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b1rdbrain 's review for:
Tell Me I'm Worthless
by Alison Rumfitt
Being trans, British, and a massive fan of horror, I really thought this would be up my alley. However I have finished this book distinctly disappointed in many regards.
The prose often comes across as wanting desperately to feel transgressive, with heavy usage of slurs and violent sexual imagery (which I do not have a problem with, and deeply understand it's importance to horror) giving passages a feeling of an edgy teenager. I have no problem with the choice to use slurs however much of the contextualised usage (particularly of the t-slur) becomes truly abrasive. Left me feeling like I was reading a self-flagellation. It's important, yes, for we as trans people to write on transphobia and reclaim slurs however this became too much. The transphobic rhetoric and internalised transphobia that is rife in the book is met with little questioning as to why these ideas are planted, an aspect that you think would be at least a little explored given the focus on the roots and undergrowth of right wing ideologies that the book posseses.The TERF actually being a trans man felt juvenile, and this being featured right at the end was unsatisfying and felt incomplete. Much like the ending itself, which seemed rushed and did not offer a complete reflection on the themes. It is not enough to have two trans characters embrace in the face of the oncoming tide of far-right ideas, when it feels as if you haven't explored this tide. But I guess it was all just the big scary house that caused it.
As a haunted house tale, it felt like a cheaper imitation of what has come before. As well as this, the metaphors and themes are hamfisted and ultimately feel clumsy - they would have been more effective and affecting if Rumfitt could trust the reader and not reiterate the ills of bigotry or facism over and over. Trust the story, trust the characters, trust the imagery you're showing the reader(a white blonde "perfect" girl twisted into a swastika is distinct enough and does not need overexplaining) . Your reader absolutely does not have to endure 3 pages of a nonsensical 4chan post, we get the picture 2 sentences in. Giving the house a voice was initially interesting, but subsequently became yet another way for Rumfitt to retread the same tired narratives without truly making them progress anywhere. If your book is about the creeping rise of facism, why not let it creep up? Why not surprise and shock the reader?
Rumfitt also consistently seems to conflate facism with one of its tools - various forms of bigotry. This limits the book's exploration of its themes as we never get a sense of what exactly this threat means beyond bigotry. Beyond eugenics, anti-immigration ideas, transphobia, racism, anti-semitism there isn't a clear idea on the collective and subsequent horrors that facism's co-opting of bigotry means. From Eco's essay on Ur-Facism: contempt for the weak, appealing to a middle class, cult of action, cult of tradition, and the Ur-Facist hero are a few of examples of components of facist ideology that an exploration of would lead to richer understandings of the inherent horror of the control and populism that facism fosters.
The prose often comes across as wanting desperately to feel transgressive, with heavy usage of slurs and violent sexual imagery (which I do not have a problem with, and deeply understand it's importance to horror) giving passages a feeling of an edgy teenager. I have no problem with the choice to use slurs however much of the contextualised usage (particularly of the t-slur) becomes truly abrasive. Left me feeling like I was reading a self-flagellation. It's important, yes, for we as trans people to write on transphobia and reclaim slurs however this became too much. The transphobic rhetoric and internalised transphobia that is rife in the book is met with little questioning as to why these ideas are planted, an aspect that you think would be at least a little explored given the focus on the roots and undergrowth of right wing ideologies that the book posseses.
As a haunted house tale, it felt like a cheaper imitation of what has come before. As well as this, the metaphors and themes are hamfisted and ultimately feel clumsy - they would have been more effective and affecting if Rumfitt could trust the reader and not reiterate the ills of bigotry or facism over and over. Trust the story, trust the characters, trust the imagery you're showing the reader
Rumfitt also consistently seems to conflate facism with one of its tools - various forms of bigotry. This limits the book's exploration of its themes as we never get a sense of what exactly this threat means beyond bigotry. Beyond eugenics, anti-immigration ideas, transphobia, racism, anti-semitism there isn't a clear idea on the collective and subsequent horrors that facism's co-opting of bigotry means. From Eco's essay on Ur-Facism: contempt for the weak, appealing to a middle class, cult of action, cult of tradition, and the Ur-Facist hero are a few of examples of components of facist ideology that an exploration of would lead to richer understandings of the inherent horror of the control and populism that facism fosters.