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Nearly Roadkill
This novel is a tale of what-appears-to-be boy meets what-appears-to-be girl. Their world is the "Net", where any persona or gender can be created. These two genderless beings, Scratch and Winc, cybersurf into various "Net" worlds, fighting government intervention on this frontier.
382 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1996
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475 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
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February 25, 2025review coming soon IY"H! This was totally not what I'd expected.
Update: I forgot to link to my review on Reactor, sorry about that! Here it is: https://reactormag.com/quiltbag-specu...
Source of the book: Bought with my own money
Update: I forgot to link to my review on Reactor, sorry about that! Here it is: https://reactormag.com/quiltbag-specu...
Source of the book: Bought with my own money
Read
July 16, 2023This should be on every classic gay/trans literature booklist.
did-not-finish
January 10, 2026DNF at 20%. I’m just not clicking with this story at all, and I am finding all the cyber sex cringey and clunky instead of hot. And since that’s the primary relationship mechanism at this point in the story, I’m just not interested in continuing.
January 3, 2026
Wild how this talked about algorithms, the government interfering with the internet, and feeding you ads based on demographics.
June 27, 2022
Goofy, naive, messily plotted at best, definitely ~~~problematic. Written in the year of my birth, so it's about an era of the Internet that seems almost unreachably distant to me, but. There are conversations in this book I've had nearly verbatim; there's sex (cyber and otherwise) that I've had and never seen written anywhere else until this book. To be fair I am also goofy, naive, messy and problematic. I felt seen, and I can't help but say thank you to the authors, for being brave enough to write this and publish it, in all its glory.
July 4, 2014
a quirky look at the fluidity of gender through the (at the time) new world of the internet - fan of kate bornstein? don't miss this early work!
October 15, 2025
Since reading, I have pleaded with every single one of my friends to order it once it comes out. It took me a second to ease into the chat log/email format, but once I was invested in the Scratch / Winc's developing romance running tangent to the increasing danger of the oppressive Eye, I ate it all up at once. Interestingly, I thought discovering their "true" identities would blemish their dynamic to me. Instead, the conversations that ensued in regards to Winc's identity, and especially Scratch's initial hesitation and even offense, were incredibly enlightening. Winc is a saint, they always had so much grace and love.
I especially love the idea of gender being friction, this malleable rubbing between two persons, that can change and react depending on the day, hour, mood, lighting etc. I identify as queer, but am currently in a "straight" relationship. Sometimes, I feel very confused about my own gender, and how this relates to my male partner. Does he view me through the lens of how he perceives women? Can I be "more" than a woman to a man, in these times, in these conditions? Can I ever be his "man", his rock, his guide? The lines, im paraphrasing, but where they roughly say, "Do you need me to be your queer boy, or your punk riot girl, or your so on and so forth?" really stuck with me. I never feel like one of these things, but a transcending experience that is morphing to my environment all the time. I think truly "seeing" someone is defying gender in every way; it is becoming pure light, really.
All that to say, this book made me feel better about being a woman. In a strange way, especially when they discuss butch, stones, etc, it made me realize that being a woman is really whatever I want it to be, whatever I design. and there will always be people who invest in that. and that's exciting. I wish i could live in a world in which everyone met everyone else on the pretense that their outside form is simply a veil, and that it is the work of all of us to dissolve that shell into the shimmering, ephemeral sea of what we feel, what we desire, what we dream of....
I especially love the idea of gender being friction, this malleable rubbing between two persons, that can change and react depending on the day, hour, mood, lighting etc. I identify as queer, but am currently in a "straight" relationship. Sometimes, I feel very confused about my own gender, and how this relates to my male partner. Does he view me through the lens of how he perceives women? Can I be "more" than a woman to a man, in these times, in these conditions? Can I ever be his "man", his rock, his guide? The lines, im paraphrasing, but where they roughly say, "Do you need me to be your queer boy, or your punk riot girl, or your so on and so forth?" really stuck with me. I never feel like one of these things, but a transcending experience that is morphing to my environment all the time. I think truly "seeing" someone is defying gender in every way; it is becoming pure light, really.
All that to say, this book made me feel better about being a woman. In a strange way, especially when they discuss butch, stones, etc, it made me realize that being a woman is really whatever I want it to be, whatever I design. and there will always be people who invest in that. and that's exciting. I wish i could live in a world in which everyone met everyone else on the pretense that their outside form is simply a veil, and that it is the work of all of us to dissolve that shell into the shimmering, ephemeral sea of what we feel, what we desire, what we dream of....
August 5, 2014
A little relic from when we thought this newfangled internet thing would save us from gender. A fun story, it leads to interesting reflections about what has an hasn't changed about how folks interact with the information highway and their sense of self. A time when "online" had to be defined in a glossary in the back! When a broadly defined GSM Coalition only named LGBT identities! When cybering sparked rebellion! Or maybe it still does? Spoiler alert, I doubt it.
(Pairs well with A Mind Apart)
(Pairs well with A Mind Apart)
January 13, 2026
The discussion of gender and sexuality in this book— and the implications of the information age in relation to that— is so ahead of its time that it’s almost hard to believe this was originally written 30 years ago. Though the themes of this book and its discussions are incredible and thoughtfully done, the storytelling method and framing did not work for me. Maybe it’s because I was on AIM back in the day, in the chatroom sequences gave me violent, cringy flashbacks. If you go into reading this book, knowing the framing is an erotic thriller, told in a somewhat epistolary method, you can better enjoy the discussions of gender and identity in a technologically enabled world.
One other note: the audiobook telling of this is particularly challenging as the dialogue often shifts between private messages, journal entries, chat logs, and occasionally narrative. It might be easier to read and print format or e-book, but it would be really interesting if the publishers re-created this as an interactive website where you could walk yourself through the story. Perhaps they’ll do that for the 50th anniversary.
One other note: the audiobook telling of this is particularly challenging as the dialogue often shifts between private messages, journal entries, chat logs, and occasionally narrative. It might be easier to read and print format or e-book, but it would be really interesting if the publishers re-created this as an interactive website where you could walk yourself through the story. Perhaps they’ll do that for the 50th anniversary.
November 25, 2020
I thought I would enjoy this book that was based on the early chatrooms of the 90's and the 2000's, but this book is INSANELY dull. The plot (whatever semblance of a plot there is) is secondary to the two main characters who refuse to conform to gender, which is quite novel for a book written in 1996. I couldn't stand any of the characters, plus reading the style the book was written in just gave me really bad flashbacks to when I used to frequent chatrooms. It was a bit cringey. I also thought the copious amounts of cybersex were really unnecessary. It was all so repetitive. I just couldn't get into this one.
September 25, 2007
Though a little dated in 2007, this book absolutly changed my life!
August 6, 2010
I thought this book was an exciting way to explore gender identity issues, and the romance in it was very adorable. It was repetitive at times due to its form, but it was still an interesting read.
September 29, 2024
Amazing, just amazing
March 9, 2026
I read the 30th anniversary re-release of Nearly Roadkill, and I understand why this book has regained its relevance in this contemporary moment. Set in the early days of chat rooms, Nearly Roadkill follows two people (Winc and Scratch) who are exploring and playing with their gender online. At the same time as they're playing with gender and other identities, the government is trying to impose Registration, where every Internet user must register and give up a lot of personal information so that advertising agencies can better target theirs ads. In our contemporary moment, the surveillance of the Internet is perhaps more sinister, but ultimately still about serving capitalism and profit -- and rooting out those who oppose power. The novel is unconventional, told through a series of digital journal entires and chat room talk, by Winc and Scratch; by Toobe, a younger internet user who knows Winc in real life and is friends with Winc and Scratch online; by Jabba the Hut, a hacker; and by Gwynyth, another hacker who helps Winc, Scratch, and Toobe IRL when they need to escape the federal investigators who try and arrest them.
This 30th anniversary edition also brings in a new part of the story, a non-binary investigate journalist named Drew who puts together these various logs. While I loved being in the past stories, I felt the additional of Drew didn't add a lot to the story. I'll talk a bit more about them in the spoilers section of the review, but it seemed liked Drew was more of a proxy to say "see, this is still relevant now" than anything that necessarily helped augment the story. Their inclusion was mostly relevant only in the epilogues; otherwise, the sections with Drew felt clunky. I found that the playfulness of gender in the past and even in the present was interesting to read, and the book's cypersex was both wild and exciting. This was a memorable book, and while it sometimes felt didactic, it was an interesting enough narrative to keep me engaged. I'm happy I read it, and would recommend it as a book that pushes back against fixed ideas of identity and gender to offer otherwise.
***spoilers below***
Two parts of this book stood out to me. The first was the way that surveillance and capitalism butt up against queerness. In this novel, Winc and Scratch are each exploring their queer identities through different personas in chat rooms. They're targeted by the government because they refuse to register and give over their information, but their refusal is also because the registration goes against their online queerness. They have different personas because they take on different identities, acting and trying on different ways of living. Because capitalism wants to profit off the Internet, people are forced to Register, to be fixed into a single identity. Moreover, registering means giving away information, including about one's biological sex. Those who refuse are made to appear as dangerous people who want to traffic or abuse children, rhetoric that continues into this present moment, where drag queens and trans people in sports are portrayed as predators. In the book, Winc and Scratch offer care to Internet users and keep sex out of the conversation when around Toobe. Instead of being able to live their responsible but countercultural lives, Winc and Scratch are targeted for their difference, for their desire to be queer, with technologies being places of simultaneous freedom (for what they offer) and danger/control (for how others try and regulate them) -- something that continues to be the case for queer people today.
The second thing I though was interesting was the new ending. The original narrative ends ambiguously, with Winc being shot and Scratch trying to save hir life. The two queer lovers have been made into such figures of fear that they might not survive Registration. After being shot, Winc and Scratch's love is true: no matter what happens, they reconciled their IRL differences around gender and became like the versions of themselves online, free of gender prejudice and embracing all kinds of identities and relationships to themselves and to each other.
In the new ending, readers see that Winc has survived. In addition, Winc and Scratch become part of Drew's queer family, since Drew's dad turns out to be Toobe. This happy ending is fascinating to consider. In re-thinking the book, Bornstein and Sullivan decided to take away the ambiguity of the ending and show queer elders, queer love, and queer survival. I think this is an intentional choice at a time when queer people are under attack. The fact that Winc and Scratch survive, together, suggests that queerness persists and lives on. Despite attacks on queerness, queer people will continue find ways to be together and help fight back against power. While the ending makes things a bit narratively clunky (there's three epilogues to the novel), it's an important message, and I can understand why it was added to this edition.
This 30th anniversary edition also brings in a new part of the story, a non-binary investigate journalist named Drew who puts together these various logs. While I loved being in the past stories, I felt the additional of Drew didn't add a lot to the story. I'll talk a bit more about them in the spoilers section of the review, but it seemed liked Drew was more of a proxy to say "see, this is still relevant now" than anything that necessarily helped augment the story. Their inclusion was mostly relevant only in the epilogues; otherwise, the sections with Drew felt clunky. I found that the playfulness of gender in the past and even in the present was interesting to read, and the book's cypersex was both wild and exciting. This was a memorable book, and while it sometimes felt didactic, it was an interesting enough narrative to keep me engaged. I'm happy I read it, and would recommend it as a book that pushes back against fixed ideas of identity and gender to offer otherwise.
***spoilers below***
Two parts of this book stood out to me. The first was the way that surveillance and capitalism butt up against queerness. In this novel, Winc and Scratch are each exploring their queer identities through different personas in chat rooms. They're targeted by the government because they refuse to register and give over their information, but their refusal is also because the registration goes against their online queerness. They have different personas because they take on different identities, acting and trying on different ways of living. Because capitalism wants to profit off the Internet, people are forced to Register, to be fixed into a single identity. Moreover, registering means giving away information, including about one's biological sex. Those who refuse are made to appear as dangerous people who want to traffic or abuse children, rhetoric that continues into this present moment, where drag queens and trans people in sports are portrayed as predators. In the book, Winc and Scratch offer care to Internet users and keep sex out of the conversation when around Toobe. Instead of being able to live their responsible but countercultural lives, Winc and Scratch are targeted for their difference, for their desire to be queer, with technologies being places of simultaneous freedom (for what they offer) and danger/control (for how others try and regulate them) -- something that continues to be the case for queer people today.
The second thing I though was interesting was the new ending. The original narrative ends ambiguously, with Winc being shot and Scratch trying to save hir life. The two queer lovers have been made into such figures of fear that they might not survive Registration. After being shot, Winc and Scratch's love is true: no matter what happens, they reconciled their IRL differences around gender and became like the versions of themselves online, free of gender prejudice and embracing all kinds of identities and relationships to themselves and to each other.
In the new ending, readers see that Winc has survived. In addition, Winc and Scratch become part of Drew's queer family, since Drew's dad turns out to be Toobe. This happy ending is fascinating to consider. In re-thinking the book, Bornstein and Sullivan decided to take away the ambiguity of the ending and show queer elders, queer love, and queer survival. I think this is an intentional choice at a time when queer people are under attack. The fact that Winc and Scratch survive, together, suggests that queerness persists and lives on. Despite attacks on queerness, queer people will continue find ways to be together and help fight back against power. While the ending makes things a bit narratively clunky (there's three epilogues to the novel), it's an important message, and I can understand why it was added to this edition.
November 29, 2025
Update : Just put up a new post on Instagram @nearlyroadkillontherun
Hey folks!
Kate Kate Bornstein and Caitlin have tried repeatedly to create an author page on Goodreads but the response has been like something, well, straight out of our book. There are four reasons why you are rejected - your task is to guess which one. If you ask for clarification you are sent the same four reasons in a different order with a different salutation. We give up. And we're pretty tech-y. (We found that many authors faced the same barriers, with requests that are years old.)
Good times!
So please join us for actual fun on our Instagram account if you want to ask questions, make comments, and generally keep up with the world of Scratch and Winc (+ goats +outlaws + idiocy + ...)
Insta: @nearlyroadkillontherun
Direct link: https://www.instagram.com/nearlyroadk...
The Fabulous Generous Press: https://www.generous.press/nearly-roa...
See you there!
And thanks so much for reading!
Hey folks!
Kate Kate Bornstein and Caitlin have tried repeatedly to create an author page on Goodreads but the response has been like something, well, straight out of our book. There are four reasons why you are rejected - your task is to guess which one. If you ask for clarification you are sent the same four reasons in a different order with a different salutation. We give up. And we're pretty tech-y. (We found that many authors faced the same barriers, with requests that are years old.)
Good times!
So please join us for actual fun on our Instagram account if you want to ask questions, make comments, and generally keep up with the world of Scratch and Winc (+ goats +outlaws + idiocy + ...)
Insta: @nearlyroadkillontherun
Direct link: https://www.instagram.com/nearlyroadk...
The Fabulous Generous Press: https://www.generous.press/nearly-roa...
See you there!
And thanks so much for reading!
January 14, 2026
This was interesting, and also tough to read. I don't know that I fully grasped all of it, but the conversations about gender identity and government surveillance are still very relevant today. I sort of wish the they/them magazine framing & Drew wasn't part of the 30th anniversary edition though.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews