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tansytaseis 's review for:
Ego Homini Lupus
by Gretchen Felker-Martin
Thoughts, thoughts, thoughts. I liked this and also didn't. At the core of it, I see what it wanted to do -- I see the themes and commentary, the feeling of society and patriarchy begetting helplessness begetting violence, and I think it did a good job staying to its themes and rummagin around their guts. Felker-Martin is genuinely a great writer, with a solid, piercing voice and a way with words that impresses itself upon the brain; there was no lack of enjoyment over her prose.
That said, I think the book lost itself somewhere along the line. I felt about this book how people talk about the game of thrones show -- sex and violence and glumness and nothing ever good happening, over and over again until you die. Everyone is incestuous and sexually aggressive and ugly and dirty and violent and hateful. I think she overdid it. For me, a narrative centering on terrible things without even a smidgen of respite loses its punch -- why should all the terror effect you, if it's all there is? That's my main grief; it was just too much, to the point where it lost itself at times. If not for the themes clearly baked into the story it'd have felt like a poor attempt at shock value. To top it off, a lot of the time it felt more like scenes stacked on top of each other rather than a cohesive narrative.
Also just deeply historically inaccurate, which is my own personal grievance, but I hate this misconception that medieval people were all filthy and dirty and had kids as young teenagers (last of which happened, but was very uncommon even in that time period). Looking at other reviews, you can see that there are people who took it as factual.
It was her writing style that kept me reading more than anything else, and despite the wonders of her prose I don't know if I want to read any of her other work.
[space to add more thoughts if they later come].
That said, I think the book lost itself somewhere along the line. I felt about this book how people talk about the game of thrones show -- sex and violence and glumness and nothing ever good happening, over and over again until you die. Everyone is incestuous and sexually aggressive and ugly and dirty and violent and hateful. I think she overdid it. For me, a narrative centering on terrible things without even a smidgen of respite loses its punch -- why should all the terror effect you, if it's all there is? That's my main grief; it was just too much, to the point where it lost itself at times. If not for the themes clearly baked into the story it'd have felt like a poor attempt at shock value. To top it off, a lot of the time it felt more like scenes stacked on top of each other rather than a cohesive narrative.
Also just deeply historically inaccurate, which is my own personal grievance, but I hate this misconception that medieval people were all filthy and dirty and had kids as young teenagers (last of which happened, but was very uncommon even in that time period). Looking at other reviews, you can see that there are people who took it as factual.
It was her writing style that kept me reading more than anything else, and despite the wonders of her prose I don't know if I want to read any of her other work.
[space to add more thoughts if they later come].
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Incest, Miscarriage, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body shaming, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Pregnancy