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saint_eleanor's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
God isn't the one writing anymore; its all the girls sitting inside paintings, hating. I'm looking for us.
I write a satanic pact between you and me. THE END.
I could talk about this book for literally hours, would not be able to fit all my thoughts into a review. If you want to talk abt it message me on discord honestly lol (pickledfishxoxo). I would love to know your thoughts on the closing quote, and
In place of an actual review and bc im extra i made a list of every explicit and implied reference in the book and some I just thought would be good further reading because I loved this book sm and i think part of why is bc she referenced so many of my favorite medias 🤓:
Books:
- Growth of the Soil by Knut Hamsun
- Malleus Maleficarium - Hammer of witches
- Gender Trouble - Judith Butler
- Powers of Horror: Abjection - Julia Kristeva
Movies:
- Wild Strawberries
- Daisies, + Vêra Chytilovà movies
- American Beauty
- Penda's Fen
- Jubilee
- Sweet Movie
- Citizen Kane
- Insignificance
- Love Exposure / Noriko's Dinner Table ("an episode", p.32, girls jump onto the subway tracks)
- Wicker Man (p.120, the ram appearing in the circle of naked women)
- Agnes Varda movies , Cleo from 5 to 7
- Hausu (p.187 reminded me of it, when they are tossing something 'neither cabbage nor soccer ball', like a head maybe)
- Men (p. 199, when nocturno culto is giving birth)
Art/Music:
- Pubertad - Edvard Munch 🎨 and The Scientists
- Nocturno Culto/ Darkthrone 🎶
- Hellhammer 🎶
- Rodin 🎨
- Dan Graham 🎨
- Jenny Holzer 🎨
- Ann Sofi's Fideicommunism 🎨
- Otto Meuhl 🎨
- Meredith Monk 🎶
- Varg Vikernes - Burzum 🎶 (nsbm, so watch out)
- A-positive by Eduardo Kac (image of man and machine nursing eachother, p. 146)
- The Collapse of PAL - Rosa Menkmen (No christians see trees fall in this digital forest. p.180)
Other:
Anders Breivik (?)- norweigan terrorist, Friedrichshof Commune, DWeb vs. ARPANET, Jacques Derrida- Algerian-French philosopher, Luce Irigaray- French philosopher and linguist.
Anders Breivik (?)- norweigan terrorist, Friedrichshof Commune, DWeb vs. ARPANET, Jacques Derrida- Algerian-French philosopher, Luce Irigaray- French philosopher and linguist.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Excrement and Self harm
Minor: Child death, Blood, Body horror, and Abortion
librarymouse's review against another edition
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Surrealism and self-reflection reform as magic in this novel. It is disgusting, devoted, and drenched in adoration and bodily fluids.
I could read this novel a dozen more times and still have trouble categorizing it. It is angsty, lyrical, and shows the process of decontaminating oneself of the harshly imposed shame Christianity often ascribed to difference while avoiding the pitfalls of textual shame - the avoidance or curation of language. Hval writes this novel viscerally, with bodies, their parts, their fluids, and the conceptualization and actualization of sins being given true names and tangible descriptors. The struggle between the individual and externally oppressive religion is relatably detailed, and through that lens, this novel has the same impact when consumed as stained glass church windows divorced from their context.
So many readers who came of age on the internet were first introduced to the concept of a queer tenderness or queerness treated like literary fiction rather than something inherently pornographic, through the realm of fanfiction or short stories written to Tumblr prompts, as was very common in the 2010s. Rather than pulling me out of the story, despite how tenuous my grasp on the continuity of this book was, the narrator intermittently addressing the reader directly as "you" harkens back to that very specific reader insert fanfiction feeling, and the love expressed by the narrator for the reader creates that gorgeous, fluid, and velvety sense of adoration. This is an effect that I remember keenly feeling and craving at the young age of the girl in the puberty portrait that is so often brought up in this novel. I don't know that I can claim this specific tone to be authorial intent, but the mood created for the reader by the form and language of this book, with specific focus on the intersection between naturalism and internet subcultures, intertwines beautifully with the content.
I really don't know if I can recommend this novel to others. It is a lot, but it is also gorgeous.
I could read this novel a dozen more times and still have trouble categorizing it. It is angsty, lyrical, and shows the process of decontaminating oneself of the harshly imposed shame Christianity often ascribed to difference while avoiding the pitfalls of textual shame - the avoidance or curation of language. Hval writes this novel viscerally, with bodies, their parts, their fluids, and the conceptualization and actualization of sins being given true names and tangible descriptors. The struggle between the individual and externally oppressive religion is relatably detailed, and through that lens, this novel has the same impact when consumed as stained glass church windows divorced from their context.
So many readers who came of age on the internet were first introduced to the concept of a queer tenderness or queerness treated like literary fiction rather than something inherently pornographic, through the realm of fanfiction or short stories written to Tumblr prompts, as was very common in the 2010s. Rather than pulling me out of the story, despite how tenuous my grasp on the continuity of this book was, the narrator intermittently addressing the reader directly as "you" harkens back to that very specific reader insert fanfiction feeling, and the love expressed by the narrator for the reader creates that gorgeous, fluid, and velvety sense of adoration. This is an effect that I remember keenly feeling and craving at the young age of the girl in the puberty portrait that is so often brought up in this novel. I don't know that I can claim this specific tone to be authorial intent, but the mood created for the reader by the form and language of this book, with specific focus on the intersection between naturalism and internet subcultures, intertwines beautifully with the content.
I really don't know if I can recommend this novel to others. It is a lot, but it is also gorgeous.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Death, Excrement, Gore, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Cursing, Body horror, Abortion, Animal death, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Sexual content
Moderate: Xenophobia, War, and Bullying
Minor: Racial slurs, Racism, and Antisemitism
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