Around up of the weekend's reading part 2

The End of Mr. Y by Scarlett Thomas 4/5 stars

For a book about thought experiments and the "troposphere" or Mind Space" this book is incredibly visceral.   

The incredibly broken character of Ariel Manto is at times hard to read due to her complete and utter disregard for her own personal safety, both for her body and her mental health. However, the journey this book takes is one that my mum has been trying to explain to me for years. (If it wasn't for the disturbing sexual encounter within I would probably give it to her to read but no.)

I would have been a 5 star book but for two elements. 

1. The explanations of the pain of the lab mice. I have worked with these particular strains of lab mice and I left because of, amongst other things, the occasional mis treatment of them. Nothing as explicit as juggling them or putting live ones in with dead but just little thing I could reconcile with like the unnecessary over breeding and then the inevitable culling.

2. The odd, unexplained militant vegetarianism. I think this must go along with the anti cruelty to animals thing but that tied in with the slight undertones of anti Darwinism made it a little off putting for me.

In short, loved the story and the thought experiment backdrop, didn't like the politics. But just like my childhood, I can pick and choose the bits and pieces I like and discard the bits I don't.