thevampiremars's reviews
201 reviews

Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Ben Miller, Huw Lemmey

challenging dark funny informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

I’ve been a fan of the podcast for some time. Unfortunately, the book just doesn’t work as well. Without the conversational tone and the episodic structure facilitated by the podcast format, Bad Gays feels somewhat bloated and disjointed. It lacks a consistent throughline to tie the chapters together; yes, the introduction and conclusion put forward the idea that homosexuality is a failed project, but this feels tacked on because the biographical segments don’t explore the subject, at least not as explicitly as I’d like.

Bad Gays is not a bad book by any means, but it is unrefined. It doesn’t do anything that the podcast doesn’t already do (and do better)

CONTENT WARNINGS: homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, fascism, colonialism, slavery, torture, abuse, death, terminal illness, suicide, pederasty and other instances of dubiously-consensual sex and sexual assault

Cosmoknights: Book Two by Hannah Templer

adventurous hopeful inspiring fast-paced

4.0

The artwork is gorgeous, the characters feel real and play off each other in interesting ways, the action sequences are well done. My main issue is the breakneck speed; the first instalment was pacy, but here it’s very obvious that this was written to be a webcomic rather than a graphic novel. Still, I’m hungry for more.

CONTENT WARNINGS: kidnap, violence, a little blood

Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White

dark emotional hopeful tense fast-paced

3.0

The YA dystopian genre is a strange one, because it attempts to depict corruption and destruction at a societal scale while being primarily focused on (and limited by) the concerns and perspective of teenagers. Hell Followed With Us is about babyqueer angst and awkward teen romance; the apocalypse is merely a backdrop.

Well, no, that’s not fair. Hell Followed With Us is about queer rage, and the urge to go apeshit on your abusers. Except that emotion is overshadowed by more literal viscera.

Body horror and gore galore – too much, I think. It felt kind of unearned, maybe because the emotional beats weren’t hitting for me, maybe because there’s blood and guts right from the start with no build up.

The book wants to have its cake and eat it too when it comes to

the Graces; they’re hideous and brutish monsters, but also they’re not monsters and they deserve love and dignity, but also they’re hideous and brutish monsters.

There are more inconsistencies. For example, if Benji was raised by a Christofascist doomsday cult, why does he speak and act and think like he grew up on Tumblr? We’re told he read a book about queerness but, sorry, that doesn’t explain what ought to be a total ideological overhaul, not to mention how he learnt all the correct terminology, made sense of his identity and came to terms with it, etc.

He isn’t shaped by the cult (except literally in his Seraph transformation).

It’s as though he came from a different story altogether and was transplanted into this dystopian AU. And I find it hard to believe that Benji’s top priority right now is finding a boyfriend like cmon...

You’re a divine bioweapon, remember?

The thing is, Hell Followed With Us is a melodramatic exaggeration of a queer kid who grew up religious and found community at a youth club. That’s all it is, once you strip away the gory set dressing; all the apocalypse stuff is angst-ridden hyperbole. It’s appealing to the imagination of teens. It’s YA. It’s not for me.

CONTENT WARNINGS: transphobia, abuse, violence (including lots of gun violence), blood and gore, body horror, vomit, disease, death 

Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson

dark medium-paced

3.0

Meandering. A bit obnoxious. Lacking something I can’t quite pinpoint.

I was tempted to give it a lower rating but it is readable and it’s not too long. I think it’s fair to call it mid.

CONTENT WARNINGS: psychotic levels of religiosity, references to missionary work, racism, classism, misogyny, lesbophobia, child abuse, sexual assault 

Woman, Eating by Claire Kohda

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

“Do you think God would feed a body like yours?”

Woman, Eating reminds me of that standout quote from Nick Groom’s The Vampire: A New History: “Vampires are good to think with.” Here, vampirism serves as a jumping-off point for explorations of religious trauma, mixed heritage, colonial violence, and self-loathing and self-harm, particularly as it relates to disordered eating. This is a contemplative and introspective novel. The first person, present tense narration conveys Lydia’s reflections on her upbringing and ruminations on her identity and her place in the world. She’s lost. She’s lonely. I’ve seen others describe this as a “sad girl book” and I think that’s accurate, but the vampirism does lend those listless lists some flavour other entries to the genre lack.

I think Woman, Eating could have afforded to be more fucked up. True,

Lydia dispatches Gideon at the end of the book,

but I wanted more of that. More sensual revelling. And more consequences too. Aside from the protagonist, the characters are granted little interiority. Maybe it’s just that Lydia’s too stuck in her own head to exercise real empathy,

but I think it would have been interesting – expanding on those themes of colonialism and greed – to have her actually consider Anju’s feelings in a perverse sort of way, and feel good about taking something from her. As it stands, Anju is a non-character.

Lydia is the main character, Ben and Gideon are secondary, and the rest of the cast is just set dressing – fake plants hanging from the ceiling.

I like introspective novels so I don’t mind the lack of plot so much. I understand that isn’t to everyone’s taste, however. If the idea of an angsty artist vampire book appeals to you, check it out. It didn’t blow me away but I’ll give it a good four stars.

CONTENT WARNINGS: abuse, disordered eating, depression and self-loathing, self-harm, blood, death, violence, cheating, stalking, sexual harassment, racism, colonialism, dementia 

Blindsight by Peter Watts

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

4.0

What is there to say about Blindsight? I admire its ambition, its musings on the nature of consciousness, its surreal mindfuckery, its depiction of neurodiversity. It’s a thoughtful and thought-provoking book. And there’s a vampire! In space!

As much as I enjoyed the philosophical and scientific discussions, I did find the writing a bit inscrutable at times. I struggled to visualise scenes and to feel connected to the characters. That may have been intentional, incorporating Siri’s whole “Chinese room” thing into the narration. Still makes for a tricky read, though.

CONTENT WARNINGS: violence, abuse, torture, body horror, psychosis, existentialism, and death

Children of Dune by Frank Herbert

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

3.5

“Every judgement teeters on the brink of error. To claim absolute knowledge is to become monstrous.”

Children of Dune is... a lot. It’s a story about change and ensuing identity crises. It’s a story about suicide, metaphorical and literal; (ego) death. It’s about what makes a person no longer a person and makes them, instead, a monster. It’s about the future and how far some will go to pursue a particular vision.

Alia is possessed by the Baron, becoming ruthless and ambitious and indulgent. I think Herbert did a good job at avoiding the common pitfalls of plurality-/psychosis-as-horror. Baron!Alia is criminally underused, it must be said. Paul returns as the Preacher, an anonymous vagabond kindling dissent. He became disillusioned with his deification, and he rejects his premonitions and his former identity. The titular children, Leto and Ghanima, embark on a quest to secure the Golden Path – supposedly the optimum future for humanity – no matter the cost.

And that’s just the main characters. Half a dozen others take the spotlight at various points throughout the narrative, each advancing their own agendas, their allegiances questioned and their beliefs put to the test. As in Dune Messiah (and, to a lesser extent, Dune), the POV shifts constantly. Messiah, however, was more confined and contemplative – a series of character study vignettes, as I said in my review of that book. Children of Dune weaves multiple dramatic and emotionally charged plot threads simultaneously. I’m not sure it quite comes together.

Something must be said of the pacing/structuring of this book. At times, the story flows well even with the shifting perspectives (eg:

Farad’n is intrigued by Idaho’s recent (false) suicide attempt → the Preacher (survivor of a false suicide) delivers a passionate sermon about “moral suicide” → Idaho argues with Jessica in a similarly incendiary tone

). It makes sense, it feels right. An example where this is not the case:

Jessica realises that Alia has been possessed by the Baron → the twins wander in the desert, anticipating an ambush.

Why is that sensational, pivotal scene followed by suspense? Surely it would make more sense to swap these scenes around, so the tension can build up to that oh shit moment. Even though these are two separate plotlines, there could be an emotional throughline there.

All in all, I was enjoying the book well enough until the last quarter, which is when things started to get weird.

Leto becomes one with a school of sandtrout (sandworm larvae). I understand that this was his way of sacrificing himself, of ending his (human) life and becoming something monstrous in service of a grand vision. I can also appreciate how it mirrors Alia’s fate. But also... huh? The Dune franchise can be very strange, but for some reason this stands out to me. I don’t know...

And, speaking of Alia,

her death was so disappointing. If she had to kill herself, she could have used a gom jabbar, at least, as she did when killing the Baron at the end of Dune. Throwing herself out of a window was just weak. And why did Leto swing her around like that?

For a long time I thought I’d give Children of Dune a solid four stars, but the ending did bring it down a little. I think it’s fair to say it’s more or less on par with Dune Messiah.

CONTENT WARNINGS: drug use, overdose, hallucinations/visions, psychosis, intrusive thoughts, possession, some body horror, violence, murder, suicide, imperialism/colonialism, racism, eugenics, incest, beefswelling 

Stone Fruit by Lee Lai

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad

4.5

“It’s not soft all the way through, babe. You gotta take it slow.”

Tender. Tough. Bittersweet. I love the artwork – it manages to be well thought out yet organic at the same time, and the melancholy atmosphere is captured perfectly in the blue-grey washes.

CONTENT WARNINGS: transphobia, queerphobia more generally, religious trauma, depression

Cuckoo by Joe Sparrow

emotional mysterious fast-paced

4.0

if it sucks, hit da bricks

Nevada by Imogen Binnie

adventurous reflective slow-paced

4.0

Nevada is something of a cult classic, a landmark of trans literature. Does it live up to the hype? Hard to say. I want to say something pithy like “Nevada walked so Detransition, Baby could run” but, while there is some truth in that, I feel like it undersells Nevada. It’s a good book in its own right. It’s not for everyone but it doesn’t have to be; I appreciate that Binnie wrote a book that’s a little unorthodox, instead of taking the radical idea of “trans fiction by trans authors for trans readers” and compromising to make it more palatable to a wider audience.

The stream of consciousness writing style and the abrupt ending may seem off-putting but they work. The POV characters, Maria and James, are stuck in their own heads, and they’re unable/unwilling to communicate effectively or to form meaningful relationships with others. They’re not irredeemably awful but they are certainly flawed, and they do make you want to grab them by the shoulders and shake them sometimes. I suppose that’s how Maria feels about James. Her plan to

tell James he’s trans because he reminds her of her younger self, and to essentially redo her twenties through him

is silly. It’s understandable on a purely emotional level but it was a doomed project from the start. Of course it doesn’t come together with a neat and tidy resolution.

Nevada is a book about failure. If you expect anything else, you’ll be disappointed.

CONTENT WARNINGS: sex, relationship issues, transphobia (largely internalised), dissociation, drug use