A review by hzmt
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt

dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

I hated this book.

100% a self insert character and was written as some sort of catharsis for the author but should have stayed in her diary instead of publishing it as her debut novel.

The writing is bad and littered with senseless swearing, over-sexualized gratuitous violence, and weak allegory to fascism while simultaneously referencing historical, literary horror such as The Haunting of Hill House while taking zero notes on prose and writing style. Also it served to age itself out of relevance quickly by referencing old web forums by name, thus condemning itself to an inherently minuscule shelf life compared to its inspiration.

Several times throughout the book, the third person omniscient POV reveals tangential information that diverges from the story and reveals nothing useful. Towards the end, the book just falls apart into ranting about the political state of the UK and completely strays from the story, just sufficing as a space for the author's expletive laced essay about the world with inclusion of slurs but at the same time censoring some of them? (I don't like the r word, but if you're going to imply the usage, just use it and don't back down, you didn't back down from any of the other god awful stuff in this book, why was that the line?). 

Honestly this book felt like a gross hindrance to the movement and lacked any real horror other than knowing that there are people out there that can write the cringiest, edgelord, angsty bullshit call it trans horror; and then be published and praised for bravery.