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hyurutchi 's review for:
tldr: everything is about sex except sex, which is about how transmisogynists should be blown up
brainwyrms is an incredibly visceral, disgusting, emotionally moving, funny, timely, violent, relatable, down to earth, and understanding novel. it shows many intense, extreme acts of human sexuality and violence and uses those as a method to contextualize the lives of LGBT people in our increasingly more regressive world, by creating a horrific and deeply compelling near future sexual nightmare world. brainwyrms presents a rictus, bitter grin against the very real evils in this world and indulges in everything bigots claim you are at your worst to brutally (and literally, in the text) rip open the regressive trappings, transmisogynist leaders, and escalating bigoted extremism in miserable, resentful glee.
expect to have weird, slightly erotic nightmares while reading this, and be prepared to cry for all involved — primarily for your trans self and loved ones.
i was quite enamored with rumfitt's ability to call upon modern internet culture from disparate social circles as a method to tell her story and establish the elements of satire. one chapter is literally just different people on Twitter getting curiouscat anon asks, many chapters reference well known LGBT memes (such as the lesbian master doc) or online behavior (such as receiving replies about suicide statistics as a form of harassment). she also does some fantastic reader addresses, which ask some difficult questions of you as a reader.
quite literally every content warning you could applies to this, by the way. it is an extraordinary way to examine the worst of humanity, and you should go in expecting that.
I have read a couple other more extreme horror novels (such as tender is the flesh) and i feel that brainwyrms succeeds more than most. while it is gross, it is also exceedingly sarcastic and clearly and very deeply loves the subjects at the heart of what it is speaking of. if I could recommend this book, I would.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Body horror, Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Deadnaming, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infertility, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Police brutality, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Outing, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, Injury/Injury detail, Classism