A review by bashbashbashbash
Vurt by Jeff Noon

3.0

Vurt has a lot of things going for it – an Irvine Welsh-esque narrative voice (but Manc instead of Scottish), a bizarre SF/F world that's well-constructed, some transgressive stuff

bestiality with the dog-human hybrids, and some incest stuff – consensual sibling incest and also sexual abuse

, and a kicking penultimate sequence

when Scribble is caught in a mirror Vurt at the very end

. Since I recently lived in Manchester for a year (and near where Scribble and his Stash Riders live), I really enjoyed recognizing streets/areas. The geography is highly specific, which is something I always appreciate in fiction.

I got impatient with some of the cyberpunk tropes and meandering sequences (the inclusion of which didn't seem justified given the book's ultimate trajectory).