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Batshit Seven
From Governor General's Award-nominated author Sheung-King comes a novel about a millennial living through the Hong Kong protests, as he struggles to make sense of modern life and the parts of himself that just won’t gel.
Glen Wu (aka Glue) couldn’t care less about his job. He’s returned to Hong Kong, the city he grew up in, and he’s teaching ESL, just to placate his parents. But he shows up hungover to class, barely stays awake, and prefers to spend his time smoking up until dawn breaks.
As he watches the city he loves fall—the protests, the brutal arrests—life continues around him. So he drinks more, picks more fights with his drug dealer friend, thinks loftier thoughts about the post-colonial condition and Frantz Fanon. The very little he does care his sister, who deals with Hong Kong’s demise by getting engaged to a rich immigration consultant; his on-and-off-again relationship with a woman who steals things from him; and memories of someone he once met in Canada....
When the government tightens its grip, language starts to lose all meaning for Glue, and he finds himself pulled into an unsettling venture, ultimately culminating in an act of violence.
Inventive and utterly irresistible, with QR codes woven throughout, Sheung-King’s ingenious novel encapsulates the anxieties and apathies of the millennial experience. Batshit Seven is an ode to a beloved city, an indictment of the cycles of imperialism, and a reminder of the beautiful things left under the hype of commodified living.
Glen Wu (aka Glue) couldn’t care less about his job. He’s returned to Hong Kong, the city he grew up in, and he’s teaching ESL, just to placate his parents. But he shows up hungover to class, barely stays awake, and prefers to spend his time smoking up until dawn breaks.
As he watches the city he loves fall—the protests, the brutal arrests—life continues around him. So he drinks more, picks more fights with his drug dealer friend, thinks loftier thoughts about the post-colonial condition and Frantz Fanon. The very little he does care his sister, who deals with Hong Kong’s demise by getting engaged to a rich immigration consultant; his on-and-off-again relationship with a woman who steals things from him; and memories of someone he once met in Canada....
When the government tightens its grip, language starts to lose all meaning for Glue, and he finds himself pulled into an unsettling venture, ultimately culminating in an act of violence.
Inventive and utterly irresistible, with QR codes woven throughout, Sheung-King’s ingenious novel encapsulates the anxieties and apathies of the millennial experience. Batshit Seven is an ode to a beloved city, an indictment of the cycles of imperialism, and a reminder of the beautiful things left under the hype of commodified living.
- GenresFictionLiterary Fiction
336 pages, Hardcover
First published February 20, 2024
18 people are currently reading
943 people want to read
About the author
Sheung-King
4 books114 followersSheung-King, Aaron Tang is an author and educator. His debut novel, You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked is a finalist for the 2021 Governor General's Award, a finalist for the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award, longlisted for CBC’s Canada Reads 2021, and named one of the best book debuts of 2020 by the Globe and Mail. Born in Vancouver, Sheung-King grew up in Hong Kong. His work examines “the interior lives of the transnational Asian diaspora” (Thea Lim, The Nation). He taught creative writing at the University of Guelph. His next second novel, BATSHIT SEVEN, is published by Penguin Random House Canada. Sheung-King holds a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing from the University of Guelph.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
March 14, 2024
pretty great title if you ask me.
so at least i liked one thing.
to me, there is nothing that symbolizes the lack of romance in modern life quite like the qr code. the fact that this book is full of them is the least of its worries.
among the biggest of my worries, you're surely wondering? thank you for asking. that's simple:
WHY DO MEN NEED TO WRITE SO MUCH ABOUT PENISES. i'm no prude but at a certain point spending this much time on phalluses takes up what we should've allotted to regularly scheduled programming, like character development, or themes. you know. the little things. (buh dum ch.)
in fact, an inexcusable section of page count is spent on shock value, masturbation, gross-out descriptions, pop-culture references, and brand names. what we're left with couldn't amount to much even in the best case scenario.
i enjoy an unlikable character more than a likable most of the time, because i am annoying and my brain is a cesspool, but i can't bear an unsympathetic one. we spend 300 pages in the mind of glue, and what is intended to be an exploration of the millennial experience left me unmoved and unrepresented. and in spite of the synopsis' claim that this book centers around hong kong's protests and "demise," that felt like an afterthought at best.
i liked the author's first book, but this reads a lot like the sophomore novel of someone whose debut was praised for its originality and literary quality when its most interesting portions were its observations of other art.
which is, you know. what happened.
bottom line: it's never a good sign when you're writing a rant on netgalley.com.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
so at least i liked one thing.
to me, there is nothing that symbolizes the lack of romance in modern life quite like the qr code. the fact that this book is full of them is the least of its worries.
among the biggest of my worries, you're surely wondering? thank you for asking. that's simple:
WHY DO MEN NEED TO WRITE SO MUCH ABOUT PENISES. i'm no prude but at a certain point spending this much time on phalluses takes up what we should've allotted to regularly scheduled programming, like character development, or themes. you know. the little things. (buh dum ch.)
in fact, an inexcusable section of page count is spent on shock value, masturbation, gross-out descriptions, pop-culture references, and brand names. what we're left with couldn't amount to much even in the best case scenario.
i enjoy an unlikable character more than a likable most of the time, because i am annoying and my brain is a cesspool, but i can't bear an unsympathetic one. we spend 300 pages in the mind of glue, and what is intended to be an exploration of the millennial experience left me unmoved and unrepresented. and in spite of the synopsis' claim that this book centers around hong kong's protests and "demise," that felt like an afterthought at best.
i liked the author's first book, but this reads a lot like the sophomore novel of someone whose debut was praised for its originality and literary quality when its most interesting portions were its observations of other art.
which is, you know. what happened.
bottom line: it's never a good sign when you're writing a rant on netgalley.com.
(thanks to the publisher for the e-arc)
March 9, 2024
I really don't know what I think about this book. This is a hard one to review. For what it's worth, I absolutely adored Sheung-King's debut novel, You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked.. I recommended it to so many people and I even put it on my favourites shelf. So when I learned the author was writing this one, I pre-ordered it immediately. Again, not something I usually do but I wanted to show my support.
I've now finally finished reading Batshit Seven and... Well, I'm not sure? It's a really strange story about identity, orientalism, and cultural displacement... And it's also about constipation and the main character's penis. Yeah...
Some of the time, the author's voice was intelligent, effortlessly quoting Fanon and Marx and making well-informed jabs at Canadian and Hong Kong society. I loved how temporally specific it was, the cultural references so perfectly painted a sense of space in time... Kind of like a Wong Kar Wai film but about today's cultural zeitgeist. And then it would slip back into a chapter, or two, or three where the main character just talks about getting high and masturbating. Again, and again?
I think, and I might be wrong here, Batshit Seven is a coming of age story about that sort of post-university time when you hit the "real world" and go "oh shit is this it?". You're still brimming with the intellectualism of university life, but you haven't quite cracked the 9-5, and you're burning through the only relationships you have. The main character felt like a kid. A smart kid who knows a lot about a lot of things, but still a kid - and one with his hands down his trousers at that.
I described this book at about the halfway point to a friend as "both intellectually complex and dumb as shit", and honestly as I write this review that's all I can think of.
Rated 2.5, rounded up to 3 out of respect to the author.
I've now finally finished reading Batshit Seven and... Well, I'm not sure? It's a really strange story about identity, orientalism, and cultural displacement... And it's also about constipation and the main character's penis. Yeah...
Some of the time, the author's voice was intelligent, effortlessly quoting Fanon and Marx and making well-informed jabs at Canadian and Hong Kong society. I loved how temporally specific it was, the cultural references so perfectly painted a sense of space in time... Kind of like a Wong Kar Wai film but about today's cultural zeitgeist. And then it would slip back into a chapter, or two, or three where the main character just talks about getting high and masturbating. Again, and again?
I think, and I might be wrong here, Batshit Seven is a coming of age story about that sort of post-university time when you hit the "real world" and go "oh shit is this it?". You're still brimming with the intellectualism of university life, but you haven't quite cracked the 9-5, and you're burning through the only relationships you have. The main character felt like a kid. A smart kid who knows a lot about a lot of things, but still a kid - and one with his hands down his trousers at that.
I described this book at about the halfway point to a friend as "both intellectually complex and dumb as shit", and honestly as I write this review that's all I can think of.
Rated 2.5, rounded up to 3 out of respect to the author.
April 9, 2025
This book was interesting enough to keep me reading. There’s a lot to say about capitalism and the millennial experience packed in this tiny book. Sure, it might be a little repetitive, but that’s the voice of the character and was intentional for a reason.
January 10, 2025
Interesting book about identity— fast paced with some moments that make you laugh.
QR codes that were included felt like a friend pulling out their phone to give you reference points to understand what they were talking about (but sometimes you don’t really want to see the videos that they’re talking about).
-1 star for the aggressive dick content. I get it.
QR codes that were included felt like a friend pulling out their phone to give you reference points to understand what they were talking about (but sometimes you don’t really want to see the videos that they’re talking about).
-1 star for the aggressive dick content. I get it.
January 30, 2024
Reads like a cry for help.
I am not the target audience. I don’t know who is.
Somehow also preachy.
I received the ARC copy for free. This does not affect my review.
I am not the target audience. I don’t know who is.
Somehow also preachy.
I received the ARC copy for free. This does not affect my review.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2024
Incredible, brilliant, and mesmerizing. I fell headfirst into the pacing and the prose and I couldn’t get out. I want to read it all over again.
Read
March 26, 2024I tried to like this novel, as it’s different from my usual fare and I enjoyed the creative use of QR codes. However, Glue’s constant wanking, his obsession with his bowels and his general self-absorption irritated me, and I finally decided to stop forcing myself to finish the book.
February 18, 2024
This book is unusual in its diluted, straight forward presentation. I felt it was a great take on the complexities facing Hong Kong. I could have taken less about Glue’s constipation and masturbation.
May 4, 2024
I feel like the reviewers here have really underestimated and underrated this book. Not that I think it's a masterpiece, but it certainly is a complex and critical commentary on colonialism, whiteness, Orientalism, surveillance capitalism, meritocracy, and academia.
Sheung-King has taken a page out of The Confederacy of Dunces and presented us with Glue, our vapid anti-hero. However, while on the surface Glue is one-dimensional, flat, and uninspired, on a closer look the reader understands, through his memories, that Glue is in fact both creative and intellectual. Is it his proximity to whiteness that has made him less of both of these things? His relative wealth? His family privilege? Or is it a colonial government? Or is it just Glue himself who has given up on himself, distraught but numb after returning to Hong Kong from Canada, heartbroken and jobless?
This book has no clear, concise, or satisfying plot. Readers will struggle to decide what the real conflict is, or where the story is going. But that is the point. Glue himself isn't going anywhere, really. And yet as the reader you get to follow along, seeing what led to his slow, gradual unraveling both within his lifetime and long before it began.
The QR code inclusions were a distraction for me. I felt that Sheung-King was trying to do what Doug Coupland did in the 90s with Generation X. But the difference is that the YouTube videos encoded in Batshit Seven likely won't work in a decade, whereas Coupland's sidebars were reflecting a visual text reality playing out on the new WWW.
I suspect Batshit Seven will be taught in literature and writing classes in the future as an example of how to capture cultural and colonial generational changes across nations and decades. Glue will also likely be the subject of many character studies.
I look forward to reading whatever Sheung-King gives us next. If it's anything like this, it will be deceptively sharp and relevant.
Sheung-King has taken a page out of The Confederacy of Dunces and presented us with Glue, our vapid anti-hero. However, while on the surface Glue is one-dimensional, flat, and uninspired, on a closer look the reader understands, through his memories, that Glue is in fact both creative and intellectual. Is it his proximity to whiteness that has made him less of both of these things? His relative wealth? His family privilege? Or is it a colonial government? Or is it just Glue himself who has given up on himself, distraught but numb after returning to Hong Kong from Canada, heartbroken and jobless?
This book has no clear, concise, or satisfying plot. Readers will struggle to decide what the real conflict is, or where the story is going. But that is the point. Glue himself isn't going anywhere, really. And yet as the reader you get to follow along, seeing what led to his slow, gradual unraveling both within his lifetime and long before it began.
The QR code inclusions were a distraction for me. I felt that Sheung-King was trying to do what Doug Coupland did in the 90s with Generation X. But the difference is that the YouTube videos encoded in Batshit Seven likely won't work in a decade, whereas Coupland's sidebars were reflecting a visual text reality playing out on the new WWW.
I suspect Batshit Seven will be taught in literature and writing classes in the future as an example of how to capture cultural and colonial generational changes across nations and decades. Glue will also likely be the subject of many character studies.
I look forward to reading whatever Sheung-King gives us next. If it's anything like this, it will be deceptively sharp and relevant.
July 15, 2025
I can't lie, I was sucked into this book and spat back out. it sucked, in the best possible way. sometimes it's nice to see your bad feelings reflected back out onto a page, to know that someone somewhere who is nothing like you is also somehow like you, and struggling, and getting by. sometimes it feels good to see someone healing but not healed. going backwards. in flux. stuck/unstuck.
this book did exactly what it needed to do, I think.
this book did exactly what it needed to do, I think.
April 23, 2024
This book was batshit. I need brain bleach.
February 18, 2024
Insightful, candid, and immersive!
Bathsit Seven is a unique, colourful tale that takes us into the life of Glen “Glue” Wu, a young man who, after spending a few years attending university in Canada, returns to a politically tense Hong Kong where he finds himself in a serious rut spending his days drinking, getting high, spending the occasional time with platonic friends as well as those with benefits, masturbating, lackadaisically teaching ESL remotely, and contemplating what he wants out of life and where he actually fits into the world.
The writing is creative and direct. The characters are lonely, impulsive, and insecure. And the plot, told through narration and a scattering of QR Codes, is an engaging, perceptive tale about life, friendship, family, culture, politics, orientalism, racism, and self-identity.
Overall, Batshit Seven is a captivating, well-written, astute tale by Sheung-King that highlights the true struggles of coming of age in a contemporary world that seems to increasingly be more overwhelming, judgemental, and stressful.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
Bathsit Seven is a unique, colourful tale that takes us into the life of Glen “Glue” Wu, a young man who, after spending a few years attending university in Canada, returns to a politically tense Hong Kong where he finds himself in a serious rut spending his days drinking, getting high, spending the occasional time with platonic friends as well as those with benefits, masturbating, lackadaisically teaching ESL remotely, and contemplating what he wants out of life and where he actually fits into the world.
The writing is creative and direct. The characters are lonely, impulsive, and insecure. And the plot, told through narration and a scattering of QR Codes, is an engaging, perceptive tale about life, friendship, family, culture, politics, orientalism, racism, and self-identity.
Overall, Batshit Seven is a captivating, well-written, astute tale by Sheung-King that highlights the true struggles of coming of age in a contemporary world that seems to increasingly be more overwhelming, judgemental, and stressful.
Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada for gifting me a copy in exchange for an honest review.
May 3, 2025
Sheung-King is undoubtedly a strong writer, and there were parts of this book that demonstrated that, but why in gods name does the protagonist need to masturbate so much. He was terribly unlikable.
I liked what the novel had to say about the kind of split-personality he had as a Hong Kong transplant in Canada. But it also makes its wider points in an obvious way - as plain pronouncements. And the commentaries on capitalism and colonialism were such basic fare so as to feel like one is reading some infographic on a lefty Instagram story. I struggled to find something to take away from this… while ignoring all the penis talk.
I have yet to read his original entry that won the GG prize, but if it weren’t for the hype around that book, I wouldn’t have kept going with this one.
I liked what the novel had to say about the kind of split-personality he had as a Hong Kong transplant in Canada. But it also makes its wider points in an obvious way - as plain pronouncements. And the commentaries on capitalism and colonialism were such basic fare so as to feel like one is reading some infographic on a lefty Instagram story. I struggled to find something to take away from this… while ignoring all the penis talk.
I have yet to read his original entry that won the GG prize, but if it weren’t for the hype around that book, I wouldn’t have kept going with this one.
August 30, 2024
Too flawed to rate higher, but too interesting to not enjoy.
May 24, 2024
A friend of the author lent me this book. A sort of decolonial mumblecore. Despite reading pages and pages about him masturbating, weirdly I’d like to meet him one day.
March 18, 2024
Four stars moreso for what the book was going for rather than the actual execution of the vision.
The book is an elegy for the disappearing Hong Kong, a once vibrant place being entropically absorbed into the Chinese empire, which is echoed through Glue’s own ‘disappearing act’ as any sense of self disappears as he tries to find a stable living. TikToks, YouTubes and of course porn have become the new opiates of the masses, the pieces of content we allow to distract ourselves from our inherently disappointing lives.
Simple, declarative, understated prose. Occasionally very insightful. Relies too much reiterated notions from political theorists. Though sometimes theorists are directly quoted with citations, I do have qualms about instances such as ending of chapter 55 which nearly directly quotes Mark Fisher but doesn’t credit him; this actually wouldn’t bother me if the rest of the book wasn’t so reliant on citations. Why credit some but not all?
Though all the jacking off is true to life, many readers will wonder ‘did we need it?’ Sheung-King’s unflinching depiction of truth is actually what’s making them uncomfortable. I’ll concede that I too wondered about it however in seeing a mirror held up to my own reality, it could be that Glen Wu’s own passive descent into a system he knows to be destructive is too similar to my own, that his own ways of distracting and placating himself are too similar to my own. That mirror makes a reader uncomfortable but sometimes you need to be made uncomfortable with your routines to see the errs of your ways.
Discomfort is huge throughout the book. Glue’s slow self-orientalization transformation is fascinating and darkly hilarious. It is a surrender in the face of global powers, a heightened showcase of cynicism. Glue nearly escaped the system, but instead gets entrenched deeper and deeper, losing all sense of self. Unfortunately, Glue’s ‘Changlish’ speech gets dropped though the thematic trend continues.
QR codes were underwhelming. Probably should have had like a couple hundred of them for it to properly land. As well, given Glue’s Pornhub obsession, it is certainly a pulled punch to not give us at least one QR code leading to some of the porn he’s watching.
The book is an elegy for the disappearing Hong Kong, a once vibrant place being entropically absorbed into the Chinese empire, which is echoed through Glue’s own ‘disappearing act’ as any sense of self disappears as he tries to find a stable living. TikToks, YouTubes and of course porn have become the new opiates of the masses, the pieces of content we allow to distract ourselves from our inherently disappointing lives.
Simple, declarative, understated prose. Occasionally very insightful. Relies too much reiterated notions from political theorists. Though sometimes theorists are directly quoted with citations, I do have qualms about instances such as ending of chapter 55 which nearly directly quotes Mark Fisher but doesn’t credit him; this actually wouldn’t bother me if the rest of the book wasn’t so reliant on citations. Why credit some but not all?
Though all the jacking off is true to life, many readers will wonder ‘did we need it?’ Sheung-King’s unflinching depiction of truth is actually what’s making them uncomfortable. I’ll concede that I too wondered about it however in seeing a mirror held up to my own reality, it could be that Glen Wu’s own passive descent into a system he knows to be destructive is too similar to my own, that his own ways of distracting and placating himself are too similar to my own. That mirror makes a reader uncomfortable but sometimes you need to be made uncomfortable with your routines to see the errs of your ways.
Discomfort is huge throughout the book. Glue’s slow self-orientalization transformation is fascinating and darkly hilarious. It is a surrender in the face of global powers, a heightened showcase of cynicism. Glue nearly escaped the system, but instead gets entrenched deeper and deeper, losing all sense of self. Unfortunately, Glue’s ‘Changlish’ speech gets dropped though the thematic trend continues.
QR codes were underwhelming. Probably should have had like a couple hundred of them for it to properly land. As well, given Glue’s Pornhub obsession, it is certainly a pulled punch to not give us at least one QR code leading to some of the porn he’s watching.
August 3, 2024
first off, it's inevitable that I should mention the overused motif of PENISES. and EJACULATION. that is seen throughout Glue's story. from the reviews, it's clear that not many readers are a fan of this. but hear me out, I think this is essential in depicting the melancholic nature of Glue's mundane and repetitive everyday life in Hong Kong, which is what Batshit Seven is mainly about, among the other important complexities facing the city. I think, to be able to appreciate the story a lot more, you need to be familiar and empathetic to the issues that Hong Kongers face. this is especially a lot easier to do if you're a local.
"Glue doesn't mind waking up late in the afternoon one day and before the sun rises the next. An irregular schedule, not living in structured time, waking up when his body wakes up and sleeping when he's tired, fits Glue best. Mechanical repetitiveness is what Glue always wanted to avoid."
our protagonist, Glue, despises the everyday reality of Hong Kong. the constant mentioning and need to jack off to porn, is exactly the kind of mechanical repetitiveness that he wants to avoid. but he can't because he's depressed. depressed because of what? because of the expectations placed on him, and so he places those exact expectations on himself too. the only option he thinks he has, regarding his career, is to study abroad and then come back to Hong Kong to become an ESL teacher in the name of stability. he can't escape that path and he can't escape the addiction of jerking off either because he's depressed. so, I think the constant repetition of penises and masturbation quite helps to portray this idea of mechanical repetitiveness. Glue's body part (the penis!) is being abused (...if that makes sense). the usual obsession with his own penis (lol) represents this robotic-like function of his brain... it's unhinged. he feels mentally suuuuper unhinged in the city that glorifies success and stability.
"Glue's own past, to him, feels foreign... Glue finds that everything that was once familiar feels detached, which is also good.
Glue does not feel attached to his upbringing because he does not feel wholeheartedly connected to it (once again, he's lost and has always been due to the clash of cultures, an identity crisis, his proximity to whiteness that he has a dilemma with...). he feels neither warmth or hatred for the city he was born and raised in but rather, a sense of inadequacy. he is trapped, so much he worries "that all his thoughts will contract into a single cell", just like the way Hong Kong's regular, standardised education spoon-feeds a rigid set of answers. although this is undoubtedly the reality of many people who were raised by the city's public education, I feel that this idea of Hong Kong being such an "unlivable" place, one that is so-called "favouring whiteness", at times, is being forced upon the reader. of course, Glue's experience as a Chinese/"CBC" in Hong Kong is valid, but I think this should interestingly raise curiosities about other individuals with a completely different culture and upbringing, such as non-Chinese ethnic minorities who were born or spent a substantial part of their lives in the city. those coming from lower-class families, may prioritise stability and success a lot more in a positive way because Hong Kong brings them opportunities that their home countries do not provide. perhaps, they do like repetition in their lives because it caters to their need for security.
Hong Kong is, after all, seen as a global melting pot (or is it still?).
Becoming indifferent to the past—that is the mentality one needs to have in order to continue living in this post-colonial past."
this quote, for some reason, struck me. the transition to a "completely Chinese" city is happening in the eyes of many. you must be indifferent to the future. you must also be indifferent to the past. if you react to the past, then perhaps you're advocating and even celebrating Hong Kong's post-colonial...past.
"Glue doesn't mind waking up late in the afternoon one day and before the sun rises the next. An irregular schedule, not living in structured time, waking up when his body wakes up and sleeping when he's tired, fits Glue best. Mechanical repetitiveness is what Glue always wanted to avoid."
our protagonist, Glue, despises the everyday reality of Hong Kong. the constant mentioning and need to jack off to porn, is exactly the kind of mechanical repetitiveness that he wants to avoid. but he can't because he's depressed. depressed because of what? because of the expectations placed on him, and so he places those exact expectations on himself too. the only option he thinks he has, regarding his career, is to study abroad and then come back to Hong Kong to become an ESL teacher in the name of stability. he can't escape that path and he can't escape the addiction of jerking off either because he's depressed. so, I think the constant repetition of penises and masturbation quite helps to portray this idea of mechanical repetitiveness. Glue's body part (the penis!) is being abused (...if that makes sense). the usual obsession with his own penis (lol) represents this robotic-like function of his brain... it's unhinged. he feels mentally suuuuper unhinged in the city that glorifies success and stability.
"Glue's own past, to him, feels foreign... Glue finds that everything that was once familiar feels detached, which is also good.
Glue does not feel attached to his upbringing because he does not feel wholeheartedly connected to it (once again, he's lost and has always been due to the clash of cultures, an identity crisis, his proximity to whiteness that he has a dilemma with...). he feels neither warmth or hatred for the city he was born and raised in but rather, a sense of inadequacy. he is trapped, so much he worries "that all his thoughts will contract into a single cell", just like the way Hong Kong's regular, standardised education spoon-feeds a rigid set of answers. although this is undoubtedly the reality of many people who were raised by the city's public education, I feel that this idea of Hong Kong being such an "unlivable" place, one that is so-called "favouring whiteness", at times, is being forced upon the reader. of course, Glue's experience as a Chinese/"CBC" in Hong Kong is valid, but I think this should interestingly raise curiosities about other individuals with a completely different culture and upbringing, such as non-Chinese ethnic minorities who were born or spent a substantial part of their lives in the city. those coming from lower-class families, may prioritise stability and success a lot more in a positive way because Hong Kong brings them opportunities that their home countries do not provide. perhaps, they do like repetition in their lives because it caters to their need for security.
Hong Kong is, after all, seen as a global melting pot (or is it still?).
Becoming indifferent to the past—that is the mentality one needs to have in order to continue living in this post-colonial past."
this quote, for some reason, struck me. the transition to a "completely Chinese" city is happening in the eyes of many. you must be indifferent to the future. you must also be indifferent to the past. if you react to the past, then perhaps you're advocating and even celebrating Hong Kong's post-colonial...past.
June 4, 2024
Batshit Seven is a sensory and incisive novel that goes where few others have dared venture before. Writing a Hong Kong novel that moves beyond tired polarities of East and West, towards an ambivalent confrontation with whiteness and Orientalism, is no mean feat. Sheung King achieves that in this book by honing in on the perspective of a struggling millennial man navigating what feels like unbearable stagnancy, in a stratified city obsessed with striving.
Glue/Glen Wu, our protagonist, might rub some readers the wrong way with his self-destructive cycles of masturbation, pot smoking and listless attempts at ‘normality’. However, the author’s disinterest in the typical hero’s journey in favour of focusing on a ‘loser’ creates more engaging stakes for the story, specifically because it pushes against the grain of social norms in Hong Kong. Life in this post-2019-techno-surveillance-capitalist city is often broken up into bursts of social media binges between working and commuting. The form of the book intentionally mirrors the frenetic mind of someone trying to survive these numbing conditions.
Glue’s story is told in a series of flashbacks that illustrate the contradictory tensions running through his life. Everything from the silences in his Cantonese family household punctuated by the faux-patriotism of the blaring local newscasts, to the way in which Glue faces up to the fact he will never be the obedient, rule-abiding worker that his sister Gwen excels at being, is expressed with undecorated, effective prose, like a slow marinade.
For example, I was struck by a two page interlude about the futility of pressuring children to learn piano over years of rising youth suicides. Growing up here, I listened to the garbled tunes of other children in my apartment complex practicing piano so often that it became as ambient as the fridge running. In the middle of my youth, a teenager in my block died by suicide in relation to school pressure. All of these circumstances are connected and I’ve never seen this articulated fluently in literature until I read this book.
I also appreciated the book’s willingness to deal with ‘the fact of the body’. Batshit Seven confronts the embodied experience of Glue’s life in all of its stifling humidity. Glue shits, eats, jacks off, fucks and sleeps, and this text is open to exploring what it means to live in a body unto which a dizzying mix of stereotypes are projected. There is no ultimately redemptive element to this exploration, of trying not even to feel good but just to feel something. This grasping sentiment, and how it was handled, was conveyed well.
In terms of areas I wanted more from, I felt that the introspective and observant nature of the prose often meant that the relationships Glue has, particularly with women, were written with dialogue that felt stilted and transactional at times. The characters talk past each other in fragmentary metaphors that sometimes didn’t cohere for me in ways that gave their relationships texture. But perhaps this is intentional on the author’s part to show how alienated Glue feels.
Batshit Seven engages deeply with the fact that sometimes thwarted desires, or even thwarted political realities, are things we can try to face with humour and pathos. Slow burning nihilism with a VPN connection at the end of the world as we know it has never been so compulsively readable.
4.5 rounded up to 5 stars.
Glue/Glen Wu, our protagonist, might rub some readers the wrong way with his self-destructive cycles of masturbation, pot smoking and listless attempts at ‘normality’. However, the author’s disinterest in the typical hero’s journey in favour of focusing on a ‘loser’ creates more engaging stakes for the story, specifically because it pushes against the grain of social norms in Hong Kong. Life in this post-2019-techno-surveillance-capitalist city is often broken up into bursts of social media binges between working and commuting. The form of the book intentionally mirrors the frenetic mind of someone trying to survive these numbing conditions.
Glue’s story is told in a series of flashbacks that illustrate the contradictory tensions running through his life. Everything from the silences in his Cantonese family household punctuated by the faux-patriotism of the blaring local newscasts, to the way in which Glue faces up to the fact he will never be the obedient, rule-abiding worker that his sister Gwen excels at being, is expressed with undecorated, effective prose, like a slow marinade.
For example, I was struck by a two page interlude about the futility of pressuring children to learn piano over years of rising youth suicides. Growing up here, I listened to the garbled tunes of other children in my apartment complex practicing piano so often that it became as ambient as the fridge running. In the middle of my youth, a teenager in my block died by suicide in relation to school pressure. All of these circumstances are connected and I’ve never seen this articulated fluently in literature until I read this book.
I also appreciated the book’s willingness to deal with ‘the fact of the body’. Batshit Seven confronts the embodied experience of Glue’s life in all of its stifling humidity. Glue shits, eats, jacks off, fucks and sleeps, and this text is open to exploring what it means to live in a body unto which a dizzying mix of stereotypes are projected. There is no ultimately redemptive element to this exploration, of trying not even to feel good but just to feel something. This grasping sentiment, and how it was handled, was conveyed well.
In terms of areas I wanted more from, I felt that the introspective and observant nature of the prose often meant that the relationships Glue has, particularly with women, were written with dialogue that felt stilted and transactional at times. The characters talk past each other in fragmentary metaphors that sometimes didn’t cohere for me in ways that gave their relationships texture. But perhaps this is intentional on the author’s part to show how alienated Glue feels.
Batshit Seven engages deeply with the fact that sometimes thwarted desires, or even thwarted political realities, are things we can try to face with humour and pathos. Slow burning nihilism with a VPN connection at the end of the world as we know it has never been so compulsively readable.
4.5 rounded up to 5 stars.
November 10, 2025
I stumbled onto this book after hearing this author on a panel at the recent Writers Fest in Vancouver. B.C.
I had a clear vision of what Glue, the protagonist, looked like as the author has a similar background so I popped him into that role.
The author was born in Canada, raised in Hong Kong, moved back to Canada for more schooling and returned to Hong Kong.
I thought he well captured the experience of a millennial returnee to Hong Kong. Glue is quite detached from the current China / Hong Kong political freedom and civil liberties situation, and he feels close but he is really far. His life (he's in his 20's) has him hungover a fair bit and his inertia is evident, showing no respect for job or employer. He lives a passive life but he is comfortable.
I liked the character study a lot, along with his interactions with his sister (Glue's foil), and both his Canadian and Hong Kong girlfriends.
Most chapters are 2-3 pages long so it is fast paced. And, something new in my long-time reading experience, there are several QR codes scattered within the book that tie into the topics.
On the surface, it seems like a light read, but on reflection, a lot of serious topics are addressed for the serious readers contemplation.
I had a clear vision of what Glue, the protagonist, looked like as the author has a similar background so I popped him into that role.
The author was born in Canada, raised in Hong Kong, moved back to Canada for more schooling and returned to Hong Kong.
I thought he well captured the experience of a millennial returnee to Hong Kong. Glue is quite detached from the current China / Hong Kong political freedom and civil liberties situation, and he feels close but he is really far. His life (he's in his 20's) has him hungover a fair bit and his inertia is evident, showing no respect for job or employer. He lives a passive life but he is comfortable.
I liked the character study a lot, along with his interactions with his sister (Glue's foil), and both his Canadian and Hong Kong girlfriends.
Most chapters are 2-3 pages long so it is fast paced. And, something new in my long-time reading experience, there are several QR codes scattered within the book that tie into the topics.
On the surface, it seems like a light read, but on reflection, a lot of serious topics are addressed for the serious readers contemplation.
March 10, 2024
I have no idea what I just read, but I liked it. Glue is a character I can simultaneously sympathize with and wonder if he’s even human. If anything, maybe my overall thoughts on the book come from a place of no understanding: the Hong-Kong culture, the Chinese experience, the straight male experience, and so much more.
But, despite the parts that made me question picking up the book to begin with, I’ve been left with a sense of wonder and a deeper analysis of the world around me. I agree, ultimately, with the synopsis in which is says that it encapsulates the millennial experience. I don’t agree 100%, but enough that I relate to Glue as a 1993-born millennial myself.
At best, it’s certainly worth the read. At worst, it’ll look awesome on any bookshelf.
But, despite the parts that made me question picking up the book to begin with, I’ve been left with a sense of wonder and a deeper analysis of the world around me. I agree, ultimately, with the synopsis in which is says that it encapsulates the millennial experience. I don’t agree 100%, but enough that I relate to Glue as a 1993-born millennial myself.
At best, it’s certainly worth the read. At worst, it’ll look awesome on any bookshelf.
January 24, 2025
“Batshit Seven” is set in Canada and Hong Kong – the two places on Earth with which I’m most intimately familiar. What also left a mark on me about the novel is how Sheung King so eloquently describes why I love to write (and read): “It is important to share our history with others.”
BTW, Batshit Seven also had a great suggestion on how to best share our history with others: “Why don’t we combine history class and literature class, Mr. Wu?”
BTW, Batshit Seven also had a great suggestion on how to best share our history with others: “Why don’t we combine history class and literature class, Mr. Wu?”
March 3, 2024
It's the quality of the writing that lifts this to 3 stars...because the story is all about a protagonist who frustrates me with his apathy and his lethargic issues, while everyone around him is so self-centered and oblivious that it makes me want to wretch. There's only so far I can go with a well-written novel about characters I intensely dislike.
June 17, 2025
Interesting read since I haven't read that much about Hong Kong's culture and politics, I just didn't really care about the main character and there wasn't so much plot as there was philosophizing which is often fine but here bored me after a while. Also at one point the author plagiarizes Zizek which was strange since he directly quotes Fanon like 1000 times.
October 20, 2025
So much potential.
If you want to lecture fresh out of HS 18-year olds on self-Orientalizing culture / behaviours & suffocating Western / white supremacy in the East / Hong Kong, become an academic and do it.
If you want to tell a story to make an audience feel those emotions in Glue, do that.
Trying to do both creates this book & stunts both goals.
If you want to lecture fresh out of HS 18-year olds on self-Orientalizing culture / behaviours & suffocating Western / white supremacy in the East / Hong Kong, become an academic and do it.
If you want to tell a story to make an audience feel those emotions in Glue, do that.
Trying to do both creates this book & stunts both goals.
December 23, 2025
I guess I'm a bit of a sucker for unstructured, nihilist, existential diatribes on modern life. I was pretty captivated by Glu, his moralistic ambivalence and perverse whimsy. The absurdist series of vignettes presents some playful critiques of colonialism and empire, which is perhaps surprising from a book whose main character is so frequently masturbating.
February 20, 2024
And Sheung-King continues to have the most vivid writing I've ever experienced. The clipped writing style is full of so much that I could just keep gathering by rereading this over and over. This was perfect.
Read
May 30, 2024Clearly I am NOT the reader for this title - as neither was I for his first novel.
In fact I have no idea who the reader for this would be.
Time to accept that Sheung-King and I will never have a meeting of literary minds.
DNF
In fact I have no idea who the reader for this would be.
Time to accept that Sheung-King and I will never have a meeting of literary minds.
DNF
January 24, 2025
I'm sure the author has a clever explanation as to why he wrote so much about Glue's penis, masturbating and his bowel movements, but I think he did it because he enjoyed it.
There were so many wonderfully written parts and insights but they were overshadowed by dick.
There were so many wonderfully written parts and insights but they were overshadowed by dick.
June 9, 2025
Surprised this isn't rated highly. I liked the absurdist touch to a lot of the events in the book, and it touched upon a lot of themes that are always highly relevant (one which I particularly enjoyed was its examination of the experience of boomerang kids).
August 9, 2024
Fun story
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