oh boy. here we go. michelle tea. is there an author i like less? i don't think so. why do i torture myself by reading her books? i have hated all of them, with the exception of the chelsea whistle, which i merely disliked quite a bit. she's like francesca lia block for queers--substance-less, mind-breakingly boring, content to rest of the laurels of sub-cultural associations in lieu of actual plot & character development, untaxingly insipid (i imagine this works well for people who have to get

Holy crap its GREAT! I forgot how much I adore her and want to be her. Quiet my mind and remember the details of all the fkd up shit that has happened. Details baby, it's in the details.

How to describe this....Okay, how about this. Take Blake Nelson's "Girl" and have her embark on lesbian sex-fest with "Mrs. Dalloway" and jack her on up crystal meth and make her sweaty and grimy and tattoo-covered and roll her around in some period blood and you'll have "Rose of No Man's Land." (The reference to "Mrs. Dalloway" is not about literary quality as much as it's about the whole conceit of using stream-of-consciousness to track a day in a character's life.) This is the thing about Mic...

That meth binge was the most uplifting thing about this book about a disadvantaged lesbian coming of age. Also, I was not a big fan of Michelle Tea's overly descriptive writing style. This book took place over the course of about three or four days in a young woman's life and yet, it felt like years.

i'm ready for michelle tea to write books about being an adult.

Overall, I felt a little let down by Michelle Tea's Rose of No Man's Land. I probably ought to preface that statement by saying that I have unreasonably high expectations of young adult literature, at least when judged against the common standard these types of books are held to, but that notwithstanding I still felt let down - the kind of let down that can only come from an experience that was decent but had the potential to be so much more.First off, the characterization. Michelle Tea crafts t...

My opinion on this book is pretty much the opposite of the rest of the reviews here. I found it at the library & thought it looked interesting, which it definitely was. It was disturbing. I thought the 1st 10 or so chapters were great, reading about what Trisha's life was like & trying to figure out where she fit in, & reading about the mall, plus the writing is really good. The names the author gave the stores were pretty obvious which ones she meant (she called Hot Topic "Dark Subject" & Jack-...

I loved this book, but there's no way I would recommend it to a teen. It has a lot of scenes about doing crystal meth and it's edgy and gritty. That said, I really enjoyed it. The premise begins when a gender neutral girl named Trisha takes a job at a clothing store called Ohmigod! in a mall in her town. She is soon fired, but meets a girl named Rose, who works at Clown in a box, a place in the mall that sells all varieties of fried food (deep fried veggies, corn dogs, Mars bars, everything!).Th...

Plot: This book covers Trisha's first few days of summer after 9th grade, (I think this makes her 15 I'm not overly familiar with the american grades and what they need). Trisha's family consists of a Mum who is a hypochondriac, her Mum's slob of a boyfriend Donnie and her bossy big sister who is obsessed with the idea of getting on the reality tv show called 'Real World'. The main plot of the novel is Trish getting a summer job at the mall, meeting Rose. This is a bad ass coming of age story fu...

Wow, this book is quite a trip. The first half is mostly just gearing up for the second half, in which our protagonist, Trisha, goes on an adventure with an exciting girl she's just met, Rose. There's alcohol and heavy drugs, there's stealing, there are creepy men, there's trespassing and tattoos. and there's some romance between the girls, of course.But the thing is, I liked the first half of Rose of No Man's Land better than the second half. Did I mention that these are fourteen year old girls...

I think this book would make a great film.I was quite surprised by the pace of this novel. First half sets up the tone and the context of its main character (whose voice also tells the story, with a very Michelle Tea Way of Writing Her Main Characters Spoken Dialogue Like This, which I always loved). Second half escalates quickly, and is about just one single night. I don't think the writing or the editing is very strong in this. It could have maybe done better as either a short story or a much

Following on the heels of her graphic novel Rent Girl (2005), the award-winning Valencia (2001), about San Francisco prostitution, and The Beautiful (2003), a collection of poetry, Rose of No Man's Land is Tea's first novel. Critics describe it as raw, honest, confident, hilarious, unpretentious, cynical, and poignant__and agree that among coming-of-age novels, Tea's voice rings true. Narrated by Trisha, the novel takes place over one day, which stretched credibility for some critics. Yet Tea's

I loved this book, a queer, outsider, working class story. This kind of writing makes me really happy, I just wish there was more queer guys writing stuff like this.

I'm not sure calling this a "fun" read is quite accurate, though it is a lot of fun if you have the necessary constitution. A sort of Catcher in the Rye for folks who appreciate New England teens losing control in the depths of a crystal binge, it's the story of a 14-year-old girl in a failed family growing up in Connecticut, making her first friend and then some bad decisions, though it all turns out fairly well in the end. Definitely not a YA book for anyone under 18, I'd say, but at that age

Gulpable YA that I was kind of surprised to like, since the plot features teenaged girl-girl betrayal, shoplifting, hitchhiking, destruction of property, and snorting crystal meth while drinking vodka energy drinks (and then getting tattooed). And I loved it. The androgyne-female narrator speaks in capitalized letters ("Whatever, I Don't Really Give A Shit About Hair, I said") and everyone else's utterances are in italics, a bold technical move that gives the novel its flavor. It was just really...

Normally I reserve 1 star rating for books that are so terrible that I can’t even finish them, but for this book I’ll make an exception. It was a short read, so that’s probably why I was able to suffer through it. I believe this author is a child predator. This book basically advertised binge drinking, disrespect of self and others (specifically adults), reckless promiscuity and drug abuse to 14 year olds... children. I don’t mind books and stories that show that these kind of things happen to k...

On-hiatus indefinitely/DNF. DNF on page 17.I really don't have the urge to read this right now, and I'm sure my friend (irl) wants this book back. I feel bad that I've borrowed her books for so long.

Pretty rare to find a coming-of-age novel that's not drenched in polemic. I thought Tea captured that teenage moment pretty well: a kind of impotent self-awareness, longing for what seems inaccessible and maybe some fear that things won't ever change. (I'm still holding onto that fear when it comes to the world, but the personal dimensions have shifted radically.) The protagonist is pretty kick-arse, too, which is always fun - ey reminds somewhat of the working class girl in My Summer of Love, m...

I ate it up quick, this wild ride of a read. And yet I’m left wondering if I liked it or not. Tea’s writing is excellent, as usual, and I feel so in the moment, in Trisha’s head and heart. But I work with kids near her age and I was so worried for her! And for kids reading this, full of moments where it could have gone far far worse, but everyone managed to be okay. But I can’t moralize about it, it seems too out of line with the book, it’s all so exciting for Trisha, all so new.

This was an impulse read from the library. It wasn't fantastic, but definitely not horrible, and better than just okay. It's your typical down-and-out girl's coming of age story, complete with a strange new friend and a drug-fueled lesbian experience. Yadda yadda yadda.Some major points were scored in my eyes by the author using The X-Files as an adjective.And as a completely irrelevant sidenote, I kinda wish my last name was Tea.