Much Too Vulgar

Much Too Vulgar by Viggy Parr Hampton is a funny, sad, horrific dark academia thriller about a girl whose entire self is consumed by the desire to earn her mother’s approval, which manifests in the tangible goal of becoming a surgeon.

Keely Roxroth has just finished her first year at Georgetown and is disappointed to be assigned a job in the chaplain’s office instead of a position in the Hughes program, a highly competitive lab research position, which she is convinced she needs for her path to becoming a surgeon - and finally earning the approval she craves from her mother.

Much Too Vulgar is told from Keely’s point of view, and she is quite casual in her attitude and language when referring to psychologically torturing others (though I must confess I was totally on her side in Chapter 8: I Know Where to Find Two Canoes, Babe - IYKYK) or even considering their murder, which she opts out of multiple times only out of desire to avoid a messy clean-up, not from any moral compunction.

We follow Keely through her tenacious pursuit of finding a way into the Hughes program, all the while wanting to get close to people without letting them get too close to her, not trusting any kindness or help because of her mother’s persistent voice telling her she’s not good enough.

Much Too Vulgar is well written and a fascinating portrait of a sad, driven, funny, traumatized mentally ill girl, who was telling a story that was never going to end in happily ever after but was nonetheless wholly satisfying.

Words I Liked:

“I see Sorry! - a game I hated because I’m never sorry”

“Shallow cuts heal quickly, deep cuts heal slowly,-‘d the ones you can’t see never heal at all.” Oof.

Thank you to BookSirens and the publisher for the review copy for my unbiased opinion.