Before I begin, you should know that I’m forcing myself to rate objectively because, if I were to rate based on what this book is actually about and not based on the artistry behind it, everything would be one star. Everyone in this book needs to die immediately, none of them are redeemable (except maybe the dad) 😭

Also, know that this book deals with very heavy topics including but not limited to: death and cannibalism (obviously), SA/rape, child and parent loss, marital/family issues, animal abuse, torture, depression, and some more that I’m forgetting right now. (These are also recurring/constant themes in the book, not one-off occurences.)

Anyway! My takeaway: something funky is going on in Agustina Bazterrica’s brain, and whatever it is, she needs to let it take over more. This book is so freakishly good at making you want to get as far away from it as possible, but you can’t, because you need to see the trainwreck unfold in real time. In many ways, it’s a parallel to our modern-day world, really making you understand the power of a government who can, at any time, decide who is “human” and who is not. A world where some people are not even people, they’re objects, sources of pleasure, things that can be discarded at any moment, with no name or worth attached to them. At no point did I feel any part of the gore or disgust was being used solely for shock factor; the things I stated previously in the trigger warnings section were purposeful devices to convey observations about the dangerous world that is possible when we stop thinking for ourselves, stop empathizing with others, and completely submit to a higher power.

I would not recommend this for everyone—many people will not be able to stomach the content, and that’s fine—but if you’ll take the chance, please try to set aside your disbelief and imagine a world in which this is all real. It’s highly improbable, but never entirely impossible.

Did this book keep me on my toes the entire time, never quite knowing where it was going to go? Yes. Did it leave me with a lot of unanswered questions that put me in the MC's shoes and kept me hooked? Yes. Did it immediately bamboozle me with the fact that there are no chapters, just a steady stream of paragraphs of thoughts from the MC? Absolutely, yes.

But was it life changing like everyone says? Hell no.

This book is a great read if you constantly choose from the same few genres/narration styles and want to cleanse your palate a bit. It's witty, thought-provoking, and sentimental. But I believe that there's a small percentage of people who will truly be able to see the nuance in how the MC sees/experiences the world and then apply it to a hypothetical version of our reality, one without the male gaze, and I am not one of those people. You might not be, either.

IWHNKM is definitely not for everyone, but it's living in my head rent-free for sure. I can't give it any more or less than three stars.