Take a photo of a barcode or cover
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I have a lot to say about this book and I don't feel like anything is really positive about it, which is incredibly sad to me because I was absolutely enthused for this read.
I'll start with my large overarching issues with it, but will preface it with the fact that I am a disabled queer transgender man and a very active member of all the communities I belong to, and a huge advocate for all LGBTQIA2+ people and am always always ALWAYS looking to further educate myself.
Now that we have that out of the way (for the uneducated and cis readers of my review), my biggest problems with this book were down to the writing style and perspective. The writing style was not my personal cup of tea but is always something I can look past if I like other parts of the book. But I hated the authors perspective .
I find that a portion of the transfemme community have a very difficult time unlearning the male privilege they are raised with, and that leads them to forget they can still perpetuate misogyny even as victims of it. Women ARE one of the main reasons the patriarchy exists, and I personally find a lot of transfemme people accidentally upholding it, and I believe this author does that. I don't believe it's intentional, but I do think almost all of her characters are a gross sterotype or are upholding misogynist viewpoints and standards (and yes I mean the trans characters).
I also find the perspective of the author a bit uninspired in the fact that the entire overarching view is a very simplistic and dumbed down view of feminism. Men = bad . Too much T = evil rapist monster . T is for boys , E is for girls . And on top of the fact this only upholds the binary system, erases intersex and nonbinary people, and equates sex with gender , it also scientifically makes almost no sense.
The other largest thing I had a difficult time with was the sterotyping, and the fact it seems nobody besides the author and white cishet allies proofread the novel. Fran feeds into the fear conservatives have that trans women are horned up rapists, while also feeding into intense transmisogyny. She's an incredibly dislikable character, and while I feel a lot of these traits are added to make her dislikable, I still found almost all of her parts virtually impossible to stomach. Fran hates trans people. Her internalized transphobia is no longer internal. She's also fatphobic (which I honestly believe the author is as well based on how she wrote anything about Indi). And while Beth was my favorite, she also is overly horny for zero reason, and is simply a walking ball of dysphoria. Robbie seems as if he was written by somebody who has never met a transmasc or native person. Indiresh is described as a vaguely Indian mass of fat with very little personality besides being a smart doctor (which is yet another stereotype). Ramona is a chaser and hates trans people and herself because of it, which is a sterotype almost every LGBTQIA2+ person is trying to break about homophobes. And Feather is an absolutely horrific depiction of nonbinary people that leads me to believe the author hates nonbinary people.
The final gripe I have is the extreme oversexualization of .... everything. You truly cannot go more than a few pages without graphic sex scenes. I have zero problem with sex as a horror motif. Alien is a perfect example of it done well. But this is not sex used in that way. This book is fetish content. It literally is pornographic. I'd even go as far to describe the genre as pornographic thriller more than horror.
In summary, the only likable part of this book to me was Beth and Robbie's characters, and even then I feel I was grasping at straws. I'm devastated I hated this novel, as LGBTQIA2+ horror is an underserved genre and is my favorite as well. I was dying to read this book and am heartbroken it was maybe my least favorite book I ever read. I only didn't DNF it because I felt I needed to see through the authors vision in case it changed . Sadly, it did not.
I'll start with my large overarching issues with it, but will preface it with the fact that I am a disabled queer transgender man and a very active member of all the communities I belong to, and a huge advocate for all LGBTQIA2+ people and am always always ALWAYS looking to further educate myself.
Now that we have that out of the way (for the uneducated and cis readers of my review), my biggest problems with this book were down to the writing style and perspective. The writing style was not my personal cup of tea but is always something I can look past if I like other parts of the book. But I hated the authors perspective .
I find that a portion of the transfemme community have a very difficult time unlearning the male privilege they are raised with, and that leads them to forget they can still perpetuate misogyny even as victims of it. Women ARE one of the main reasons the patriarchy exists, and I personally find a lot of transfemme people accidentally upholding it, and I believe this author does that. I don't believe it's intentional, but I do think almost all of her characters are a gross sterotype or are upholding misogynist viewpoints and standards (and yes I mean the trans characters).
I also find the perspective of the author a bit uninspired in the fact that the entire overarching view is a very simplistic and dumbed down view of feminism. Men = bad . Too much T = evil rapist monster . T is for boys , E is for girls . And on top of the fact this only upholds the binary system, erases intersex and nonbinary people, and equates sex with gender , it also scientifically makes almost no sense.
The other largest thing I had a difficult time with was the sterotyping, and the fact it seems nobody besides the author and white cishet allies proofread the novel. Fran feeds into the fear conservatives have that trans women are horned up rapists, while also feeding into intense transmisogyny. She's an incredibly dislikable character, and while I feel a lot of these traits are added to make her dislikable, I still found almost all of her parts virtually impossible to stomach. Fran hates trans people. Her internalized transphobia is no longer internal. She's also fatphobic (which I honestly believe the author is as well based on how she wrote anything about Indi). And while Beth was my favorite, she also is overly horny for zero reason, and is simply a walking ball of dysphoria. Robbie seems as if he was written by somebody who has never met a transmasc or native person. Indiresh is described as a vaguely Indian mass of fat with very little personality besides being a smart doctor (which is yet another stereotype). Ramona is a chaser and hates trans people and herself because of it, which is a sterotype almost every LGBTQIA2+ person is trying to break about homophobes. And Feather is an absolutely horrific depiction of nonbinary people that leads me to believe the author hates nonbinary people.
The final gripe I have is the extreme oversexualization of .... everything. You truly cannot go more than a few pages without graphic sex scenes. I have zero problem with sex as a horror motif. Alien is a perfect example of it done well. But this is not sex used in that way. This book is fetish content. It literally is pornographic. I'd even go as far to describe the genre as pornographic thriller more than horror.
In summary, the only likable part of this book to me was Beth and Robbie's characters, and even then I feel I was grasping at straws. I'm devastated I hated this novel, as LGBTQIA2+ horror is an underserved genre and is my favorite as well. I was dying to read this book and am heartbroken it was maybe my least favorite book I ever read. I only didn't DNF it because I felt I needed to see through the authors vision in case it changed . Sadly, it did not.