99 Erics: a Kat Cataclysm faux novel

by Julia Serano

Kat Cataclysm is an ethically non-monogamous bisexual woman and absurdist short fiction writer. 99 Erics is a humorous account of Kat’s experiences writing a book called 99 Erics, which is about her experiences dating ninety-nine different people named Eric. It is more surreal than slutty. Not that there is anything wrong with slutty.

The book is largely comprised of humorous anecdotes from Kat’s dates with various Erics; satirical takes on relationships, sexual conventions, language, the writing process, book publishing, online media, and tech culture; and Kat’s smart yet silly digressions on a variety of topics, including the distorted nature of memories, hipsters, sex toys, sabermetrics, YA dystopian fiction, trendy restaurants, Freudian slips, banana slug mating practices, lucid dreaming, agnosticism, the internet of things, and Prince lyrics, to name but a few. These more fanciful passages are seamlessly interwoven with more serious and mundane matters, such as navigating the world as a woman and sexual minority, being an outcast who doesn’t really fit in, struggling to make ends meet, and reconciling one’s past with the present. The end result is a fun and fast read that tackles meaty subjects and contemporary issues along the way.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, Transgender, Comedy, LGBT, Novels, Literary Fiction

351 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 22, 2020

About the author

Julia Serano is an Oakland, California-based writer, spoken word performer, activist, and biologist. She is the author of several award-winning books, including Whipping Girl, Excluded, and her debut novel 99 Erics. Julia's forthcoming book – Sexed Up: How Society Sexualizes Us, and How We Can Fight Back – will be released by Seal Press in May, 2022. Julia’s other writings have appeared in over twenty anthologies, in news and media outlets such as The New York Times, TIME, The Guardian, Salon, The Daily Beast, and Ms., and have been used as teaching materials in college courses across North America.

Reviews

[Charlie Anders · Rating 5 out of 5]

A lot of people probably just know Julia Serano as a brilliant trans activist who pours her energy and brilliance into challenging the latest nonsense from fauxminists and right-wing dingbats. But Julia’s also a wonderful poet and songwriter — I’ve been lucky enough to see her perform many times over the years, and to share a stage with her on a few occasions. She has a wonderfully offbeat, goofy sense of humor, which you can hear in some of her songs with Bitesize and * soft vowel sounds *. And now Julia’s written a novel in stories, called 99 Erics, which is just a pure dose of her silly, irreverent, dorktastic jokes and observations about the world. 99 Erics is about a girl named Kat Cataclysm who decides to date 99 men named Eric (though Kat is already in a long-term open relationship). Kat and the Erics have conversations about art, culture, duct tape, and anarchism versus socialism. This book is an absolute delight and a great escape from the scariness of the world, and I highly recommend it.

[Sarah Cavar]

This book was mostly very, very, very secondhand-embarrassing to read with occasional nuggets of humor and wisdom. Mostly, I felt like I was reading someone’s 2010 pseudointellectual Wordpress blog.

[Kab · Rating 4 out of 5]

There are white moments including laughing about not registering racial slurs when they don't apply to you. There's also a chapter dedicated to the spirit of non-apologies aka sorry you were offended or lamenting the intention of language not overriding impact. The playfulness is not immoderately spoiled and some of the ideas that she explores in nonfiction unexpectedly work well as overt lessons in absurdist short fiction form, like in the chapter about ethical sluts vs confused sluts.

[Karen · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book annoyed me. I wasn't sure if Julia Serano was afraid to try a real novel and thought a string of anecdotes would be easier, or if she just wanted a vehicle for all her random thoughts and didn't care it they fit together into a story. I feel sad saying this because I loved Whipping Girl and think she's brilliant. At the sentence and paragraph level it was funny and insightful, but I got tired of the lack of story. It just felt like Julia Serano wanted the world to know all her thoughts on everything. (many of which are interesting and would be worth reading if she'd had a better vehicle for them) Also it frustrated me that the protagonist, Kat, was always smarter and better than any other character and, although a couple things happened to her throughout the book, she didn't really grow.

[Katie Proctor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really hard book to review! It definitely took me a while to get into it and I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first. I loved the meta elements of it and the linguistic jokes. The reason this isn’t 5 stars is that I struggled a bit with the lack of plot. It was easy enough to read that it didn’t bother me too much though!

[Sam Pointon · Rating 4 out of 5]

most ridiculous thing i have probably ever read

[Chloe · Rating 1 out of 5]

Proof that not everyone can be an author 🎉

[Abbey Darling · Rating 4 out of 5]

What happens when you date 99 Erics in hopes of learning something about writing conflict? A lot actually. 99 Erics is a series of stream of thought anecdotes in the life of Kat Cataclysm. As such the when the jokes land it's a riot, but there are some superfluous moments where I was left wondering when it would pick up again. Thankfully the humor weighs out and keeps the ride going.

"99 Erics: A Kat Cataclysm faux novel" is a light, humorous novel with some surprising insights about life, queerness and sex that really shouldn't be all that surprising considering the author behind it.

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Whip-smart, drop-dead-funny metafiction by Oakland trans-bi activist writer Julia Serano.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is really a fun thing to read. Below are some of the excerpts I highlighted in the ebook as I went. I don't think any of them really spoil the story out of context like this but I'll mark the review as containing spoilers anyway:


And I am not about to turn my transgender friends into bombs

So I stated the obvious: Children are drunk. Like, all the time! And frankly, I didn’t want to spend the next sixteen years of my life taking care of a drunk person until they are finally sober enough to drive.

[Eric:] I don’t have to deal with my ptosomaphobia.
Me: What a bizarre word. How do you pronounce it?
Eric: Ptosomaphobia.

It’s like “The Gift of the Magi,” but only with shopping carts.

math-sex practitioners haven’t been historically oppressed in the way that gay people have been.

it’s hypocritical to call yourself a science-and-technology company, but then blame god whenever something bad happens.

“Yes, I am a slut! An ethical slut, whereas you are merely a confused slut!”

at some point, your lover is going to eat your penis

I couldn’t help but imagine that this was Rachel’s blood, or Jackson’s, or whoever’s turn it was to ride the fallopian waterslide of death that month

I don’t want to live in a world where it’s merely safe for people to be gay. I want to live in a world where it’s okay for people to be unabashed unapologetic weirdos.

Unexpectedly, Eric exclaimed, “Fuck!” Me: Yes, that is what we are going to do. We are going to fuck now.



Anyway I recommend this book unless you like hate metahumor or sex positivity.

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw this on Scribd by Julia Serano being described as an Absurdist Novel I thought I was in for something way more Germanic and angsty full of existential dread and peering into abysses and all that. This was more fun than that. It reminded me more of a stand-up comic getting a little artsy. Good fun. I enjoyed it.

Just gonna drop a link here.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfO3...
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following reviews


READING PROGRESS
December 25, 2020 – Started Reading
December 25, 2020 – Shelved
December 25, 2020 –
4.0%
December 25, 2020 –
14.0%
December 25, 2020 –
42.0%
December 25, 2020 –
46.0%
December 25, 2020 –
66.0%
December 25, 2020 –
75.0%
December 26, 2020 –
99.0%
December 26, 2020 – Shelved as: american-history
December 26, 2020 – Shelved as: early-twenty-first-century
December 26, 2020 – Shelved as: fiction
December 26, 2020 – Shelved as: lbgtqia
December 26, 2020 – Shelved as: lgbt
December 26, 2020 – Finished Reading

[Rue Baldry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I absolutely love Whipping Girl. It’s one of the most sensitive and intelligent books I’ve read and has shaped my understanding of lots of things. I was very excited to find that Serrano had written fiction. My expectations were wrong (and probably too high) for this book. I was expecting a more conventional, amusing story. There’s not really a narrative or any characterisation and I think I have the wrong sense of humour for it. The protagonist is a surrealist short story writer, and the book is about her writing the book — it’s very meta — so it’s probably supposed to be surreal, but it’s not what I think of as surreal. The second half is better than the first, some things actually come together, but it is mostly micro-essay discussions on subjects of varying interestingness pretending to be conversations with men called Eric. Readable, but not much to take away from it.

[Danielle Summer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having read Julia Serrano's Whipping Girl, this book is nothing like that. This is a fun, self-referencing, absurdist novel. The writing style is entertaining, easy to follow, full of humor but rant-ish at times, and could do without some of the katsplaining that fills some chapters.

So, while I deeply enjoy the general tone and execution, it does feel a bit overplayed and not enough for a book this long (probably better suited for absurdist short stories rather than faux novels). There is only so much self-reference and meta writing before it gets a tad tiring.

(By the way, yes, a good prime number definition should explicitly exclude the number 1. Bad things happen if we let 1 be a prime number so it is less about oppression and more about the world not exploding.)

[Thomas Hale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Snarky, self-consciously metatextual and postmodern, and a lot of fun. Serano uses the premise to assemble a number of quirky conversations, centred around wordplay, comedy skits, and serious putting-the-world-to-rights. As a way to air grievances and share notable life experiences it's very enjoyable and decently funny, though I can see others bouncing off her style and sense of humour. Kat definitely reminds me of a couple of friends, come to think of it.

[Abigail · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I don’t want to live in a world where it’s merely safe for people to be gay. I want to live in a world where it’s okay for people to be unabashed unapologetic weirdos."

I don't know how I found this novel- it was absurd and hilarious. The chapter on banana slugs KILLED ME. Especially since I have seen one in person.

[Iza · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven’t read much absurdist faux-novels so this was kinda fun and made me laugh a few times, some of her thoughts were interesting, some of them missed the mark for me. Was cool how she constantly tied lots of the chapters together! Introduced me to the banana slug, very cool

read for the queerlit book club

[Jaina Bee · Rating 5 out of 5]

i had something really clever to say about how much i enjoyed this book, but i forgot. it was really funny! never mind, this book is even funnier, and will satisfy all of your reading needs between two covers. Math, molluscs, sex, math sex, mollusc sex, poetry slams and time travel!

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book!

Full disclosure: I received an advanced copy of this book to review.

[Isabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was meta-as-fuck and hilarious and I really liked it (might have benefited from me reading it over a longer period of time, though)

[Paige McLoughlin · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw this on Scribd by Julia Serano being described as an Absurdist Novel I thought I was in for something way more Germanic and angsty full of existential dread and peering into abysses and all that. This was more fun than that. It reminded me more of a stand-up comic getting a little artsy. Good fun. I enjoyed it.

Just gonna drop a link here.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfO3...

[Annegret]

DNF

[Izzy Tongedahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book was a spiral lmao

[Danielle · Rating 2 out of 5]

I LOLed at the beginning of this book, but the farther in I got, the less I liked it. Too many of the same literary/grammar jokes. Too many tangents and entire chapters about nothing (including the final two chapters). If the novel about dating 99 people named Eric wasn't faux, I think I would've liked that a lot more.

[Bitsy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very silly. This isn't a bad thing. This book feels like hanging out with the narrator. If she seems enjoyable to spend time with and her world view resonates or seems interesting to you, you'll like it, otherwise you won't.

[Kit · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bisexual chaos and a lot of slug content