A review by versmonesprit
Girls Against God by Jenny Hval

slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? N/A
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

0.25

I’m once again speechless at the face of a book, but this time for all the wrong reasons. I loved Paradise Rot, I worship at its altar, so it was a given that I would love the other of Hval’s works, right? RIGHT?

Fucking hell no apparently, no fuck me. This is one of the lamest, most laughable drivelling shit ever. It’s repetitive in a “trying to get to the word count” way, and it’s fucking unending. I kept checking what page I was on, when this shit would end so the book could begin, and it never did. So imagine my utter shock and confusion when I was 30%, 50%, motherfucking 70% into the book and still nothing had happened beyond the worst fucking essays you could ever think possible!

See, this is not fiction, and certainly has nothing to do with witches or horror. It’s practically a series of the crappiest essays known to humanity. I’ll circle back to the laughable part here: for a book of unoriginal edgelord essays that target a Western-liberal society, it is comically American-liberal in everything it says. The book is so unaware of itself, it’s impossible not to laugh at Hval at this stage. I really disliked her music too, so now Paradise Rot seems like the fluke. Don’t know what happened there, but it was a magnificent book, though I no longer care to buy a physical copy of it because then I’d have supported someone who also writes this garbage. 

At this point, I’m begging privileged Westerners to shut the fucking hell up if they have nothing revolutionary to say. I am so fucking tired of you complaining about growing up privileged and living in utter privilege, pretending to be oh so oppressed in a society that literally does not oppress you in the slightest way, except maybe in the grand scheme of liberalism aka just capitalism, which you don’t even speak up against.

Yes I’m worked up, I despised this pile of crap that much. Don’t read this if you were thinking about picking this up for a horror fiction. It’s essay upon essay containing snoozefest thoughts on black metal, Norwegian, and movies. Not in any interesting way though, so no, don’t pick this up either if you were going for it because you’d like feminist essays. This is not that either. I highly doubt Hval herself knows what this is. I’m embarrassed on her behalf.