Made for Love

A Novel

By: Alissa Nutting

Narrated by: Suzanne Elise Freeman

Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins

Publisher's Summary

From one of our most exciting and provocative young writers, a poignant, riotously funny story of how far some will go for love - and how far some will go to escape it.

Hazel has just moved into a trailer park of senior citizens, with her father and Diane - his extremely lifelike sex doll - as her roommates. Life with Hazel's father is strained at best, but her only alternative seems even bleaker. She's just run out on her marriage to Byron Gogol, CEO and founder of Gogol Industries, a monolithic corporation hell-bent on making its products and technologies indispensable in daily life.

For over a decade, Hazel put up with being veritably quarantined by Byron in the family compound, her every movement and vital sign tracked. But when he demanded to wirelessly connect the two of them via brain chips in a first-ever human "mind-meld", Hazel decided what was once merely irritating had become unbearable. The world she escapes into is a far cry from the dry and clinical bubble she's been living in, a world populated with a whole host of deviant oddballs.

As Hazel tries to carve out a new life for herself in this uncharted territory, Byron is using the most sophisticated tools at his disposal to find her and bring her home. His threats become more and more sinister, and Hazel is forced to take drastic measures in order to find a home of her own and free herself from Byron's virtual clutches once and for all.

Perceptive and compulsively listenable, Made for Love is at once an absurd, raunchy comedy and a dazzling, profound meditation on marriage, monogamy, and family.

©2017 Alissa Nutting (P)2017 HarperCollins Publishers

I tried...

I really tried. I think I might have enjoyed the plot if it wasn’t completely mired in hundreds, no THOUSANDS, of random, stream of consciousness rants and remembrances. The main character can’t go the refrigerator without a tangent on something that going to the refrigerator reminded her of that happened ten years ago... and that little tangent goes on for so long, who can remember WHY she was going to the (expletive deleted) refrigerator in the FIRST PLACE?? I actually screamed about two-thirds of the way through and haven’t “picked it up” again.

Weird, some unnecessary things, but well written

Heres the thing, as if you're waiting on me to tell you the thing, but, with this book, it was out of my comfort zone for sure. It was about things I wouldnt see myself choosing to read, but it was so well written that I really couldn't put it down. The 2 separate worlds were not my favorite, and their merging was not my favorite either, but Hazel's story was, well, really great. I see her as super relatable, I see my very own step daughter and a lot of young people nowadays in Hazel. in a time where we really focus on not making anyone feel left out, or bullied or better than anyone else, I see it as having everyone feel the same. No one is particular or special anymore. I feel like Hazel feels this way. I'm probably off base and not focusing on the correct thing about the story though. I did feel like the end was either forced or thought out first and just incorporated into the book to have a weird but eventually tied together feel, but I didn't organically feel it. The end left me feeling flat. I used the word feel a lot. Funny.

Hilarious!

This book is amazing in so many ways. Hoping it's made into a twisted, quirky, dark movie.

bizarre in the best way

i had this in my queue for ages. idk why it took me so long to get to. i guess seeing the hbo max trailer? anyway it’s a truly beyond bizarre book. in short, 100% worth reading.

I don't get it

I'm not sure what happened. Maybe it went over my head but I did not enjoy this book.

edgy

I had wanted to listen to this book after watching the series on HBOMax and I have to say that they are opposites. The characters were sad and depressing. I couldn't stop feeling sad for the main character. I only finished this book because I figured things will turn out better.

Great tv series- depressing book

If you are looking for a edifying, good feeling, hopeful story—move on to the next book your list. I listened through the whole book waiting for something good to happen, something positive, a slightly happy ending. Nope. Depressing chapter after depressing chapter all the way to the end. Ugh- I need to go read some Calvin and Hobbes comics before bed
so I don’t wake up screaming.

Disappointing

After Tampa I’d been looking forward to reading Alissa Nutting again. It was dark and gross and clever. Celeste was a terrifying character because of her cold observations and complete disconnect from typical thinking.

Unfortunately, this same cold way of storytelling has made it’s way into every facet of Made For Love and it does not work well. While the writing is obviously skilled, it quickly becomes apparent that the dialog and thoughts of an average character, and not a sociopath, do not translate well in this style. Hazel, and nearly every character within, have little to no personality. They all come off as flat, every person talking in the same, odd, thesaurus gripping manner (even children).

If you can somehow make it past this quirk, then comes the plot. There is barely any here. The subject matter could have been explored much deeper, our relationship with technology and our desire to not be alone, and some sort of meaning could have been found in each character. Instead, it is a basic point A to point B plot with an awkward side story about the dolphin savior, and pointless digressions that seem to trail on forever.

All in all, it’s not very good. And this book will make me think twice about reading Alissa Nutting in the future.

Don't waste your money

I only made it to chapter 3 before I had to give up on this book. The characters and storyline are derivative of Janet evanovich's Stephanie Plum, Fifty Shades of Grey,and attempt at sci-fi . the narrator sounds as though she has voiced either Siri or Alexa. She just drones with no inflection. if I could give half a star rating for this book I would have done it.

Suzanne Elise Freeman is too monotonous and dry

I think it was a really interesting story but the narrator made it deathly boring