Men, Women & Children Tie-in audiobook

My thoughts:I'm a huge fan of Chad Kultgen's novels. I happened across "The Lie" (Chad Kultgen's 2nd book) a year or two ago and devoured it. As soon as I finished "The Lie", I immediately picked up "The Average American Male"(his first book), which I finished in a day. I bought Men, Women and Children on the day it released, I was so excited to read it.I was slightly disappointed. In his other two novels I really felt like we were building up to something. This novel had no real clear ending. Nothing really HAPPENED throughout the book. It seemed to be nothing more than a glimpse into a wide group of people's personal lives. If you really sit down and think about it the subject matter in this book is kind of heavy. It explores the internet generation's extreme access to sex and how it affects young teens. It also explores sex (or the lack of) between married couples.The characters were very interesting. However, a few of them seemed very similar to each other. It was hard for me to differentiate between some of them. One of my favorite parts of the book was how he gave both viewpoints between two junior high kids that liked each other, but were both too self-conscious and insecure to act on their feelings. It definitely reminded me of the misgivings I had when I was in junior-high. "Does he like me? Should I talk to him?" etc...Though I did have a problem with the plot, his writing is (as always) superb. This book is mainly based around sex. It's graphic, crude and crass. If you're easily offended I would definitely recommend staying away from this book. It's not erotica or anything like that, but the main topic is sex. His books are more MAN-ish books (like I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell, but more....?literary?).The Lie is still my favorite of Chad Kultgen's novels, but I'll be eagerly awaiting his next novel and will probably buy it on the release date. His voice and writing style are very unique, so I really hope he releases another novel next year. I'll be waiting til I can get my next Chad Kultgen fix!Judge a Book By It's Cover: I really like his covers. Even though his books aren't a series, all the covers match! Although the covers don't seem to reveal much, they intrigue me since they are so plain.

Well, this was disturbing. But also good. Probably the most horrifyingly honest unflinching account of teenage sexuality since 1995 movie Kids. Comparatively, the adults' sexual exploits in the book are positively vanilla. So yes, there is lots of sex in this book, copious amounts even. And yet the primary theme here is the lack of communication or the imperfection of the communication had between parents, lovers and friends. Also this was a very astute exposition on the pressures the ever prevalent social media puts on the youth. This is precisely the sort of book that helps understand all the warped psychology of things that go unspoken in daily life. Not to mention you'll never look at a teenager the same way again. While the explicit sexual nature of the book might make it seem as crass or vulgar, it is the behind the scenes mechanisms and motivations that make this such a clever and interesting read. I liked the writing style as well, very matter of fact and direct, which worked excellently for a book about misperceptions and indirectness. Recommended.

O livro retrata personagens adultos e seus filhos na faixa dos 13-15 anos em situações cotidianas e mostra como somos impulsionados por nossas frustrações, egoísmos, necessidade doentia de controle e de aprovação, e como fingimos para nós mesmos que tudo não passa de decisões racionais. Quem tenta fugir desse esquema doentia é visto como pária por quem ficou para trás. No começo é tudo muito picotado e confuso, mas conforme o autor, e por consequência o leitor, se sente mais à vontade com os múltiplos pontos de vista, fica difícil parar de ler. É deprimente por ser muito real. E é uma leitura e tanto. Fica de recomendação. Esperem uma resenha completa no Estranho Mundo em breve.

My first Kultgen book -- all I can say is . . . wow.I read this on the recommendation of my daughter -- she warned me that it was pretty explicit, and you better believe "explicit" is definitely the word for this book, from the first sentence through to the very last.Initially I felt put off by the author's style, as well as the subject matter -- it's written in an almost staccato style that seemed almost amateurish at first. The style grew on me, though, and in the end I think it served the subject matter well.This book explores the lives of several junior high kids and the lives of their parents, who are all in different circumstances when it comes to their relationships. We have the never married single mom and the newly divorced dad, the happily and unhappily married couples, the kids in long term relationships as well as those who are trying to find their way while navigating middle school and their budding sexuality.I really didn't think the subject matter would be all that appealing, and at first I found most of the characters extremely annoying -- they make terrible decisions, then compound their bad judgement by not discussing their problems with the people they most need to talk with, making everything about them extremely frustrating. Then, somewhere along the line, I started to really care about these aggravating people -- I started to worry about them, and to hope that they would FINALLY get some sense. Kultgen actually made me sympathize with these characters, and that really is no small feat.Ultimately, this isn't really a story about sexuality or sexual politics -- although it certainly looks at those issues in myriad forms. It really seems to be more about isolation and lack of communication, and is all the more heartbreaking for having that as its focus.I will definitely be checking out the author's other books. As to who I would recommend this book to -- I think anyone who wouldn't get the vapors when confronted with the fact that yes, indeed, human beings do have sex, and some writers do write about it, would probably do just fine reading this. You might even be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

This was my second foray into the Kultgen mind and I vividly remember the day a female coworker asked me what the book was about. Instead of trying to give the synopsis, I handed her the book and had her read the first, graphic and somewhat depressing but so very real,paragraph. And I guess that's my point about Chad Kultgen works. He writes about the disappointments that while most feel, few actually truly talk about. This novel has a clean, orderly structure that contrasts beautifully with how screwed up each of its central characters are. Perhaps screwed up isn't the most accurate description though. Maybe it's closer to the mark if we describe each as normal people trying to cope with routines and ruts in their own unique ways. Further, we see that all the distraction coping mechanisms used (from masturbation to video game addiction)aren't really that uncommon as strategies in the real world.I think Kultgen's works would not appeal to those out there who lead golden lives where the idea of being disappointed or dissatisfied is repulsive and or never experienced. However, for the rest of us, his works read more honest and on target and also successfully without apology.

Kultgen captures the lack of communication that creates a divide between men and women, and boys and girls, and how the internet has exacerbated the problem--somehow connecting all of us, yet making us feel even more disconnected and less empathetic. At the same time, the novel explores how helicopter parents can ruin their child's life by being too overprotective about their social media. A surprisingly nuanced novel from the author of Average American Male.

This book is unlike anyone that I have read recently. It is very adult and scary real. I saw the movie trailer for the movie that is set to come out in Oct so I decided to check out the book, which I always like to read before I see the movie. The book was extremely crass and did not leave anything to the imagination. I think that the people in this story are actually more true to real life than most books I have read. I really do. I think that this is how people think and what they do, maybe except for the 8th grader who is obsessed with crazy kinds of sex--that might be kind of a reach. I think that 8th graders really deal with these types of situations in real life and it scares me! I have an 8th grade daughter! I do not think she has had these experience but I think other kids her age do. I am glad that I read this book though and I really look forward to the movie--I will look up Chad Kultgren's other books for sure because he writes it the way it is. Now I have seen the movie I can add a little more. Movie was very good portrayal of the book with only a few differences. The story centered more on a Tim & Brandy rather than the other young couple--they were barely even in the movie. I also liked the end of the movie because it was a little more positive and hopeful than the book ending, however, the book ending is probably more REAL. I loved all the actors in the movie--they were well-chosen for their respective parts.

This was such a fucking wild ride, no what I expected lmao. But also being a parent in the age of social media/ the internet is so frightening and such a hard work. Reading about how boys exposed to constant and hardcore pornography and the impact it has on their sexual expectations is TERRIFYING.

I can't say that I enjoyed reading this book, even though I've given it a four stars. Honestly, I found it highly disturbing and troubling to read, but that's because the subject matter addressed here was highly personal and so explicitly detailed. While the details were most definitely disturbing, the overall conclusions that can be made about the characters' relationships-- and by extension, the relationships we may be involved in ourselves, as well-- were the scariest of all. This novel explores serious and interwoven themes such as sexuality, sexual relationships, self-image, and communication among the adults and young teenagers who serve as the large cast of characters, and Kultgen does not hold back in the least. The story is told through a detached narrator, a voice that displays no emotion, no judgment, but simply lays out each scene, and this detachment, for me at least, served to heighten the disturbing factor, in that no voice of reason spoke to the sadness and destructiveness of so many behaviors chosen by the characters. So why four stars then? The writing is gripping, the subject matter is important, and the delivery is intended to make us uncomfortable, I think. Mission accomplished.

I always have a really hard time reviewing Kultgen's books. It's hard to verbalize how they make me feel. It's shocking and gritty, deals with a lot of hard, heavy topics in a very matter of fact manner. This particular book revolves around the lives of a few families with children in 8th grade that are going through their first relationship and/or sexual experiences, social pressures, and technology/social media influences. It's pretty frightening to me and gives me pretty strong anxiety about ever becoming a parent. It also looks at the parents relationships - a seemingly happy marriage but IMO a lack of good parenting, an unhappy marriage seeking outside sexual encounters, over-protective and controlling parents to a good kid, a single mom that sexualizes her daughter for money, and a recently divorced dad trying to move on and begin dating again while dealing with a sullen and depressive teenage son. The overall theme of the novel is communication - or lack there of. I finished reading last night and I was sick to my stomach over it. It definitely made me appreciate my marriage.

THIS BOOK IS WHACK! I originally decided to read this book after watching the movie. The movie was whack, and I wanted to see if the book was just as whack too because, after all, books are usually better than their movie adaptations. The movie closely mirrored the book, but differentiated toward the end. Things this book is about: Sex, porn, sex, infidelity, sex, teenage pregnancy, sex, depression, sex, eating disorders, sex, failed suicide attempt, and last of all -- sex. You've been warned.I like getting inside the heads of all of the characters, which you obviously don't get to do while watching the move. Like this book is so crazy, that I didn't know how to rate it, so I just gave it 5 stars because like WOAH.

I actually really liked this book a lot--it reminded me of Little Children in its focus on suburban families who are all in some way unhappy while living their ordinary lives--but this book has much more to say about the sexual aspects of all parties involved, of all ages. Paranoid parents in the age of the Internet, parents cheating on their spouses, kids ruining relationships and having their relationships ruined for them. A really interesting read that I got into. I'd like to read his other work.

3.5 starsI loved Kultgen's first 2 books. This one wasn't as good to me. I might be rounding up to 4 stars just because I like his first 2 so much.In the beginning I felt like there was a lot going on and didn't see any way to tie up any of the story threads. But it had a pretty satisfying last few chapters. The writing is a little choppy in some parts. But overall it flows pretty nicely.

An excellent book. Vaguely reminds me of Hubert Selby Jr. There is a sort of vulgar, offensive honesty. The whore who really does have a heart of gold. When you look past all the outrage, people are basically doing their best.Very dark, very twisted, very simple. I loved it.

Brutally depressing existential literature about American life today, with a major focus on how the internet has changed everything permenantly (not always for the better).