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Inadaptada
A wildly irreverent take on the coming-of-age story that turns a search for belonging into a riotous satire of identity politics
Starting at a prestigious private Australian girls’ school, fifteen-year-old Ziggy Klein is confronted with an alienating social hierarchy that hurls her into the arms of her grade’s most radical feminists. Tormented by a burgeoning collection of dark, sexual fantasies, and a biological essentialist mother, Ziggy sets off on a journey of self-discovery that moves from the Sydney drag scene to the extremist underbelly of the Internet.
As PC culture collides with her friends’ morphing ideology and her parents’ kinky sex life, Ziggy’s understanding of gender, race, and class begins to warp. Ostracized at school, she seeks refuge in Donna Haraway’s seminal feminist text, A Cyborg Manifesto, and discovers an indisputable alternative identity. Or so she thinks. A controversial Indian guru, a transgender drag queen, and her own Holocaust-surviving grandmother propel Ziggy through a series of misidentifications, culminating in a date-rape revenge plot so confused, it just might work.
Uproariously funny, but written with extraordinary acuity about the intersections of gender, sexual politics, race, and technology, Inappropriation is literary satire at its best. With a deft finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist, Lexi Freiman debuts on the scene as a brilliant and fearless new talent.
Starting at a prestigious private Australian girls’ school, fifteen-year-old Ziggy Klein is confronted with an alienating social hierarchy that hurls her into the arms of her grade’s most radical feminists. Tormented by a burgeoning collection of dark, sexual fantasies, and a biological essentialist mother, Ziggy sets off on a journey of self-discovery that moves from the Sydney drag scene to the extremist underbelly of the Internet.
As PC culture collides with her friends’ morphing ideology and her parents’ kinky sex life, Ziggy’s understanding of gender, race, and class begins to warp. Ostracized at school, she seeks refuge in Donna Haraway’s seminal feminist text, A Cyborg Manifesto, and discovers an indisputable alternative identity. Or so she thinks. A controversial Indian guru, a transgender drag queen, and her own Holocaust-surviving grandmother propel Ziggy through a series of misidentifications, culminating in a date-rape revenge plot so confused, it just might work.
Uproariously funny, but written with extraordinary acuity about the intersections of gender, sexual politics, race, and technology, Inappropriation is literary satire at its best. With a deft finger on the pulse of the zeitgeist, Lexi Freiman debuts on the scene as a brilliant and fearless new talent.
368 pages, Paperback
First published July 25, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 129 reviews
February 10, 2019
ES COMPLETAMENTE ABSURDO.
¿Como es posible que este tipo de libros existan? claro, ya sé que esto es una comedia, PERO UNA DE MAL GUSTO.
Odie la manera en la que tachan al feminismo, como es que explican de que trata la misoginia, el racismo y sobre lo que es o no LA COSIFICACION DE LA MUJER.
Por este tipo de textos es que a las verdaderas feministas las tachan de nazis o que literalmente queremos imponer un matriarcado (ojo, no digo que el matriarcado sea algo malo) si no que en este libro literalmente quieren imponer el poder de la mujer ante el hombre, ¿Que no sería lo mismo que hace el patriarcado? DIOS, esto no es una lucha de poderes, ni de quien es el sexo fuerte.
Y otro punto... ¿cómo es posible que a todo lo que vean lo tachan de trans? transhumano, transgénero, etc. ¡Literalmente decían, beber una gaseosa...! NO PUEDES HACER ESO, ESO ES MUY TRANS ¡
Otro punto, hablan sobre el robo de otras culturas, literalmente aquí es como... una mujer blanca quiere hacerse rastas, ¡NO! Los musulmanes preparan una receta judía ¡NO PUEDE SEEER! ¿Really?
Sinceramente, este no es un texto que no deja un mensaje espiritual ni profundo, ni siquiera sirve para entretener al lector, todo se trata de un sin fin de paradigmas sobre una chica que quiere tener una identidad, que quiere dejar las etiquetas, y aquí entramos al tema QUEER.
Esto es un tema que se debe de estudiar bastante para atreverse a hablar de él, pero sinceramente no creo que la autora se haya informado un poquito.
Un último consejo... ¿Eres feminista? Perdón, aclaro... ¿UNA VERDADERA FEMINISTA? No se te ocurra leer este libro, te enojaras de lo absurdo que tratan al tema, reitero, toman el concepto feminista y lo deforman a su máxima potencia.
Tarde demasiado en terminar este libro porque ni siquiera ya quería continuar con él, cada capítulo se me hacía más absurdo que el último.
Y bueno, le pongo una estrella, porque bueno debo de calificarlo con algo, si por mi fuera no le ponía ni UNA.
¿Como es posible que este tipo de libros existan? claro, ya sé que esto es una comedia, PERO UNA DE MAL GUSTO.
Odie la manera en la que tachan al feminismo, como es que explican de que trata la misoginia, el racismo y sobre lo que es o no LA COSIFICACION DE LA MUJER.
Por este tipo de textos es que a las verdaderas feministas las tachan de nazis o que literalmente queremos imponer un matriarcado (ojo, no digo que el matriarcado sea algo malo) si no que en este libro literalmente quieren imponer el poder de la mujer ante el hombre, ¿Que no sería lo mismo que hace el patriarcado? DIOS, esto no es una lucha de poderes, ni de quien es el sexo fuerte.
Y otro punto... ¿cómo es posible que a todo lo que vean lo tachan de trans? transhumano, transgénero, etc. ¡Literalmente decían, beber una gaseosa...! NO PUEDES HACER ESO, ESO ES MUY TRANS ¡
Otro punto, hablan sobre el robo de otras culturas, literalmente aquí es como... una mujer blanca quiere hacerse rastas, ¡NO! Los musulmanes preparan una receta judía ¡NO PUEDE SEEER! ¿Really?
Sinceramente, este no es un texto que no deja un mensaje espiritual ni profundo, ni siquiera sirve para entretener al lector, todo se trata de un sin fin de paradigmas sobre una chica que quiere tener una identidad, que quiere dejar las etiquetas, y aquí entramos al tema QUEER.
Esto es un tema que se debe de estudiar bastante para atreverse a hablar de él, pero sinceramente no creo que la autora se haya informado un poquito.
Un último consejo... ¿Eres feminista? Perdón, aclaro... ¿UNA VERDADERA FEMINISTA? No se te ocurra leer este libro, te enojaras de lo absurdo que tratan al tema, reitero, toman el concepto feminista y lo deforman a su máxima potencia.
Tarde demasiado en terminar este libro porque ni siquiera ya quería continuar con él, cada capítulo se me hacía más absurdo que el último.
Y bueno, le pongo una estrella, porque bueno debo de calificarlo con algo, si por mi fuera no le ponía ni UNA.
August 6, 2018
Inappropriation is quite an unusual novel, the style of which is best described as literary satire. I’ve definitely never read anything like it before. It felt to me like an amalgamation of Southpark, J’aime Private School Girl, and Black Comedy. I was torn between laughing at the acerbic wit and cringing at the inappropriateness of it all. Which was kind of the point of the novel.
Ziggy swings from one identity crisis to another, constantly weirding people out while misinterpreting everything. She was overly consumed with her own sexual identity, her gender identity, her political identity, her feminist identity, her Jewish identity, her human identity, and her lack of friends – the latter of which could be explained in large part by the fact that she wore a go pro permanently strapped to her head, recording everyone and uploading the videos to the internet without permission. There was a lot going on with Ziggy, a kind of strange exaggeration of what teenagers might be going through as they come of age in a society that is overwhelmingly focussed on ‘isms’, self-labelling, and the avoidance of offending people by means of going out of your way to offend people.
Inappropriation is sharp and clever, perhaps a shade too much so at times because it’s a very busy book and I often lost track of what was actually going on in amongst the sea of acidic observation. To my mind, there was too much of a focus on sexuality throughout the entire novel, and one scene in particular involving Ziggy and her younger brother’s friends, who were all thirteen, was way too icky for me. Ziggy pushes the envelope a bit too far on many occasions, sometimes with remorse, at other times with startling self-gratification. This is a discomforting read, on so many levels, but also decidedly on point at times.
Inappropriation is really a novel you will need to judge for yourself. I neither liked nor disliked it, but I do acknowledge that Lexi Freiman makes some valid points via her sharp observations and snappy scenes of introspection and dialogue. It’s a bold novel, certainly not for everyone, but I have no doubt it will at some stage be labelled a cult classic. I do think it would make a brilliant film.
Thanks is extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of Inappropriation for review.
Ziggy swings from one identity crisis to another, constantly weirding people out while misinterpreting everything. She was overly consumed with her own sexual identity, her gender identity, her political identity, her feminist identity, her Jewish identity, her human identity, and her lack of friends – the latter of which could be explained in large part by the fact that she wore a go pro permanently strapped to her head, recording everyone and uploading the videos to the internet without permission. There was a lot going on with Ziggy, a kind of strange exaggeration of what teenagers might be going through as they come of age in a society that is overwhelmingly focussed on ‘isms’, self-labelling, and the avoidance of offending people by means of going out of your way to offend people.
Inappropriation is sharp and clever, perhaps a shade too much so at times because it’s a very busy book and I often lost track of what was actually going on in amongst the sea of acidic observation. To my mind, there was too much of a focus on sexuality throughout the entire novel, and one scene in particular involving Ziggy and her younger brother’s friends, who were all thirteen, was way too icky for me. Ziggy pushes the envelope a bit too far on many occasions, sometimes with remorse, at other times with startling self-gratification. This is a discomforting read, on so many levels, but also decidedly on point at times.
Inappropriation is really a novel you will need to judge for yourself. I neither liked nor disliked it, but I do acknowledge that Lexi Freiman makes some valid points via her sharp observations and snappy scenes of introspection and dialogue. It’s a bold novel, certainly not for everyone, but I have no doubt it will at some stage be labelled a cult classic. I do think it would make a brilliant film.
Thanks is extended to Allen & Unwin for providing me with a copy of Inappropriation for review.
February 11, 2019
I wanted to love this, really I did. It was recommended in the New York Magazine matrix, and it is a favorite of that cool, hip literati-type; a satire, pushing boundaries, provoking, and snarky as all get out.
Which, for me, did it in. I get that the point is to make a biting social commentary on political correctness and labels and all that; but what it feels like is that we are both supposed to respect the need for cultural changes and awareness --- at the same time, making fun of how "too far" they've gone.
Main character Ziggy is a teen girl who has not yet hit puberty, unlike most of her peers, and is experimenting with selves and identities. Eventually she comes into her power, speaks her truths, taking it so far as to plan a mass date-raping of a collection of typical-hetero-male-jocks at the formal dance.
You'll have to let that sit there for yourself. And, again, I get that this is meant to be edgy satire for sophisticated literati, and god knows there are PLENTY of typical-hetero-males I'd like to see get their come-uppance. But, uhm, I'm not going to roophy them.
In the end, Ziggy comes to some self-awareness and doubts the "appropriateness" of her actions, but, by then, the underlying feeling of meanspirited-snarkiness of the novel had turned me off.
Maybe I'm just not hip enough. And, you know what? I'm okay with that.
Which, for me, did it in. I get that the point is to make a biting social commentary on political correctness and labels and all that; but what it feels like is that we are both supposed to respect the need for cultural changes and awareness --- at the same time, making fun of how "too far" they've gone.
Main character Ziggy is a teen girl who has not yet hit puberty, unlike most of her peers, and is experimenting with selves and identities. Eventually she comes into her power, speaks her truths, taking it so far as to plan a mass date-raping of a collection of typical-hetero-male-jocks at the formal dance.
You'll have to let that sit there for yourself. And, again, I get that this is meant to be edgy satire for sophisticated literati, and god knows there are PLENTY of typical-hetero-males I'd like to see get their come-uppance. But, uhm, I'm not going to roophy them.
In the end, Ziggy comes to some self-awareness and doubts the "appropriateness" of her actions, but, by then, the underlying feeling of meanspirited-snarkiness of the novel had turned me off.
Maybe I'm just not hip enough. And, you know what? I'm okay with that.
November 7, 2018
This one wasn't for me. The only way to describe it is weird. The writing was clunky and overly descriptive. The intense focus on gender and identity was confusing and I think a lot of the terms needed further explanation. I knew it wasn't a good sign when all I could think after the first 15 pages was, 'did the author really name a character after herself?!' (Lex).
Having lived in Sydney's east for a fair chunk of my adult life, it was cool reading about it in a book and knowing many of the places mentioned, however, I think non-Aussies would struggle to understand a lot of the references. I was also confused every time the American terms parking lot, mall and candy were used in an otherwise distinctly Aussie novel. These aren't used in everyday Australian vernacular; we would say carpark, shopping centre and lollies and I'm not sure why they weren't used instead.
The book definitely got easier to read after the first 100 pages or so, but I still found it tough to get into.
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for not one, but five, free copies of this book
Having lived in Sydney's east for a fair chunk of my adult life, it was cool reading about it in a book and knowing many of the places mentioned, however, I think non-Aussies would struggle to understand a lot of the references. I was also confused every time the American terms parking lot, mall and candy were used in an otherwise distinctly Aussie novel. These aren't used in everyday Australian vernacular; we would say carpark, shopping centre and lollies and I'm not sure why they weren't used instead.
The book definitely got easier to read after the first 100 pages or so, but I still found it tough to get into.
Thanks to Allen & Unwin for not one, but five, free copies of this book
September 9, 2019
2.5 stars
Mixed feelings about this. A provocative satire of identity politics and the Left’s inability to laugh at themselves, explored through private school girl Ziggy as she works through her sexuality and sense of self. I liked elements of this book, including the way the author highlighted the disconnect that can occur between gender theory and lived experience. The more satirical elements were a bit much for me - the Holocaust jokes and date-rape ‘revenge’ scenario seemed designed to shock and, for me, didn’t achieve what seemed to be the aim of defusing trauma through humour. Rather, I just found it upsetting. But if you like super provocative content, you will like this.
Mixed feelings about this. A provocative satire of identity politics and the Left’s inability to laugh at themselves, explored through private school girl Ziggy as she works through her sexuality and sense of self. I liked elements of this book, including the way the author highlighted the disconnect that can occur between gender theory and lived experience. The more satirical elements were a bit much for me - the Holocaust jokes and date-rape ‘revenge’ scenario seemed designed to shock and, for me, didn’t achieve what seemed to be the aim of defusing trauma through humour. Rather, I just found it upsetting. But if you like super provocative content, you will like this.
August 23, 2018
I'm aware that this is a satire, and I did like it, at least to some extent.
Especially the needing to make sense/fit in/stand out felt painfully real..
I didn't love the storyline as a whole though, or the mc for that matter, and while it's clearly never the intent to enchant the reader with a pleasant tale of neatly resolving ones insecurities, it didn't make for an awesome read this way either.
It's different and it's Australian, which helped make it okay.
Also it wasn't as if I expected it to be something else. I do realize it's titled INAPPROPRIATION, and I did skim the blurb. I just can't be blown away by it, just for the sake of it.
In the end I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.
Especially the needing to make sense/fit in/stand out felt painfully real..
I didn't love the storyline as a whole though, or the mc for that matter, and while it's clearly never the intent to enchant the reader with a pleasant tale of neatly resolving ones insecurities, it didn't make for an awesome read this way either.
It's different and it's Australian, which helped make it okay.
Also it wasn't as if I expected it to be something else. I do realize it's titled INAPPROPRIATION, and I did skim the blurb. I just can't be blown away by it, just for the sake of it.
In the end I just didn't enjoy it as much as I had hoped.
Read
July 10, 2019DNF, just for the moment, because there are too many books on my goodreads page! ;-)
August 12, 2018
This is an unusual story about 15 year old Ziggy Klein and her experiences at a private girls school. I have to say that I didn't really enjoy this story. Thanks to Allen & Unwin for my ARC.
June 20, 2021
I'll be honest: I really disliked this book. Actually for the most part I had no idea what was going on and felt so brutally overwhelmed by the satire that I feel like I never truly learned anything about the characters apart from the fact they were all very convoluted. But not in the way that you and I are convoluted; but rather in an unnecessarily and provocative way. This book was so hard to finish that I found myself just skimming it at the end. Perhaps a certain type of reader would enjoy this book... But I am certainly not that person.
September 21, 2018
I understand this is supposed to be satire. Well, I didn’t get it. The main character was tedious as hell and I hated her from the start. It was maybe amusing at first but I got about 60% of the way through the book and I feel like it should have ended by then.
Did not finish.
Did not finish.
May 28, 2019
Inappropriation by Lexi Frieman. Great Book! Severely under-hyped IMHO. Savage satire set in Sydney and it's making my head spin! Disguised as a coming of age story but it is so much a story of our times and I've never read anything like it!
It is a challenging read because the progressive punchlines are relentless. It's pushing hard against BSU for my top read so far this year. It was completely off my radar until it was included in the 2019 Miles Franklin Long-list. Love reading the long-lists for this reason.
It's a book that definitely won't appeal to everyone, I expect it to be very polarising but I think it may become a cult classic with gen Z in about 10 years time.
One I'll definitely seek out for my personal collection.
It is a challenging read because the progressive punchlines are relentless. It's pushing hard against BSU for my top read so far this year. It was completely off my radar until it was included in the 2019 Miles Franklin Long-list. Love reading the long-lists for this reason.
It's a book that definitely won't appeal to everyone, I expect it to be very polarising but I think it may become a cult classic with gen Z in about 10 years time.
One I'll definitely seek out for my personal collection.
July 10, 2020
Mis expectativas de este libro fueron altas, gracias a la sinopsis, por desgracia no me agrado, siento que los temas que quiere abordar son buenos y los datos que te dan también lo son pero no me gusta como los manejan, desde el inicio, es como... ten, de esto va a tratar, familiarizarte y en lugar de facilitar o hacer llevadera la lectura te la cargan demasiado de cosas muy redundantes. En cuanto a la historia me parece que es muy simple por el mismo hecho de que te quieren meter muchos conceptos de genero, de grupo, tolerancia y de identidad en lugar de que estos temas se den por si solos y en realidad no terminan ninguno y por esta razón no me agrada la protagonista porque no se ve un cambio o un avance desde que inicia el libro hasta que termina, como persona no veo un crecimiento o una mejora del auto-concepto aunque ese fuera la intención o tuviera muchos intentos, al final creo que no se logro y bueno, esto pasa igual con sus relaciones de familia, amigos, conocidos es evidente que pasan por problemas, alegrías y todo lo que conlleva su interacción pero al terminar el libro me hace sentir que todo se quedo estancado, sin un avance ni retrocesos, no es un libro que recomendaría
October 12, 2018
This is a 2.5 star read for me....
Inappropriation was a struggle to read from the start for me.
I couldn't connect with Ziggy and while I can appreciate this book is Literary Satire, I am the wrong audience. There are parts of this book I laughed and enjoyed the humour, but for the rest of the time I wasn't connected. It seems I am not alone in these views from other reviews.
This is one of those books that were too far from the genres I usually read and even more further out from the new genres to give a crack. Thanks to Allen & Unwin for my free review copy, but Inappropriation isn't my cup of tea.
Inappropriation was a struggle to read from the start for me.
I couldn't connect with Ziggy and while I can appreciate this book is Literary Satire, I am the wrong audience. There are parts of this book I laughed and enjoyed the humour, but for the rest of the time I wasn't connected. It seems I am not alone in these views from other reviews.
This is one of those books that were too far from the genres I usually read and even more further out from the new genres to give a crack. Thanks to Allen & Unwin for my free review copy, but Inappropriation isn't my cup of tea.
July 30, 2018
Smart, savage satire.
September 24, 2018
If you try to read this as a traditional novel with concerns for plot points and "connecting with the characters" then you will not enjoy your experience. This book is 100% satire- and the characters and plot should be seen as a stage to prop up the satire. It reminded me a little of A Confederacy of Dunces, except skewering privileged, overly PC, Gen Z Australians. If PC internet call-out culture is something you're familiar with, you will either be amused or offended. If you're not.. You will just be baffled. Personally, I've spent enough time on tumblr to get the joke and think it was pretty clever.
January 30, 2019
Never before have I liked a concept so much and the execution so little. The blurb (PC culture, gender, identifying, sexuality, spiritualism, religion etc) sounded so good, but I just found this novel so abrasive. I wanted something/someone to cling to, but I loathed all the characters. Just when I found myself swinging around, it would proceed to disgust/disturb/annoy me. I found Ziggy so very infuriating, but there was no where else for me to seek refuge. Is this what satire is? I don't fully understand the point when all I feel is the remnants of bewilderment/revulsion. I wanted some sort of heart. Just not my thing, I guess.
November 4, 2018
Smart and darkly funny. Satire but not entirely. Engages with meaty difficult topics and takes the characters to some pretty dark and ugly places. The character arcs were a bit uncertain and the author kind of withholds their final verdict but I enjoyed its courage and wit.
April 14, 2021
this has the exact same energy as early 2010s youtube culture, except tyler oakley is also getting red pilled????
January 12, 2024
Weird funny novel about an Australian girl named Ziggy, 14 or so, who is working out who she is. Lots of other characters, mostly other kids, and parents. Wickedly funny and sarcastic, especially in the first two-thirds of the book, but also sympathetic. The last part of the book loses some of the humor and believability, but still all in all a worthwhile book, if not my usual subject matter.
October 4, 2021
as unpleasant and unputdownable as Christos Tsiolkas. really interesting look into PC culture/identity/activism; considers the line between support and ridicule and who exactly gets to define it. as feral and exhausting as my actual teenage girlhood - v introspective, v funny and thoroughly uncomfortable.
Read
January 17, 2026hmmmmmmmmmmm....i found out about this one i think from andrea long chu or from some author i was reading and it sounded so silly & awesome & up my alley. i actually ended up finding it totally insufferable.....like not meaning it was BAD just depressing and annoying. prob in a way that was intentional & effective idk i mean i gobbled it up --but with despair. despite the epic bookflap premise that i want to steal for myself (a group of high school ""girls"" creating a tenuous friendship group centered around (poor readings of) donna haraway's a cyborg manifesto) it just made me upset to imagine the way that wokemindvirus culture (appropriation, intensive gender labeling, etc. etc.) has the power to colonize the minds of young people and constrain their worldviews in a dogmatic way (bc the protagonist gets rlly into a cyborg manifesto but also this broader like online culture of like homoromantic vs. homosexual and insaneeeeeeee identity politics). which is maybe just an experience of youth --to feel dogmatic about the ideologies and social groups that you discover and find belonging in? but does it have to be? this is definitely a satire but also it's like real.....like kids on the internet are definitely still sucked into these hyper identificatory communities that are based around calling out and identity politics. now im sounding like a rightwing reactionary sorryyyyyy. and like i was definitely in these online communities too as a kid and honestly feel a lot of regret at how that shaped parts of my teenagehood. i just think the dogma of ziggy's beliefs (although they are also flexible -- but when she's in a belief system, it gets pretty dogmatic) was so scary and frightening to me and made me sad :(((( idk lol this is probably just hitting close to home bc i have lived in Woke communities my whole life and i already see the frustrations and implications of these extremified ways of thinking and treating others. and it's like why do i have to see it written about and taken to another level of extreme. i mean tbh it just felt like oberlin.
yeah i guess the satirical nature of it is just interesting --maybe i don't like satire like this lol. i was reading it with this sense of morbid engagement that i don't think actually revealed anything new or interesting to me. like yeah there are lots of problems with dogmatic identity politics.
i did really like the whole gopro thing i thought it was FUNNY -- ziggy deciding she's transhuman and wearing her gopro and weaponizing her gender politics to force her school to allow her to wear it at all times. but yeah i feel like this is more of a middle school thing than like a tenth grade thing and i wish the age of the protagonists was skewed a little bit younger to make it more realistic. lowkey reminded me of nao at a young age.
yeah i guess the satirical nature of it is just interesting --maybe i don't like satire like this lol. i was reading it with this sense of morbid engagement that i don't think actually revealed anything new or interesting to me. like yeah there are lots of problems with dogmatic identity politics.
i did really like the whole gopro thing i thought it was FUNNY -- ziggy deciding she's transhuman and wearing her gopro and weaponizing her gender politics to force her school to allow her to wear it at all times. but yeah i feel like this is more of a middle school thing than like a tenth grade thing and i wish the age of the protagonists was skewed a little bit younger to make it more realistic. lowkey reminded me of nao at a young age.
Read
September 6, 2025I read this about five years too late. Probably would resonate more with ppl like my bf who grew up in coastal cities and went to schools with mandatory pronoun tags and land acknowledgements before assemblies or whatever goes on in blue states
November 16, 2023
Very weird book. Took a while to read because there was a lot going on.
July 6, 2024
Exhausting
Read
February 15, 2025This was recommended to me by a friend whose taste I respect and I was so excited to read it. I am sorry to say that I loathed it, despite the recommendation and despite the extent to which the description (attempting to launder boarding-school popularity with the Cyborg Manifesto?) delighted me. But I found it to be smarmy, unevenly plotted, and ultimately very empty. Struggled to finish.
August 19, 2018
Inappropriation is like an extreme form of rocky road. It is packed full of all sorts of delicious things that you didn’t know worked so well together and it’s an overload of sensory feels. Inappropriation contains so much that I think you could read this book multiple times and find many new things to laugh and wonder at. It’s very clever satire, to the point of me wondering what I wasn’t getting and where I’d fallen away from the zeitgeist.
The story is about Ziggy, who starts at a new girls’ high school. The hierarchy of the girls and what is popular and why immediately fascinates her. It’s like she’s an archaeologist studying a new species (in particular, the Cates) or an explorer as many new worlds are open to her. It also made me glad I’m not in high school now as I don’t think I could deal with all the ideologies and identities that Ziggy and her classmates need to find and discover for themselves. There is sexuality, cultural identity, religion, race and degrees of feminism to negotiate, all with a number of other girls ready to rip apart your thoughts. It’s a survival of the fittest where nobody knows what the definition is. It certainly doesn’t help that Ziggy’s mum is a little odd, holding menstruation workshops for all genders and being concerned that Ziggy’s father doesn’t objectify her enough. Ziggy’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor and doctor with an obsession with the digestive system and seniors’ Tinder, was my favourite. This was probably because she was comfortable in her own skin and said and did what she wanted. This was in contrast with Ziggy and her schoolmates, who were awkward and uncomfortable at trying on their new ideologies, always looking out for someone to sideswipe them.
For me, Inappropriation wasn’t the easiest of reads. The book is loaded to the hilt with satire on a number of levels. Like Ziggy, I felt kind of awkward at times that the joke was going over my head and that I’d missed something so obvious that everyone else would get. So the novel was actually pretty darn successful at making me feel like Ziggy! I felt under pressure and kind of exposed, so I really emphasised with Ziggy. Some parts made me laugh out loud, other parts had me seeking out my phone surreptitiously to Google something that I wasn’t sure was true/cool/too out of it or old to understand. I think Inappropriation would make a great film (and okay, things a little more obvious for me) as a lot of the scenes were perfectly visualised in my head. This book isn’t for everyone, but I know that some will love it to bits.
Thank you to Allen & Unwin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
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The story is about Ziggy, who starts at a new girls’ high school. The hierarchy of the girls and what is popular and why immediately fascinates her. It’s like she’s an archaeologist studying a new species (in particular, the Cates) or an explorer as many new worlds are open to her. It also made me glad I’m not in high school now as I don’t think I could deal with all the ideologies and identities that Ziggy and her classmates need to find and discover for themselves. There is sexuality, cultural identity, religion, race and degrees of feminism to negotiate, all with a number of other girls ready to rip apart your thoughts. It’s a survival of the fittest where nobody knows what the definition is. It certainly doesn’t help that Ziggy’s mum is a little odd, holding menstruation workshops for all genders and being concerned that Ziggy’s father doesn’t objectify her enough. Ziggy’s grandmother, a Holocaust survivor and doctor with an obsession with the digestive system and seniors’ Tinder, was my favourite. This was probably because she was comfortable in her own skin and said and did what she wanted. This was in contrast with Ziggy and her schoolmates, who were awkward and uncomfortable at trying on their new ideologies, always looking out for someone to sideswipe them.
For me, Inappropriation wasn’t the easiest of reads. The book is loaded to the hilt with satire on a number of levels. Like Ziggy, I felt kind of awkward at times that the joke was going over my head and that I’d missed something so obvious that everyone else would get. So the novel was actually pretty darn successful at making me feel like Ziggy! I felt under pressure and kind of exposed, so I really emphasised with Ziggy. Some parts made me laugh out loud, other parts had me seeking out my phone surreptitiously to Google something that I wasn’t sure was true/cool/too out of it or old to understand. I think Inappropriation would make a great film (and okay, things a little more obvious for me) as a lot of the scenes were perfectly visualised in my head. This book isn’t for everyone, but I know that some will love it to bits.
Thank you to Allen & Unwin for the copy of this book. My review is honest.
http://samstillreading.wordpress.com
November 4, 2018
[3.5/5] I carried this book around for over a month and a half before I actually found the time to sit down and read it in the way it demanded to be read. This is a slippery, difficult satire that uses a private school coming of age tale as a means to craft an irreverent read on shifting dialogues about individual identity and what some call "PC culture". The results are largely interesting and, at points, really quite funny about the way Ziggy and her friends posture and often misstep in overthinking so many nuances of everyday interaction. Freiman's prose is impressively maximalist and frequently denser than it needs to be, and while I was often quite surprised or entertained by the conversations and twists she provides, at some points, the satirical lines blur in uncomfortable ways that make the "point" a little illegible and the question of what we're laughing at becomes unclear. For my money, that's the goal of satire and made this a really interesting novel... but I'm sure what that ultimately means is this is a book that will test the patience of most readers.
October 12, 2018
Before opening this book, I was afraid that the title was going to be the author's one moment of brilliance, but the text largely follows the promise of the title. Most beguilingly, while the novel is a satire of PC culture, it's hard to be sure of just where the author stands on the subject: I took it in the same stride as Monty Python's The Life of Brian, which gathers itself with a momentously disrespectful reverence, or reverential disrespect. Much of the ambiguity lies in the fortunate decision to carve out the satire in a setting of Adolescents Finding Themselves, a stewpot of heartrending feels and passions. I admit that I could only take so much of this book in one sitting, but that may be unavoidable considering the subject matter.
P.S. Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, has a standout interview of the author in regards to this book.
P.S. Alexandra Kleeman, author of You Too Can Have a Body Like Mine, has a standout interview of the author in regards to this book.
September 2, 2019
“She is amazed by the subreddit’s aggressive commitment to empathy and their bullish imperatives to respect each other’s feelings. It makes her think of having to wear knee- and elbow pads as a kid in the sandbox. How cumbersome and overcautious it all seemed until they’d discovered the joy of jumping off the side and smashing into each other.”
This book is merciless but also hilarious. Every character is insufferable, but the “good guys” (roughly: Ziggy and Tim) come across as confused and well-meaning, which is no mean feat considering what horrors they perpetrate.
Lexi Freiman names one character Lex, and that character is a Bangldeshi rapper who is obsessed (aren’t we all?) with cultural appropriation; this is the best use of the author-naming-a-character-after-herself gambit since Jane Fairfax in Emma.
This book is merciless but also hilarious. Every character is insufferable, but the “good guys” (roughly: Ziggy and Tim) come across as confused and well-meaning, which is no mean feat considering what horrors they perpetrate.
Lexi Freiman names one character Lex, and that character is a Bangldeshi rapper who is obsessed (aren’t we all?) with cultural appropriation; this is the best use of the author-naming-a-character-after-herself gambit since Jane Fairfax in Emma.
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