cruel, repulsive things, and she’s beyond redemption. She’s also selfish and manipulative, constantly lying in desperate attempts to garner sympathy. And then there's the animal murder. (Again, I'm not even referring to the chickens.) Is she a victim of her environment? In some ways. But I couldn’t stand her and I wasn’t rooting for her, ever. Why would anyone?
I mentioned that the symbolism is heavy handed, and here's an example: There’s a part where Dee-Dee goes to the doctor’s office. Outside is a billboard with a digital counter showing how many babies that hospital has delivered. She remarks that her workplace “kills at least that many chickens in a single day.” Wow, WE GET IT. Or what about the part where the abusive husband is waxing philosophical about humanity while literally watching a documentary about Ted Bundy? A lot of the book just felt like it was laying it on too syrupy thick. Get ready for musings like, “I never understood the idea that pregnancy ruins a woman’s body. A woman has never looked more sexual.” Though, as I mentioned earlier, it can take a lot to be too much for me and there was a scene that made me legit nauseous. It was downright gag worthy, and not in the Drag way. So, kudos.
Don't get me wrong, I definitely think that Elle Nash can write. This was a very messy ARC that needed quite a bit of editing, and I think that was maybe a bit unfair to her. Hopefully a lot of updates will happen before the book is published, since this IS an ARC. Typos, odd white spaces where there shouldn’t be any, words crammed together, etc. There’s a section or two where the paragraphs suddenly jump back and forth between the present and the past and it’s a bit confusing. Those parts may have been on purpose, but I don’t know for sure. I can’t help wondering if reading a fully polished version of this book could’ve changed a few of my opinions, but I did have other problems with it.
I do feel guilty about this: there were a couple of parts where Dee-Dee is gorging herself on junk food and I think you’re supposed to be appalled and part of me was, but also the description of all the food made me hungry. Lol, definitely not what the author intended, I’m sure.
Proceed with caution if you love cats, (I had one sleeping next to me while a particularly awful part happened and it was awkward to say the least), OR dogs. (Remember what I said about shock value?) And also maybe don’t read this if you’ve had bad experiences with pregnancy in any way. It’s not exactly a topic handled in a sensitive manner. I wouldn’t recommend it either if you don’t want to read long, gratuitous passages about how gross chicken factories are. There's even awkward stuff that happens to insects, so maybe take that into consideration. I did appreciate the messaging about the dangers of overbearing Religious households, but also my eyes kind of glazed over during the long passages of ranting sermons. (That may have been the point, though.)
Some of the characters’ actions didn’t make any sense. Mild spoilers here, but Dee-Dee flat out drives off with a friend’s baby and blatantly tries to steal it at one point and the friend is not only barely mad about it but also throws Dee-Dee her own baby shower later. Like, what??? And even though Dee-Dee is faking a pregnancy throughout the story, she keeps mysteriously finding sonogram photos in her purse. This is NEVER EXPLAINED.
I think this book had potential and I would probably read something else by this author because she's pretty fearless when it comes to writing absolutely anything she wants, no matter how crazy or offensive it is, but I personally wouldn't recommend this particular book to anyone. It wasn't a good experience. (But not in the way that putting yourself through a harrowing, upsetting book can be, if that makes sense.) I'm still going to give it three stars because I did like the ending and I think there were some shining moments buried throughout, but I definitely got to a point where I was hoping to be done with it.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me the chance to read this ARC!
TW: Animal cruelty/murder (graphic), miscarriage, domestic abuse, fat-shaming, misogyny, gay slurs, self-harm, Religious manipulation, children in danger