Brainwyrms

As I sit at my desk, 10:22am, several hours since I finished this book in the morning - a specific passage continues to rattle in my mind

she'd never know the joy of breastfeeding or whatever, the fact that breastfeeding was not really a joy or fun at all, it ached and by the end she gave up but regardless she still should have to know the pain of it, you couldn't just veto out of womanhood because you didn't like the smell of it you little c-nt the world is not a place you make the world is a place you are made by, [209]

This has u/iia vibes. A NoSleep story turned novel. I hated every minute of it. Fantastic.

If this was the first Rumfitt I'd read, I would like it more, but I see so much of Tell Me I'm Worthless that I think Rumfitt is making herself a structure to write splattergore novels. This is her previous book's skeleton with a different villain/monster/metaphor.
I think this was more... not restrained, per se, but developed in a way that didn't feel clumsy, but because it's like her previous novel it feels stale.

I kept waiting for something to really happen, but I think it was all lost in the general horniness of the characters. It's not that nothing happens it's just that the characters are seemingly extra horny and willing to do almost any old sketchy thing to get their rocks off which is just about the most boring thing a character can be in my opinion and because of that the actual events got lost in the miasma. Long story short, this one really wasn't for me.

that was something!!! enjoyed it a lot

Thank you to Netgalley for an ARC in return for a fair review. Sorry for reading it in one sitting.

Weird, lyrical, unhinged, whip-smart, extremely painful. This book is difficult to describe, but that's a compliment; it's complex and refuses to compromise, while still having highly engaging and readable prose. Most experimental / poetic novels are a little too obtuse for me, but Rumfitt's eye for prose and person always sits well.

In the end, I think I liked it less than Tell Me I'm Worthless, though I don't really think that's the book's fault. While it begins with (helpful!) content warnings, it doesn't really go into enough detail for me (I'm fine with books not having content warnings, for the record, but this book's CWs were a bit vague). In the end, it dwelled on subjects I personally find incredibly gross. Not morally suspect, not bad, not wrong, just, for me, subjectively, gross. And that will inevitably make me like a book less, no matter how well it's written.

And Brainwyrms is incredibly, startlingly well written. It's at least as good as Tell Me I'm Worthless, perhaps better in how it expands its scope and aims. The book has a lot more to say on a wide range of issues, but still hits the topic home. If you disliked the unsubtlety and long rambly prose style of TMIW, though, this book is similar. Personally, I find that a success; I love Rumfitt's work and her style.

For those interested, the content warnings that I felt would have personally helped me with this book: watersports, scat, bugs / parasites, transformation into bugs.