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A review by sapphisms
She of the Mountains by Vivek Shraya
3.0
rep: queer indian protagonist
i just wasn't very impressed. the story is a dual narrative bridging hindu stories to the lived experience of a queer man living through his coming-to acceptance as someone that loves men and women. the ending of both stories just never merges satisfactorily- you're left thinking there is going to be another chapter because, really, it just drops off. i usually enjoy stories where the main character simply gazes into themselves and learns more about themselves, but this book just meanders until it ends, nothing gained nothing lost, while throwing in a very strange message of what a 'good queer person' is. the main character is of course presented as good, but all other gay people are shown to be judgmental and/or stereotypical, hating his relationship with his girlfriend. bisexuality is just thrown out entirely as a possibility, where it's stated 'the bi highway leads to gay town' or something like that early on, and the MC settles on the queer label. i'm not saying that a single piece of queer lit needs to represent the full spectrum of queer experience, but i wasn't comfortable with how the gay and bisexual characters were treated, particularly when gay people are compared to homophobic straight people
i just wasn't very impressed. the story is a dual narrative bridging hindu stories to the lived experience of a queer man living through his coming-to acceptance as someone that loves men and women. the ending of both stories just never merges satisfactorily- you're left thinking there is going to be another chapter because, really, it just drops off. i usually enjoy stories where the main character simply gazes into themselves and learns more about themselves, but this book just meanders until it ends, nothing gained nothing lost, while throwing in a very strange message of what a 'good queer person' is. the main character is of course presented as good, but all other gay people are shown to be judgmental and/or stereotypical, hating his relationship with his girlfriend. bisexuality is just thrown out entirely as a possibility, where it's stated 'the bi highway leads to gay town' or something like that early on, and the MC settles on the queer label. i'm not saying that a single piece of queer lit needs to represent the full spectrum of queer experience, but i wasn't comfortable with how the gay and bisexual characters were treated, particularly when gay people are compared to homophobic straight people