This week I finished reading Andrew Joseph White’s You Weren’t Meant to Be Human, which according to its one-star reviews is “traumatizing,” “soooo triggering,” “pointlessly edgy,” and “disgusting.” I found it … fine. Kind of tame, actually. You Weren’t Meant to Be Human is a book constantly flinching away from itself, desperate to sell you on the horror of all the blood and gore and bugs and body horror built into its own premise but lacking the vivid sensory detail needed to make any of it land.
(Good horror writing and good erotic writing have a lot more in common than most people are willing to admit. All of you go read some Laird Barron right now.)
I’m not sure where the blame for this lies. White’s repertoire up to this point has been mostly young adult novels, and the book is definitely written in the standard YA style (heavy on character interactions and self-reflection, light on descriptive prose). It could be that White found the conventions of YA hard to shake, or it could be either he or the publisher were worried about alienating his existing audience.
The novel manages to stick the landing, though. I only wish the rest of it were as visceral and brutal as its ending.
And I guess that makes You Weren’t Meant to Be Human the opposite experience of Fever House, which had really colourful fun disgusting prose throughout but tripped and fell on its face at the finish line for the sake of trying to sell me a second book.
Serializing Now: “The Illusive Consultant”
“The Illusive Consultant” is now serializing on the Casefile of Jay Moriarty website! The first two chapters are available now, and subsequent chapters are being posted weekly on Mondays.
This Week’s Links
Architecture of return, escape (The British Museum)
Here, the floor plan of the British Museum is painted over a blue field. Pictograms of baskets, masks, woven hats, weapons, tools, and textiles reference the contested objects held in the museum’s collection, while a red line maps an escape route for these examples of Indigenous cultural production.
She Doesn’t Need to be a “Girlboss”
Oceans of ink has been spilled about what makes a good female character. No one can agree on how she should look and act.
‘Are they going to eat me alive?’: trail runners become prey in newest form of hunting
… increasing numbers of people are volunteering to be chased across the countryside by baying bloodhounds in what could soon be the only legal way to hunt with dogs in England and Wales, rather than pursuing animals or their scents.
Normal country.
You know how audio designers are all into black metal and drone music because they’ve listened to everything else and it all bores them now? I think that happened with me and fiction.
-K
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