Reviews

Fluid by Cathleen Davies

violetdelightshavevioletends's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad

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

5.0

lovegriefandgender's review

challenging emotional funny hopeful reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I often find it quite hard reviewing books by people I know. There's sometimes an urge to be more excited, more enthusiastic because you know exactly how much of the self went in to the finished wood pulp product. And I think that's true to an extent, but here the way the trans body (particularly, but not exclusively) is observed makes me feel seen more sincerely. Literature is always what is brought, and what is taken away far more than the individual words.
Fluid is the story of several emerging voices between 1950s and 1970s Hull. The individual stories are connected, sometimes sequential and all reference 1970s artworks. What Fluid does so well with this structure it tells you with its title; the same abjection and insecurity usually tagged to the uterus and the menses and the cellulite is continuous in the penis and the semen and the bristle. It's a very wonderful thing, this book. I look forward to talking with my friend about it.