One thing that surprised me when I started writing book reviews is that when I read a book to review, I do it differently than when I read just for fun. Reading for a review is more like when I’m editing for someone, except I don’t have to worry about punctuation and homophones.
I’ve found that when reviewing a book I tend to think more critically about the story and some of the choices the author makes. What is included in the story, and what the author chose to leave out. I would love to have been an editor for this book, to have talked to Ms. Byron about some of the choices she made and why (which we’ll get to later).
That ship has sailed however, the completed book has gone to press and I can only review what is, not what might have been.
With that in mind, I kept coming back to how I would write this review, i.e. How do I feel about this book as a writer and editor versus as a queer, horror (and queer-horror) fan?
Reviewing Herculine As a fan:
Herculine is a wonderful take on classic folk horror tropes. A trans woman (yes, her gender identity is extremely relevant) with a history of religious trauma and quasi-supernatural experiences has been piecing together a life in New York City after leaving the Midwest when things seem to slowly yet surely fall apart.
She goes to visit the all trans-female commune her ex-girlfriend had started and had been goading her to visit for the past few years.
Neither the commune (the titular Herculine, named after a 19th intersex memoirist) nor the ex-gf (Ash) are quite what the nameless protagonist expects, what with all the demons and cannibalism. You can pretty much imagine where the story goes from there.
The author seems to love talking about New York and famous queer artists which I fully get; I also love talking about New York and queer artists. If you don’t know who Greer Lankton is, look them up now as it will save you the trouble later.
While we’re on the subject of things to look up, the author makes a lot of assumptions about her audience and how entrenched they are in queer culture. There may be a bit of a learning curve but I don’t want that to discourage potential readers. If you don’t know what is meant by the following terms:
- EMDR
- muffing
- brick (as an adjective)
- T4T
- FFS
You should probably look them up since they’re mentioned a few times. I’d recommend looking them up even if you’re not planning on reading Herculine, as it may unlock something inside you. You’re welcome.
Byron has also written a bit about gun ownership in the trans community (https://www.newyorker.com/news/the-lede/the-complexities-of-trans-gun-ownership).
and on the whole, I think she wanted to write a book about communes, guns, and drugs more than one about horrible supernatural entities. This isn’t a bad thing, but I hope her next book focuses on the horror aspects which felt a bit underutilized.
An episode comes to mind where the main character doesn’t go look at a corpse because someone else tells her she’s too delicate to see the body; which I suppose makes a point about how the main character is viewed by others but also leaves the readers in the lurch. Don’t tell us the body is horrible, show us how horrible it is.
Which brings me around to the next part:
Reviewing Herculine as a writer:
There were a few parts of Herculine which immediately pinged my editor-brain, the first was right at the beginning when she goes to work, “My boss was stirring a spider into her coffee, watching its legs dissolve like pepper.” This is well before any horror-elements are established so it bears mentioning that neither spiders nor pepper dissolve, and even if they did wouldn’t you remove the spider from your coffee rather than just watch it happen?
When the horror story things do start happening, the MC is weirdly nonchalant about them. Her car is clearly sabotaged and all she does is casually mention to the person who is probably the saboteur that she needs a mechanic. Later, there is a literal demonic attack and a few days later some people form a plan about how to escape. There is no sense of urgency for what should be perceived as an extremely dire situation regardless of how much trauma you’ve survived.
Which brings me to my final point, they never actually clarify how Herculine ends. Without spoiling too much we have: horror scene – horror scene – horror scene – cops show up-”Get on the ground!”- then the next chapter opens at Mom’s house. This always bugs me in horror stories, when at the very least it seems like the blood strewn, sole survivors would be arrested or at least detained for quite a while. How did the final girls get to safety and freedom, especially with the aforementioned vehicular sabotage?
I get the impression that Grace Byron is one of those writers who have a movie in their head that they’re transcribing into a novel, and I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this ends up being a movie in a few years. It’s a good, if imperfect, debut novel. I love books for queers by queers and this is definitely that. To quote the evil ex-girlfriend, “Culture can’t come from within the center. It comes from the margins.”