Scan barcode
A review by displacedcactus
Unwieldy Creatures by Addie Brook Tsai
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This was such a weird book and I'm not really sure if I liked it.
The first thing you need to know is that I personally found this book to be more horror-adjacent than true horror. It does deal with a lot of horrific things, but in a very distanced manner, so I didn't feel a strong emotional impact from them. I found it more sad and vaguely uncomfortable than truly scary or horrifying. Your mileage may very!
When looking at the content warnings keep in mind that everything is told in an after-the-fact first-person narration of people relaying things that happened in the past, years ago.
It's been over a decade since I read Frankenstein, but I believe the author tried to use a similar narration style to that book, and it just hits differently in 2023 than it did when it was first published! I found it very interesting that the characters quote and deliberately reference the original Frankenstein, making it quite different from all that media where dead bodies are rising up and looking for brains but no one ever says the word "zombie."
Tsai weaves together elements of the bi-racial AAPI experience, especially that of first-generation kids of immigrant parents; being LGBTQIA+ in a family that won't accept you; gender identity; toxic masculinity; ambition (and how we treat it differently dependent on gender); reproductive science; broken families; and maybe some other elements I didn't really pick up on. They really illustrated the ways that speculative fiction can explore social issues differently from how literary fiction does (that said, I'd say this does have some literary leanings... a little literary, a little science fiction, and a little horror).
Overall it was a very interesting reading experience for me. I suspect people who have a connection to one or more of the identities on-page may have an even better reading experience.
The first thing you need to know is that I personally found this book to be more horror-adjacent than true horror. It does deal with a lot of horrific things, but in a very distanced manner, so I didn't feel a strong emotional impact from them. I found it more sad and vaguely uncomfortable than truly scary or horrifying. Your mileage may very!
When looking at the content warnings keep in mind that everything is told in an after-the-fact first-person narration of people relaying things that happened in the past, years ago.
It's been over a decade since I read Frankenstein, but I believe the author tried to use a similar narration style to that book, and it just hits differently in 2023 than it did when it was first published! I found it very interesting that the characters quote and deliberately reference the original Frankenstein, making it quite different from all that media where dead bodies are rising up and looking for brains but no one ever says the word "zombie."
Tsai weaves together elements of the bi-racial AAPI experience, especially that of first-generation kids of immigrant parents; being LGBTQIA+ in a family that won't accept you; gender identity; toxic masculinity; ambition (and how we treat it differently dependent on gender); reproductive science; broken families; and maybe some other elements I didn't really pick up on. They really illustrated the ways that speculative fiction can explore social issues differently from how literary fiction does (that said, I'd say this does have some literary leanings... a little literary, a little science fiction, and a little horror).
Overall it was a very interesting reading experience for me. I suspect people who have a connection to one or more of the identities on-page may have an even better reading experience.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Transphobia, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, Abandonment, Racism, Homophobia, Child abuse, and Child death