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3.68 AVERAGE
3.68 AVERAGE
deftly riffs on everything from twitter cancellations to the haunting of hill house to create an incredibly shocking, transgressive, and bold entry into political horror.
it's been in my head for days. what a remarkable debut. tell me i'm worthless takes no prisoners as it unravels the sickness at the heart of modern society and transphobia.
trigger warning for basically everything in this book but also it feels so essential and so incredibly in the moment that i think it's a must-read. read Shirley Jackson's Hill House first because this work is in dialogue with it.
"our house, my house, her house, was not like Hill House, however much I structure my thoughts on it in the same way. Hill House was, I think, an apolitical animal. Our house was not. It had a system of beliefs. And those who walked there marched as one faceless mass."
"No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the birds in Italy under Mussolini were observed to take part in rallies and violence."
I cannot WAIT for Rumfitt's next. Trans authors are really leading the vanguard in the revitalization of the horror genre.
it's been in my head for days. what a remarkable debut. tell me i'm worthless takes no prisoners as it unravels the sickness at the heart of modern society and transphobia.
trigger warning for basically everything in this book but also it feels so essential and so incredibly in the moment that i think it's a must-read. read Shirley Jackson's Hill House first because this work is in dialogue with it.
"our house, my house, her house, was not like Hill House, however much I structure my thoughts on it in the same way. Hill House was, I think, an apolitical animal. Our house was not. It had a system of beliefs. And those who walked there marched as one faceless mass."
"No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the birds in Italy under Mussolini were observed to take part in rallies and violence."
I cannot WAIT for Rumfitt's next. Trans authors are really leading the vanguard in the revitalization of the horror genre.
More ambitious than I think its level of literary skill can keep up with - and for gods sake way too discourse-y in places - but there's a lot of interesting stuff happening structurally. Even the opening content warning feels like a part of the narrative and characters' (especially Alice who,, is the author) reflexive self-defeat? I do love it when a story starts to disassemble itself. And there is some good prose in places. The beginning with the poster is genuinely unsettling and unfortunately gave me unrealized expectations of what was to come, you hate to see it.
I really enjoyed the setup of this story, but by the end I felt like I missed a lot of the greater meaning behind the story. This feels like one of those books I would understand more upon a reread or with additional supplemental research.
I did enjoy the author's writing style and tone and would definitely pick up another book from them in the future.
Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley.
I did enjoy the author's writing style and tone and would definitely pick up another book from them in the future.
Thank you to the publisher for granting me access to an ARC via NetGalley.
I was pretty blown away by this book - until the end? Maybe it was just my reading environment, but I kind of lost track and focus by the end of the book.
Anyway, I loved the theme - from the intro: "Tell Me I’m Worthless is a book about two things, primarily, and those things are trauma and fascism." and "No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the pigs in Chile under Pinochet’s rule were observed to take part in political killings."
And I loved all the symbol work, and aspects of Jewish life, and the TERF exploration, and the ‘intersectionality score calculator,' and trying to read yet another British book and not picking up on various nuance (Albion).
I'm excited to read more by the author.
Anyway, I loved the theme - from the intro: "Tell Me I’m Worthless is a book about two things, primarily, and those things are trauma and fascism." and "No live organism can continue to exist compassionately under conditions of absolute fascism, even the pigs in Chile under Pinochet’s rule were observed to take part in political killings."
And I loved all the symbol work, and aspects of Jewish life, and the TERF exploration, and the ‘intersectionality score calculator,' and trying to read yet another British book and not picking up on various nuance (Albion).
I'm excited to read more by the author.
Thank you to Netgalley and the published for an advanced e-ARC!
Wow. This book was incredibly intense, and the trigger warnings presented at the beginning are no joke and should be taken very seriously. The writing style was rushed and almost breathless during the more intense parts, which really fit the tone of the story.
This story will not be for everyone, and that is okay. But this story is a very good look at radicalization, especially as it pertains to online spaces, vulnerable people, and the United Kingdom. Both Ila and Alice are marginalized women with intersections of oppressions, and they are made victim and oppressor by the right wing pipeline and facism infecting their hearts and minds. Truly, the point and message of this story is that facism does that to everyone- it will use you for any marginalization you have while still making a victim of you before spitting you back out to infect others with your hate and gruesome beliefs.
This book was hard to read, not because of the writing style, but because of the content and how true it is to real life, especially as someone involved in online spaces.
Wow. This book was incredibly intense, and the trigger warnings presented at the beginning are no joke and should be taken very seriously. The writing style was rushed and almost breathless during the more intense parts, which really fit the tone of the story.
This story will not be for everyone, and that is okay. But this story is a very good look at radicalization, especially as it pertains to online spaces, vulnerable people, and the United Kingdom. Both Ila and Alice are marginalized women with intersections of oppressions, and they are made victim and oppressor by the right wing pipeline and facism infecting their hearts and minds. Truly, the point and message of this story is that facism does that to everyone- it will use you for any marginalization you have while still making a victim of you before spitting you back out to infect others with your hate and gruesome beliefs.
This book was hard to read, not because of the writing style, but because of the content and how true it is to real life, especially as someone involved in online spaces.
I feel like this book hated me and itself and not in a cool artsy way.
I love fucked up horror but this seemed to fetishize transmisogyny in a very suspect way. It's one thing to portray evil, but it was like the author thought 'evil kinda has a point.' Save some TERFiness for the TERFs dear god.
But also TERFs are trans men's fault? gotcha.
Bonus star because the author shot her shot, and I can appreciate that
I love fucked up horror but this seemed to fetishize transmisogyny in a very suspect way. It's one thing to portray evil, but it was like the author thought 'evil kinda has a point.' Save some TERFiness for the TERFs dear god.
But also TERFs are trans men's fault? gotcha.
Bonus star because the author shot her shot, and I can appreciate that
challenging
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I liked: depictions of the house. It was spooky and unique and worked really well thematically. I also felt like the narrative jumping worked great - impressively it never got confusing, just the right level of disorienting to keep things interesting
I disliked: the lack of subtlety - by the end it felt like I was being repeatedly smacked around the face and told HERE ARE THE THEMES, but not in a fun way. It also felt at times like things could have been spookier, almost as if the descriptions just didn’t hit very hard after a while. Having recently finished Brainwyrms, it’s hard to ignore how similar the characters felt in both books - superficially they are different but the chaotic trans protagonist and tragically messy love interest felt predictable.
Excited to read more of her writing in the future and will definitely be recommending to some people but this one was a bit of a disappointment after hearing so much good stuff!
I disliked: the lack of subtlety - by the end it felt like I was being repeatedly smacked around the face and told HERE ARE THE THEMES, but not in a fun way. It also felt at times like things could have been spookier, almost as if the descriptions just didn’t hit very hard after a while. Having recently finished Brainwyrms, it’s hard to ignore how similar the characters felt in both books - superficially they are different but the chaotic trans protagonist and tragically messy love interest felt predictable.
Excited to read more of her writing in the future and will definitely be recommending to some people but this one was a bit of a disappointment after hearing so much good stuff!
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
I’ll give it more stars if I could, it’s brilliant —and despite of being fiction, more interesting than some essays I’ve read on gender and fascism. I’m so hyped, DID I SAY IS BRILLIANT!? Would love to read more from Alison soon.