Uncomfortable Books
Ambition, serial killers etc.
When I started this newsletter I first wrote that these books have nothing in common except for the fact I’ve been wanting to read them for ages and have finally done something about it. But after I finished, I realised that was absolutely untrue. These books all explore something that has made me, and likely you at some point, uncomfortable.
Earlier
I'm A Fan by Sheena Patel
I mentioned this in my piece from a few weeks ago, and I wasn’t wrong. This is such a clever book and I’m not exaggerating at all when I write that I highlighted passages on almost every page (see below for a tiny, tiny sample of some favourites.)
It’s a quick ride down the rabbit hole of class anxiety, wildly toxic relationships, power dynamics, and a visceral takedown of social media darlings.
A fictionalised comparison spiral that feels both familiar and unhinged at the same time. I’m just skimming the surface when I write all of this. Just read it.
“I might look innocent but I screenshot a lot.”
“He wants the consistency from a mother and not the conditionality of a lover.”
Now
Death Of A Bookseller by Alice Slater
I’m not entirely sure how I feel about this book but maybe that’s because I had expected a cosy murder featuring a crime-solving bookseller and a quaint bookshop in some remote English village, and what I got was actually quite sinister and riddled with serial killers and morbid, unhinged booksellers instead.
That aside, a lot of what Slater explores—violence against women and profiting from said violence—reminded me of The Final Girl Support Group, a book I wrote about a few months ago here: Not My Genre. Don’t get me wrong, these books are wildly different in plot but so much of the commentary in both about violence, victimhood, and not only the infamy of serial killers but the mystery and cultish fandom that surrounds them, I found fascinating.
And I’m not a true crime person at all, I don’t think I’d be able to sleep ever again if I listened to a single podcast on the subject. So maybe I’m not well-positioned to write that these feel true crime-adjacent (keeping in mind that they’re fiction) and that these two books are kindred spirits in a lot of ways; the perspectives they plate up about the morality and ethics of this genre (one I find intimidating) is something I think is worth exploring, whether of not you care for true crime or not.
Later
Ambition Monster by Jennifer Romolini
I’ve been wanting to write about ambition for my other Substack,
, for a while now and when I saw Romolini’s book title, read the blurb and saw the cover I decided to ignore all the other books piling up on my bookshelf and pick this next.Enjoy!
