I always enjoy new Daphne Press novels (via NetGalley of course) and I am pleased to announce that I have another NetGalley book review today!
This review is of a horror novel and I was incredibly excited to read another novel in this genre. I don't often read a lot of horror novels so I thought this would be a perfect reason to read one.
So, here is my review:
As always, thank you NetGalley and Daphne Press for providing me with a free e-arc of this novel in return for an honest review.
Revenge has lost its weight. Everyone wants someone to suffer for something.
Chapter 10, p. 63/199 (e-arc)
Image taken from NetGalley
Benji is a sixteen-year-old trans-boy who is on the run from the religious cult that raised him. The cult is determined to violently decrease the global population with a bioweapon that Benji is infected with.
Benji was rescued and found shelter in an LGBTQ+ Center known as the ALC. Nick, is the ALC's autistic leader who knows that Benji is mutating into a deadly monster because of the bioweapon.
Regardless, Nick still offers Benji refuge among the other queer teens at the centre, on the condition that Benji uses his power to defend the ALC. Eager to belong, Benji accepts Nick's terms until he discovers that Nick has his own hidden agenda.
So, let's get straight into my opinions about this novel.
First: Benji was the reason why I enjoyed this novel so much. This novel features a few different POV chapters but Benji is the main character so, of course, the majority of the novel is from Benji's POV. In Benji's POV we get a lot of information about his life essentially, and his life is important and interesting for a few reasons but one of the major reasons is the following: he is trans and living in a society which is not accepting of who he is. So, Benji's chapters end up being very engaging and feel raw with emotion since he is experiencing a lot of turmoil with his identity. There is a lot of violence, abuse, transphobia and harm that he and a lot of the other LGBTQ+ characters experience so we get his opinion and insights into these events. Ultimately, there is NOTHING wrong with Benji, it is society (mainly the extremist religious cult) that is at fault here.
Please note that there are trigger warnings at the beginning of this novel. Some of these trigger warnings are:
- violence
- transphobia
- abuse
- religious extremism (people doing harm in the name of religion)
- self-injury and attempted suicide
- horror and body horror descriptions
Other aspects of this story such as the dystopia, overarching idea of inclusivity/diversity, religious extremism and belonging were also features which I enjoyed reading and interpreting. I am a lover of dystopian novels so I especially enjoyed being drawn into a new chaotic and brutal world. The cult in this novel is attempting to utilise a bioweapon to destroy most of the world's population and Benji is injected with it. He ends up mutating into a monster and he of course tries to control said monster. I think this was such a unique and interesting mix of dystopian ideas and that only added to my intrigue.
This novel also features the found family trope which I am also a huge fan of. Nick is the mysterious leader, Aisha, Faith, Theo and a few other side characters quickly stole my heart as well. I do wish we had more insight and information about a few of these side characters, I thought they were very interesting but in all fairness, I always want more content from the novels I enjoy.
Now, the only downside of this novel is the body horror. I don't read a lot of horror novels let alone body horror, so I was very underprepared for the gory details. Violence usually doesn't bother me too much (I read a lot of high fantasy novel which features plenty of violence) but the body horror in this novel made me a little bit uncomfortable at times. Interestingly, I did study body horror in university a few years ago (for roughly two weeks) and I had to read and create a short analysis essay discussing the themes and purpose associated with body horror but I still don't really have to stomach for this. This is a me issue of course. This will NOT stop me from reading more horror novels though.
Overall, this was a rage-filled and interesting novel. I recently received NetGalley e-arcs of a few other novels by Andrew Joseph White so I look forward to reading (and reviewing) those novels.
For now, thank you so much for reading my review and I hope you have a lovely day.
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