I really wanted to like this book. Female vampires, sapphic love, gothic vibes - it really should have been something I devoured but I found this to be just too long. There were times when I thought absolutely nothing happened, and it was very repetitive.
The f/f relationship was quite steamy with was the only redeeming part of the book in my opinion, but I didn't think it was a particularly good relationship either!

I saw the content warnings, I acknowledged the content warnings, and I still thought this was a book I would enjoy, but I kept being too chicken to actually give it a shot. Hopefully one day I’ll be brave because it really does sound so interesting!

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan, is a sapphic-themed, vampire, gothic horror,story set in 1927 colonial Singapore.

Now before choosing to this book take note of the TRIGGER WARNINGS** which includes violence, gore, sexual violence, sexual assault of a child. This definitely not a book for everyone.

Gean Choo’s parents has just died, leaving her alone, so needing a job she takes the position of house servant to, English woman, named Verity Edevane, who is not just a vampire she is also a monster. Then there is the head of the house staff is Po Lam whose job it is clean up after Verity and get rid of her play things (see where this is going) what follows is a dark and troubled love triangle between the three women.
Which ends with Gean Choo having to chose who will live and who will die.

Now the end is a interesting aspect of the book is you get to choose your own ending. I read them both and actually find it hard to choose. You want a happy ending, but then again you want to see the darkness win. So it's win situation.

So, the synopsis for this sounded amazing but didn’t really hint towards how dark and gritty it was going to be.

I have so much respect for the author and all of the content/trigger warnings for this because I firmly believe they should be included and yet I only see them when it comes to reading fanfic which has led me to having some very unpleasant surprises.

There was none of that here, I just really couldn’t handle a dark book when it came time to read this so I had to DNF.

This was SO interesting and tense, oh my gosh!! I loved the setting so much, I felt so drawn into every scene and new place, and felt so suffocated in certain scenes because it was like I was there. The author does an amazing job of creating tension in the main duo's scenes, but also in the scenes where they are surrounded by loads of people and still you want to see what they are up to.

Every dark part of this book speaks to my soul and I have never been more thankful to have requested this- it's sublime. Many Thanks to Netgalley and Shattered Scepter Press for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Review:
Before i start- this book will not be for everyone, please check the content warnings and trigger warnings before coming near this.

Plot- So this has 1920s Shanghai and culture, vampires, LGBTQIA+ rep, what isn't to love. It's a dark and depressingly gritty read at times but genuinely so well written I got through it within a few days during a busy period at work as I just could not stop. It was twisty, turny and everything in between. Fast paced and the writing style was so up my alley.

Also- Pick your own ending??? can more books do this please oh my goodness.

Worldbuilding- absolutely fantastic, smashed all my expectations. 1920s Shanghai is amazing.

Characters- The part that surprises me is how much I enjoyed the character development. Not because they are in any way, shape or form decent people...but because they are all so absolutely horrendous and dislikeable watching them develop, even to make them worse, is like a celebration in itself.

Overall:
Dark fantasy, amazing cultural references for the setting and deplorable but developed characters? Hats off I wasn't sure this could pull of everything the synopsis had down for it but it met my expectations and then surpassed them

This book had me hooked since the absolute beginning. A dark gothic book set in Singapore in the 1920's. The culture is well written and made you feel like you were there. I really liked that this book had a really solid plot and it wasn't just about fluff characters you like with no plot. I also really enjoyed that there were multiple POV's. Sometimes that can get complicated and feel disconnected, but not in The Wicked and the Willing.

I received this book for free from Netgalley for an honest review.

Very intense read. The character development and the world building we're really on point. I'm very happy to have read this.

I really wanted to like this book, but ended up not finishing it. I do admire the author's prose greatly. I read her debut book: "Captive in the Underworld" and it was dark, but exquisite. [Potential Spoiler] I also liked that the author provided two alternate endings and gave the reader a choice to choose who the protagonist would ultimately be with.

Overall, the setting and the characters were unique. However, I did not enjoy the plot as much, particularly the way each scene transitioned into the other. Tan's writing style is amazing, but the storyline of this book was not as intriguing to me.

Thank you NetGalley for providing me an advanced digitical copy of this book.

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan is a dark fantasy sapphic romance set in Singapore in the 1920s. It is very adult and should be read only after checking out the content warnings. There are tons of them including SA, racism, classic, DA, gore, and violence. The main character, Gean Choo, Is caught in a love triangle between Verity, a. Powerful vampire and Po Lam, her majordomo. As the book progresses, we learn more about Verity's motivations and how Gean fits into everything. The world building in the book is very gothic and surreal. The mansion sounds like something straight out of interview with the vampire. This book is gratuitously, violent and definitely a good read for people who are a fan of gore and horror.

Listen, I was on-board the instant I heard "vampire lesbians" I will personally drag paranormal romance back into fashion, kicking and screaming, if I have to. And I will demand that this time we do it all with queer people!

However.

This should've just been a straight-up historical fiction novel. Keep the lesbians, obviously, but all of its genre trappings are actually the weakest parts: as a romance it falls flat because nobody interacts enough, as an erotica it's frankly icky because nobody enjoys the sex they're having, as a paranormal it feels watered-down because the vampire plot is just a tangent. None of that works.

What does work? The solid historical novel that's buried inside this one.

The strongest feelings this book provides are actually about it's sense of time and place:
It's 1927. It's Singapore. It's the British Occupation. It's local identity vs. colonization, it's class conflict, it's poverty and desperation and the criminal underworld that springs up when the world above it is toxic too. That part of this book is supurb.

There's a novel buried in this one about an orphan in colonial Singapore who takes a housemaid job nobody wants for the rich widow of a British lord who won't release her financial and social hold on the nearest town because she wants luxury, and opium, and maybe even the privilege to kill a few locals nobody will ever look for - thanks to the careful work of her simultaneously most loyal and most resentful local employee. Our naive housemaid gets sucked in to the privilege and the danger, and then has to choose between that rush and her own values in the midst of a historical crisis that makes keeping your ethical bearings really, really hard.

Which is to say: this is a book that would benefit from dropping the metaphor.

It's not a good romance novel. It's not a good erotica. It's not a good paranormal novel.

It is a good historical novel, and I really wish that had been given the room to shine.

The Wicked and The Willing by Lianyu Tan
Love demands sacrifice. Her blood. Her body. Even her life.
Singapore, 1927.
Verity Edevane needs blood.
And not just anyone's blood. She craves the sweet, salty rush from a young woman's veins, the heady swirl of desire mixed with fealty—such a rarity in this foreign colony. It’s a lot to ask. But doesn't she deserve the best?
Gean Choo needs money.
Mrs. Edevane makes her an offer Gean Choo can't refuse. But who is her strange, alluring new mistress? What is she? And what will Gean Choo sacrifice to earn her love?
Po Lam needs absolution.
After decades of faithfully serving Mrs. Edevane, Po Lam can no longer excuse a life of bondage and murder. She needs a fresh start. A clean conscience. More than anything, she needs to save Gean Choo from a love that will destroy them all.
~
We’ve officially moved into spooky season and this book is perfectly fitting for this time of year. A f/f vampire love triangle set in 1920s Singapore. There are some triggers in this book so proceed with caution. That being said, I thought Lianyu Tan created a wonderful story. Throughout the book I found it hard to like Mrs. Edevane, but I’m sure that was the intention. The main character, Gean Choo is infatuated with Mrs. Edevane, but is drawn to Po Lam the more time they spend together.
What makes this book stand out is the ‘choose your own ending’! I won’t tell you which ending I chose but I will say I only read one ending. I didn’t want to cloud my perception of the story by reading them both.
Give this one a read and tell me which ending you chose!
Copy provided by @netgalley. Author @lianyutan
#lgbtq #lgbtqia+ #pride #wlw #sapphicromance #vampires #lesbianvampire #queerbookclub #queerbookstagram #queerrepresentationmatters #lesbianromance #literature #fiction #lgbtqfiction #lesfic #lovetriangle

The cover for The Wicked and The Willing was what drew me in first and then when I read it was a dark, horror, sapphic ,vampire, love triangle romance novel I jumped at the chance.

Sadly the book I don’t think was for me, while I did like the style of writing I was lost with the lack of excitement within the first half of the book, I didn’t get anything until the second half of the book when things start to pick up. I was hoping for more blood and gore at the start considering it was labelled as a dark horror vampire book. Maybe I just have too much of a high expectation when it comes to a vampire story. 🤷‍♀️

I did like that towards the end of the book the reader gets to choose the ending they want, which love interest they want to live or die. Now why can’t all love triangle books have this? I always find the main character picks the wrong one.

Thank you Netgalley and Shattered Scepter Press for the digital copy for review purposes.

The Wicked and the Willing features:
- A love triangle
- 1920’s colonial Singapore
- Choose your own ending
- Lesbian sex and bloodsucking
- Abusive F/F relationship

Gory and extremely dark, The Wicked and the Willing is a portrayal of an abusive relationship between vampire mistress Mrs Edevane (Verity) and her newly employed human female companion; Gean Choo. Gean Choo finds herself infatuated with Verity, but soon develops feelings for the mistresses other employee; Po Lam. But who will she choose?

One of my favourite things about this novel was the “choose your own ending”. The reader gets to choose the outcome, so don’t worry if you dislike one of the possibilities! I ended up reading both endings and they’re equally as satisfying.

I also loved how considerate the author was in supplying us with content warnings prior to reading.

What starts off as an element of mystery, turns into a web of darkness, betrayals and lust, set in 1920’s colonial Singapore. Tan writing is nuanced and there is no shying away from details. This book was full of lesbian sex which was uniquely written. Most of the time, It wasn’t cute or romantic. It was hungry and twisted.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review!

TW: Racism, abuse, violence, death, torture, rape, CNC, dub-con, SA during childhood (not on page), attempted suicice, suicide, suicide ideation, self-harm, misogyny, ableist language.

It’s a gritty and dark read.. perfect for a stormy night! The author submerses the reader into a world with perfectly flawed characters and a dark storyline to follow. I’ve never read a choose your own ending book but it was such a fun twist to be able to choose something different than my “normal” happy ever after.

Lianyu Tan is the master of dark sapphic romance! This book was a sexy, wild ride and perfect for anyone who likes messy, vampire love triangles.

Thank you NetGalley and Shattered Scepter Press for this eArc.

Read content warnings for this book before starting it.
It’s not for the faint of heart, at all. It’s so dark, full of abuse, gore, death, violent sex.
On the upside, if those won’t phase you, it’s fast paced, well written horror with wlw romances.

1927 in colonial Singapore, Gean Choo takes a new position as a lady's companion to Verity Edevane, a role that strays from the standard role and into horror as she finds herself as not just a companion to a wealthy woman, but her play thing and personal meal to keep her bloodlust in check. Despite knowing where her loyalties must lie if she wishes to keep her position in Ambrosia Hall, her life becomes complicated as she feels herself drawn to Po Lam, Verity's majordomo. She knows that she cannot have both, but who will she choose?

Did you ever read one of those Choose Your Own Adventure Goosebumps books and think to yourself "man, I wish I could decide the ending of other books?" Have you ever found yourself unhappy with who the protagonist chooses when the love triangle finally comes to an end?

Welcome to The Wicked and the Willing, a <b>dark</b> sapphic love triangle romance with beautiful writing, graphic gory horror, and a choose your own ending.

Dark romance is easily one of my favorite genres, and I KNOW I am not supposed to be starry eyed over the murderer who thinks herself different because she's not <i>as</i> horrible as other vampires, but can you really resist?

But unlike typical dark romances where the villain/morally grey might redeem themselves and the darkness gives way for redemption, Verity keeps ahold of her darkness and drags you deeper into the carnage and brutality of who she is. I absolutely adored Po Lam and it is not hard to see why one would want to pick her ending as opposed to the literal monster.

I, obviously, read both because I'm not just team pick your own ending, but also why choose?

There are extensive content tags on the author's website that detail each warning, a brief summary, and what chapter. Additionally, there is not just the two endings included with the book but another third ending called Save Yourself available on the website.

I jumped at the chance to read this based on the unique possibility of two endings. The content warnings are extensive and I loved the dedication the author had to assure that the reader is informed.

Source of book: NetGalley (thank you)
Relevant disclaimers: none
Please note: This review may not be reproduced or quoted, in whole or in part, without explicit consent from the author.

Some mild spoilers.

Firstly this book is dark as fuck. There are extensive, and I do mean extensive, content warnings on the author’s website: like some of the best content warnings I have seen outside of Ao3. And, what’s more, when I requested this book somewhat whimsically from NG (“sapphic gothic set in 1920s Singapore, yes please”) the actual “your NG request has been approved” email ALSO came with content warnings. I’ve literally never seen that before but it is standing out in stark relief against, say, a major publisher who recently tried to position a book that kicks off with a very graphic queer rape scene as a heart-warming story. And, don’t me wrong, I’m not saying you can’t get to a heart-warming story from graphic rape. Just, it’s … I kind of feel, perhaps unfairly, you wouldn’t treat straight sexual violence so cavalierly.

All of which is to say, complete respect for this author before reading a single page of the book. I should also add that I might have actually hesitated in picking up a book with these themes (not as any sort of judgement of the themes, just on personal taste/comfort grounds) but I felt so goddamn respected and cared for by the NG approval email (there’s a sentence I never thought I’d write) that I wound up feeling even if I didn’t like the book I could at least try to help get the author on the radars of people who were looking for a dark sapphic fantasy romance with strong horror elements.

In any case, I liked the book a lot. But I’m also conscious I have even less standing than usual to be talking about books in this particular subgenre so, as ever, apply salt to my words. Also, the other thing I’m struggling to untangle for myself, in terms of talking about The Wicked and the Willing, is that it exists at the intersection of a lot of social, genre and, indeed, gender complexities. The thing is, I do read a fair bit of m/f dark romance because it can be a disregarded/devalued part of the genre outside its own sphere of influence (which, believe me, is extensive) and I’m aware that equivalent queer stories exist but I guess one of the things that complicates queer dark romance is that m/f tends to be written mostly (but not exclusively) by women, f/f tends to be written mostly (but not exclusively) by women, and m/m tends to be written mostly (but not exclusively) by women.

And, yes nonbinary people exist as authors and characters. And before anyone jumps down my throat I am most assuredly not saying that it’s wrong or whatever for anyone to write about people who don’t match their marginalisations. I write panqueer myself, it would be grossly hypocritical and, also, I just don’t think it’s a helpful way of looking at books or writing. But it does get more nuanced (and, again, please do not reduce this to an "AJH said it was bad that people who identify as women write m/m" – I am not saying that, I have never said that, I wouldn’t never say that) when you’re looking at stories of trauma and abuse and taboo. Especially when there’s elements of eroticisation around those subjects, you kind of run up against the difference between telling stories about yourself for an audience of people like you and telling stories about other people for an audience of people not like them.

Then you get to layer on top of that a bunch of fucked up cultural stuff about the way mlm and wlw are perceived by mainstream society: which, in very broad terms, is that we assume wlw are feminist empowering moon goddesses who bathe each other sensually in rose oil and mlm are primal beasts of masculinity turned in upon itself who want to do nothing but snort coke off a stranger’s genitals in a public bathroom. All of which means—again, I’m talking about this in the most general terms—that dark romance about queer men tends to be feeding into one type of stereotype and dark romance about women is pulling against each other. And which, in turn, means I’m personally a lot more comfortable with dark romance about wlw than I am with dark romance about mlm, but then I also haven’t gone searching for much dark romance about wlw because that feels kind of independently creepy.

Of course, I’m not saying I’ve never read a book about women behaving badly to each other, but it tends to be lit-ficcy or thrillery rather than romance-adjacent. And I’ve had a quite a few conversations with sapphic friends over the years about how they wished there was a broader range of stories about and for them, including … y’know … darker stuff.

So that’s a very long preamble to basically say: sapphic (or indeed, non-sapphic) friends, if you are looking for monstrous sapphic women who are definitely monstrous and definitely sapphic in a story full of sex, power dynamics, vampires, murder, violence, torture, horror, blood, frocks, and colonialism then this is 100% the book for you. You’re welcome.

Seriously, as long as you’re okay with or actively looking for all of those things, this is a fucking fantastic book. It’s beautifully written, the characters are complicated, fucked up and deftly presented in all their complicated, fucked upness, the 1920s Singapore setting is really well done—taking us from squalor, deprivation and oppression to imperialist splendour—there’s vampire politics going on, and, of course, it’s … well … I don’t know how to say this politely but it’s unabashedly, gleefully, sometimes wince-makingly nasty-horny. Like, fair fucking play. In short, this a book that Goes There—often it Goes There and then some—and I have nothing but the deepest love and admiration for books that Go There.

The premise is that the heroine, Gean Choo, has fallen on hard times following the death of her parents. Given an English education in a school established for the purpose, she is able to secure a job at Ambrosia Hall, working as a maid servant for a wealthy reclusive European woman. The woman in question, Verity Edevane, is—of course—a vampire. And Gean Choo has been brought to the house specifically to be her toy, lover, and blood doll: a sacrifice meant to keep Verity’s feeding in check (because she very much sees herself as one of the good ones). Complicating matters further is Po Lam, Verity’s impassive majordomo who essentially keeps her household running smoothly and gets rid of the bodies, and towards whom Gean Choo cannot help but feel drawn.

I mean, that’s the outline. From here the story is pretty much a nonstop blood murder sex chaos party. And just when you think it’s got as dark as it could conceivably get … the short answer is no. No, it hasn’t. But I think one of the things that makes it such a successful book, amidst the descent into inevitable carnage, is that the author exercises phenomenal control of the tone, firstly allowing the various narrative and emotional tensions to ramp up slowly and secondly by ensuring the characters have moments of stillness, tenderness, and connection (in various ways) amidst the horror. The first half of the book, especially, has a very traditional gothic feel—impoverished heroine, mysterious house, mysterious mistress—and the second half is getting to witness the unravelling of that. In terms of vampire lore, The Wicked and the Willing felt about 50% Dracula, 50% Vampire: The Masquerade (a roleplaying game from the 90s for anyone who isn’t a huge nerd), which is to say, vulnerable to sunlight, staking and holy water, but also existing as part of a broader society, arranged in hierarchies by bloodline, and governed by a code of conduct that is meant to stop mortal society discovering and turning on them. A detail I kind of liked and don’t see enough in vampire stories is that the vampires in this setting are not capable of being sexually stimulated (which makes sense to me because vampires are literally dead, and their sole animating fluid blood and I don’t really want to think about what happens when a vampire ejaculates). They still experience desire, and engage in sexual behaviour, but it’s mostly desire for blood and power.

The other thing that really worked for me about the portrayal of vampires in the setting was—and forgive me while I veer wildly out of lane—how well they function as an allegory for colonialist occupation. It’s a bit ironic, really, given Dracula is mostly a story about Victorian fears over foreign aristocrats coming over here and taking our women. And this is a story about how a group of people with unchecked power answerable only to their own somewhat arbitrary system of rules (and in practice not very answerable all) will seriously fuck your shit up and kind of not even notice. In this context particularly, Verity is a fascinating villain. I’m kind a bit shocked, if I’m honest, at all the #TeamVerity reviews, because she’s … y’know … not only physically and emotionally abusive towards the heroine but also … like … actively a manifestation of colonial oppression? I mean, call me a white guilt driven killjoy but I just don’t that hot? And, honestly, I think what makes Verity so successfully *terrifying* (as well as all the ways she’s sexy-scary, don’t get me wrong, she’s also been written extremely charismatically) is that—when we’re in her POV—she consistently thinks of herself as loving and virtuous, mostly because she’s decided she’s “better” than her fellow vampires. And, yes, her fellow vampires are probably worse than she is in the sense they do more murder, at least initially when Verity is trying to keep her hungers in check (although one of the first thing we see her do is eat a sex worker because she just didn’t feel like keeping her hungers in check that day) and they turn the humans who work for them into mindless thralls—which is obviously pretty horrible.

But, at the same time, as the book develops, it’s impossible not see Verity’s so-called virtue as little more than hypocrisy. She supposedly has a deal with Po Lam to only eat once a month or something, but she doesn’t actually keep to this deal once over the entire course of the book and by the midway point she’s found excuses to go on legit killing sprees. Similarly, Verity’s refusal to brainwash her servants just means that she manipulates them in other ways: claiming their loyalty, their silence, their complicity and in the case of Geon Choo their love. Essentially, Verity’s claim to superior moral goodness—which I did get the sense she delusionally believed in, just as delusionally believes she genuinely loves a woman whose consent she has transgressed on multiple occasions—takes more from the people she is exploiting than directly enslaving and murdering them. Her “kindness” makes them feel indebted to her and she, in turn, feels owed. Plus not enslaving or murdering someone less powerful than you isn’t kindness. It’s, y’know, it’s bar of human decency so low it’s a chalk line on the ground.

And then you’ve got Verity’s own POV sections which are masterpiece of neediness, self-indulgence, cruelty and obsession. And the fact that, abuser as she is, she is also a victim, exiled to Singapore for a misdemeanour against her sire, and having lately caught the interest of a local vampire leader—a white man from a bloodline that gives him the power to control people by voice alone (he’s a Ventrue, okay, he’s basically a Ventrue, he even wears a light grey suit). This doesn’t make Verity’s actions any more acceptable or sympathetic—at least it didn’t for me—but it offers a degree of nuance to her character by placing her within a particular context, one where power and abuse of power, are eternally and inevitably self-replicating. And you definitely don’t have to be an actual vampire for that to feel resonant.

Also, I’m super aware I’ve spent most of this review of a book set in Singapore talking about the white character. But I guess I feel more qualified to talk about the white character, and also it’s a monster book, and she’s the monster. I’m belatedly worrying I might have sounded judgey about the #TeamVerity folks, so I should add that while I was personally (albeit appropriately) horrified by her, she doesn’t behave in ways that I think are non-standard for the genre. Or rather, she’s not noticeably worse than a monstrous male lead in a m/f story: the only difference is, I think, The Wicked and the Willing is more explicitly willing to acknowledge that kind of dynamic as inherently abusive. And, more to the point, it offers both its heroine and the reader a choice of ending. More on that later.

Heroine-wise Geon Choo is … fine. She’s a gothic heroine, so the story kind of requires her to be relatively passive, plus there’s a major bedrock of pain, damage, and disempowerment that makes her reactions (or lack her thereof) feel more understandable than is usually the case for gothic heroines. I wish we’d got a little bit more of her interiority, especially leading up to the moment she chooses to defy Verity near the end, and her on-going refusal to leave Verity—despite knowing exactly who and what Verity is, and having experienced some seriously fucked up treatment at her hands. Some of this is seems to be related to Geon Choo feeling what Verity offers her, with its uneven power dynamics, is all she deserves, but she also seems to genuinely desire (at least on some occasions) Verity for herself, uneven power dynamics and all. Weirdly, the most interesting reflection on this—for me—comes in one of the three possible endings to the story, where Geon Choo and Po Lam manage to escape together, and after they’ve consummated their relationship in still-sexy-but-more-vanilla terms, Geon Choo actively asks Po Lam to be rough with her, physically and verbally. I found this section a little rushed in general, especially their discussion after it, where Po Lam (who is just the best, just the absolute fucking best, #TeamPoLam) is concerned that liking treating someone in a sexually aggressive manner might make hr a bad person, and Geon Choo reassures her. But basically I just really liked the idea that part of the reason Geon Choo spends most of the book acting like a gothic heroine is that … well. She’s just kind of a horny little masochist? And a happy ending for her involves getting her horny little masochist itch scratched without needing to surrender herself to a murderous white lady.

And I guess having mentioned it, I should probably say something about the fact this book has three endings, like a very limited CYOA. Two are available in the book itself, the third for a newsletter subscription (I have never signed up for a newsletter so fast in my fucking life - I literally got out of bed to do it). Honestly, I still can’t decide how I felt about this. On the one hand, death of the author, let the reader choose the kind of book they wanted The Wicked and the Willing to Be, so far so good. Unfortunately, I think … I think, for me, in practice, I was just left feeling vaguely dissatisfied with each ending, finding them a bit rushed and insubstantial, and even slightly damaging to the book as a whole—in the sense that each ending has to feel like an emotionally plausible choice for Geon Choo to make in moment of her making it. And I guess that mostly worked? But I also found myself wishing Geon Choo had needed to be less narratively *adaptable* because I think it contributed to her character, and her character’s decisions, feeling a bit woolly and inconsistent towards the end of the book. On top of which, in one of the endings her POV literally includes lines like “why had she done that?” I DON’T KNOW EITHER GIRL. IT WAS CLEARLY A DREADFUL IDEA.

Anyway, this review is getting out of hand. The Wicked and the Willing is a bold and fascinating read. While it didn’t always work for me on all levels (still wrapping my head around the multiple endings), its ambition, its distinctiveness and its utter commitment to its storytelling was more than enough to paper over the cracks. While they’re very different books with very different goals, I can see of see Mexican Gothic DNA in here—just in the sense of using the tropes of gothic fiction, which traditionally position “otherness” as a source of threat, to reframe whiteness and straightness, power and privilege, as villainous forces from which marginalised people must wrest their freedom and self-worth.

PS – #TeamPoLam