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A review by bosermoki
Tell Me I'm Worthless by Alison Rumfitt
dark
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
This book was well written. The author has evident political beliefs w/r/t the modern "gender wars" which I felt were well explored without ever becoming a soapbox or losing track of the central goal of this being a horror novel. It's far too easy to derail a narrative when an author has political axes to grind, even when I agree with them... Yeah, that's right, I'm looking at you, Stephen King!
Elements of dysmorphia, body horror, and unreliable narrators came together while bouncing back and forth between two primary POVs. The story doesn't hold back at all in terms of graphic depictions of violence both sexual and physical. Portions of the narrative felt very personal like the author is working through some of their traumas without ever feeling like wish fulfillment or an elaborate power fantasy. All this while dropping fun allusions and references. Something about the Burzum reference made me smile. There was a semi-recurrent Shirley Jackson, Haunting of Hill House "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality..." allusion that was clumsily done but I loved it nonetheless.
Portions of the story get lost in the weeds with the character's internal messiness and cogitations slowing down the story's pacing, and the house's narrative back story wasn't folded in well. But I have to appreciate any novel that helps me, a cis-het white male, feel like I'm connecting and empathizing with a character who is very outside my frame of reference. Very fun novel.
Elements of dysmorphia, body horror, and unreliable narrators came together while bouncing back and forth between two primary POVs. The story doesn't hold back at all in terms of graphic depictions of violence both sexual and physical. Portions of the narrative felt very personal like the author is working through some of their traumas without ever feeling like wish fulfillment or an elaborate power fantasy. All this while dropping fun allusions and references. Something about the Burzum reference made me smile. There was a semi-recurrent Shirley Jackson, Haunting of Hill House "No live organism can continue for long to exist sanely under conditions of absolute reality..." allusion that was clumsily done but I loved it nonetheless.
Portions of the story get lost in the weeds with the character's internal messiness and cogitations slowing down the story's pacing, and the house's narrative back story wasn't folded in well. But I have to appreciate any novel that helps me, a cis-het white male, feel like I'm connecting and empathizing with a character who is very outside my frame of reference. Very fun novel.