Red X

I really wanted to like this book, in the beginning I really enjoyed the story, I liked the way it was written it was creepy and I was excited. But I didn't really enjoy the authors added bits, though it becomes more apart of the story later it really took me out of the story, I ended up skimming some of those parts. And near the end I was wanting to be done reading it. So not really my kind of book though I do think this book will work for many in the queer community sadly just not me.

I'm having a hard time organizing what I want to say about this book. I think it's one of these books that will hold a special place in my heart and it's always harder to speak about the things we love than about the things we hate isn't it?
This book spoke my language, if that makes any sense, and I loved it for it. It's both a very Canadian older queer story and a commentary on horror and queerness perfect for the non-fiction reader taking a detour into fiction.

There are some interesting concepts here and the subject matter is important, but this book just didn't really work for me. I'm not sure if listening to this as an audiobook affected my enjoyment, but I found the writing to be mostly unengaging (except for some of the supernatural stuff) and the characters felt underdeveloped.

I was also made uncomfortable by the depictions of sexual violence, which obviously is the intent and that's fine, but what bothered me more is that since that is an ever-present aspect of the book, whenever there is a non-violent sexual description, I was immediately put off and since they are all homosexual encounters it made me feel a sort of weird guilt as well for feeling that way.

The demonic presence that threads throughout the story is pretty effectively unnerving though, and the sort-of fourth wall breaking interstitials are something I really like in theory, but didn't quite fit into the story as much as I would have liked.

This seems like it's close to something that could have been great and I can understand the high reviews for it, but as it is I wouldn't personally recommend it.

I don't want to spoil many of my thoughts since I'll be discussing in book club. I'll just say enjoyed it, but it did make some storytelling choices that really hampered my enthusiasm. Can't wait to talk about it. Might be closer to a 3.5/5?