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han_reardonsmith's review against another edition
1.0
Love having to edit down a rating on account of discovering the author is a massive TERF and it colours the content of a book.
hmak's review against another edition
4.0
Dark Matters is a heavily symbolic, disjointed novel that tells the story of a tortured lesbian prisoner under a violent regime. The two alternating narrators, both writing to piece together a record, are connected by their deep self-awareness and understandings of what their existence as lesbians means to them. Desi embarks on a dig through incomplete materials to understand the traumatic past of her Aunt Kate, and the lives of both women are revealed slowly and quite painfully. Hawthorne writes like a poet, but she is not afraid to speak clearly and frankly when the subject demands it: "What can a woman do when confronted with violations of her dignity, violence against her body? Is there a difference between what men can do and what women can do? The men here - and so far they are all men - their actions are sanctioned by the powerful. The corporations turned governments. What can I do? Write revenge poetry in my head when my sanity allows it?" Dark Matters is a novel that brings together geographical memory, historical memory, and the personal memories of two women to tell a neglected story of lesbian trauma and loss.
hanleest's review
challenging
dark
slow-paced
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Grief, Gun violence, Hate crime, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence
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