Reviews

Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt

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kaleyx13's review against another edition

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dark tense fast-paced

5.0

Wtf.

Alison Rumfitt is brilliant.

mahtzahgay's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Brainwyrms is New Weird Horror at its best. Sick, gross, disgusting, and stomach-clenching, Rumfit's characters and prose drip off the pages and onto your lap.

The terrifying imagined future reality of trans hostility and legal rights suppression that Rumfit presents honestly don't feel too far off the UK's current state of affairs (or, realistically, any country's current state of affairs in regards to transsexual people). The subtle and completely unsubtle ways that transsexual people – parti ularly transsexual women – are dehumanised and otherised by cissexual society is masterfully weaved into the book – and is, in my opinion, the most potent part of the horror of Brainwyrms.

The last chapter in Part Two was where I was most disturbed and confronted, and this was after reading several previous chapters featuring

murderous TERFS, child grooming, a graphic description of a maggot-infected vagina, and the general territory that comes with a fetish for parasitic infection.

All of that paled in comparison to that last chapter, which felt more realistic and prophetic than any of the disgusting bodily horror preceding it.

My critique is that the end reveal of

a shadowy, elite cabal of capitalist conspiracists

took away from the otherwise spectacular horror of Brainwyrms. Not only because I think it's a trite and overused trope in fiction, but because the book's strength lay in its realistic and believable depiction of a country slowly rotting from the inside and falling into fascism, particularly considering this doesn't seem too far off given the UK and US's current tragectory.

However, critiques aside, Brainwyrms is a delightfully gross addition to the New Weird Horror genre, and to the horror genre overall.

Content Warnings

tessaturnspages's review against another edition

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challenging dark fast-paced

Loveable characters? No

3.0

Content Warnings

webslingingadam's review against another edition

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dark funny tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Subversive. Transgressive. Thoughtful. Disgusting. Filthy. Sometimes hilarious. I really don’t know how to quantify my reading experience with this one. Recommend but brace yourself before venturing in.