Plastic Seed

The Plastic Seed is a quirky novella which explores how a woman, Jean, who is unable to take responsibility for herself and her actions, seeks to blame a former neighbour, Carlana, for her life not being the garden of roses Jean feels she deserves. The story is written in stream-of-consciousness style with a half dozen characters each taking turns to present aspects of the drama from their own points of view. Unfortunately they all speak with a similar voice so I didn't feel I got the full intended effect of this device. The language is often convoluted too with unusual speech patterns that took some getting used to. Jean resorts to increasingly bizarre actions in her pursuit of Carlana and I wasn't sure how much was meant to be believable as genuine actions, or how much was just in her imagination. Despite reading her direct thoughts, it is difficult to understand Jean's motivation. She is very impetuous so her plans often veer off abruptly leading to situations that I am not sure whether I should have found humorous or not. The Plastic Seed also gives an entertaining insight into life realities of people promoting motivational lifestyles - the grime behind the instagram glitz - and revealing this double standard motivates much of Jean's drive for revenge. It's certainly a timely story, but I do wonder if a short novella allowed Porter enough room to fully explore the ideas she raises.