AJ Kerrigan reviewed The Appointment by Katharina Volckmer
Review of 'The Appointment' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
(Immediate update: As I hit submit on this review, I immediately felt guilty crapping on this book. The truth is that it just wasn't for me. I didn't enjoy or appreciate it, but I don't think I was supposed to. So... mission accomplished I think!)
I laughed out loud and enjoyed a couple turns of phrase early in this book before it began to feel like a chore. It shouldn't be possible for 130 pages to feel tedious, but a monologue from a character trying so hard to be maximally clever, shocking and insightful wears thin pretty quickly.
The book jacket makes sense in retrospect, with blurbs praising The Appointment for being transgressive, spiky, unsettling, savage, hypercomical, furious, incisive, disturbing...
Yes, from the first page to the last you can feel how hard it's working to earn those descriptors.