Assembly by Natasha Brown
“Surviving makes me a participant in their narrative.”
Have you ever been inclined to pick up a book for a number of years, only to be pipped by a steady onslaught of procrastination? ‘Next year. There's always next year.’ Well that has been me since the publication of Assembly. I was intrigued by the cover primarily, the short print length & it’s notoriety across Bookstagram.
Unfortunately, Assembly just wasn’t the book that I hoped it would be, and I’m sad to say that it just didn’t live up to the hype nor my expectations.
If you had asked me between page 1 & 70 what this book was about I would have swiftly redirected you to Google, because I honestly had no clue what was happening. The constant vignettes employed within this story jeopardised my ability to remain present whilst reading.
However, The Garden Party is when this story began to solidify its intent (for me). Assembly is essentially an exploration of how we often assimilate to fit into the middle & upper class societies. How we are often expected to be ‘The Help’ despite our education & career successes.
I was slightly unsettled by our unnamed protagonist and her choices, but it begs the question of what can we really do, when our only hope is to survive within the systems that break us.
Overall, it wasn’t a terrible read, but it’s not a story that will stay with me forever.
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