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Heather
14 Reasons Why You Should Get With Heather Loralie
H. You’ve never known anyone who makes you feel the way she doesE. She's drop dead gorgeous, and you met her inside a bookstore ♥A. The clothes she wears are all inadvertent cosplay outfitsT. She can keep secrets (?)H. She won’t hit the wall for decadesE. She’s never mentioned anything about being a feministR. She looks at you the same way you do herL. You’ve never heard her talk about her dietary preferencesO. When you’re with her the world is more vibrant, more... colourfulR. She somehow makes dungarees look goodA. She’s the only girl you’ve ever truly wanted to protectL. Since you have no children, with her, you get to play DaddyI. She’ll remain fertile for decadesE. She hasn’t ploughed her way through more pipe than Andy Dufresne1 Reason You Should NOT Get With Heather Loralie
SHE'SFOURTEEN 14. Making you, 21 years her senior. You’re 35, Michael. 35.Heather is 14.Heather Loralie is fourteen years old
H. You’ve never known anyone who makes you feel the way she doesE. She's drop dead gorgeous, and you met her inside a bookstore ♥A. The clothes she wears are all inadvertent cosplay outfitsT. She can keep secrets (?)H. She won’t hit the wall for decadesE. She’s never mentioned anything about being a feministR. She looks at you the same way you do herL. You’ve never heard her talk about her dietary preferencesO. When you’re with her the world is more vibrant, more... colourfulR. She somehow makes dungarees look goodA. She’s the only girl you’ve ever truly wanted to protectL. Since you have no children, with her, you get to play DaddyI. She’ll remain fertile for decadesE. She hasn’t ploughed her way through more pipe than Andy Dufresne1 Reason You Should NOT Get With Heather Loralie
SHE'SFOURTEEN 14. Making you, 21 years her senior. You’re 35, Michael. 35.Heather is 14.Heather Loralie is fourteen years old
232 pages, ebook
Published December 14, 2020
16 people are currently reading
76 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 48 reviews
March 19, 2025
A 35-year-old man grooms a 14-year-old girl.
Writing a book about a pedo where there are endless references to Lolita is a bit like going to McDonalds so you can endlessly talk about Michelin star restaurants.
Writing a book about a pedo where there are endless references to Lolita is a bit like going to McDonalds so you can endlessly talk about Michelin star restaurants.
June 16, 2024
Crazy!
Just this!
Just this!
October 6, 2021
Review originally published at https://amanjareads.com/heather-thank...
Thank you to author G. C. McKay for providing me with a copy of Heather in exchange for this very honest review.
Have you ever read an erotic novel? Many of us likely have. They are usually a subgenre of romace but they're actually just long form porn. There's not usually anything wrong with that. You know going in that you're going to read some porn. You consent to reading porn and you try to find the porn you're into. Male/female, male/male, male/vampire, ghost/pirate. Whatever you like you can find it!
Heather by author G. C. McKay, is porn. The first problem with the book is that it doesn't market itself as porn. You don't get to consent to the porn before reading. And if this book was honest about what kind of porn it is, I hope you wouldn't want to consent.
Heather is child pornography.
There's really no other way to describe it. I knew beforehand that it would be a book about an adult male forming a relationship with a 14 year old girl. That's not super out there. Many people fantasize, or feel tempted or curious at some point in their lives. A book about someone acting on that impulse could be quite interesting. I mean, there's a reason Lolita is considered a classic right?
But Heather by G. C. McKay is no classic. Let's really get into it.
I knew from the start that this book was no masterpiece. G. C. McKay seems to have an addiction to the word "whilst" and uses vocabulary words that he thinks make him sound smart *whilst* actually just making him sound like the infinite grad student who "doesn't even own a tv." I don't know him personally, never talked to him, his book was brought to me by the publisher, but I would like to never meet him.
Heather begins with our unreliable narrator telling us he's going to be an unreliable narrator. He discloses that he will not be giving us backstory on his past or what brought him to work at a bookstore in his 30s. Well that just seems like a lazy excuse to not develop a character. It's not mysterious or intriguing, it's just aggravating.
So this man child is working with a bunch of young adult women while he spots 14 year old Heather and falls in lust. There's really no nuance to it, he sees a pubescent girl and wants to put his penis in her.
All of his coworkers already call him a pedo because he does creepy pedo stuff all of the time. He hits on them and their little sisters, he puts out copies of Lolita as his book recommendation for the store, he makes it very clear that he's a creep so everyone around him is creeped out. And yet, somehow, he's not supposed to be the bad guy in this book.
He hates women. He uses words like "gynocentric" and "misandrist" while worrying that his coworkers are going to "me too" him. He calls his coworkers "the Dungaree club" because they all wear dungarees. This is apparently something 18 year old females do in G. C. McKay's universe. One, this is not a common American term for women's pants so maybe I'm a little out of touch with what they do elsewhere but according to google dungarees is a term mostly used for sturdy work jeans. Not exactly what I see all the teen girls wearing these days.
But G. C. McKay is really the one out of touch. At one point in the novel he spends two pages describing an older episode of The Simpsons. He uses this episode to describe the protagonist pedophile's feelings instead of actually describing the feelings in ways that could be considered literary. He then laments his efforts by saying Heather is too young to have watched The Simpsons. Yo, bro, it's still on the air. New episodes currently being watched by the latest generation.
Around this point in the novel we've started to get to know Heather. By the end of the book it is extraordinarily clear that Heather is the worst human to walk the face of the Earth. She's so evil it's almost comical. The author had to go universes out of his way to make it so that she is the villain of this story, not the pedophile creep who was "manipulated" into sleeping with her.
And he does. More than once, and in very graphic detail. The sexual relationship between Heather and the author's avatar is grotesquely described in painful detail. It has it's edgy checklist that it has to go through to make sure it makes you squirm, because just pedophilia isn't enough!
In this book you'll get: (spoilers duh)
a 14 year old girl losing her virginity on her period *whilst* in public
the 14 year old girl molesting a 5 year old girl *whilst* losing her virginity
rape blackmail
complicated cuckolding fantasies
the rape of an additional 14 year old girl
hard core necrophilia
light cannibalism
All of that described in pornographic detail. Seriously, nothing is implied, it is hard cock in wet pussy shoved down your throat.
Clearly, Heather is a fetish piece. I don't necessarily think G. C. McKay is a pedophile but I do think he gets off on people squirming in their wet panties. I think he wants you to be offended and aroused and that confusion is what gets his dick up in the morning. He's like a flasher but he pops this book out of his trenchcoat instead.
Well, I am offended. I'm offended that this book is so poorly written and so out of touch. I'm offended that the author wants to manipulate the reader. And most of all, I'm offended that the author doesn't understand how this book could have been so much more discomforting.
The protagonist sucks. He's an incel jack off who I hated the whole time. Know what would've made this book so much better? If he was relatable. Imagine me reading a book and putting myself in the main character's shoes. Imagine then that that main character finds himself in a sexual relationship with an underaged girl.
Suddenly, I'm not reading about some creep doing what creeps do but I'm reading about myself having an inappropriate relationship. That's way more edgy! There are many ways to make an audience squirm but Heather went for cheap shock value.
Here's the thing, longtime readers of mine know I went through that edgy phase in my youth. I've read the Palahniuks and seen all of the most infamous exploitation movies. Here's where they're different, they're smarter and/or funnier than G. C. McKay.
Two movies kept coming to mind while reading Heather: A Serbian Film and Visitor Q. A Serbian Film is infamous for being one of the most extreme exploitation movies ever made. It's best known for a scene of "newborn porn" in which someone is shown giving birth and then the baby is taken straight from the womb to being raped. It's an animatronic but it is shown.
This movie, with that scene I just described, is better than Heather for one main reason. They made the main character (not the baby raper just to be clear) sympathetic. By the end of it I actually did care that the protagonist had gotten sucked into this hellish underworld. A Serbian Film, the movie at the top of so many sickest movies of all time lists, is smarter and better written than Heather.
At the end of the book I started to think about Takashi Miike's Visitor Q. At the end of Heather the pedophile has sex to completion with her dead body. Once again, it's super graphic. Visitor Q contains a scene of graphic necophilia as well but Takashi Miike is a master and knows how to do exploitation right. He brings it so far over the top it cycles back to absurdism and becomes uncomfortably funny. But because the whole movie is shot and acted in such a way we know that we're supposed to laugh. Visitor Q is funnier than Heather.
If you're looking to cross your boundaries I'd recommend those two movies far more than Heather. Exploitation isn't as easy as people think it is. There is an art to it, John Waters wrote the book on it and G. C. McKay was too busy telling college freshman why Lolita is the best Kubrick film to read it.
Heather has no moral to the story, it has no message. It isn't heartfelt and it isn't funny. So all that's left for it to be is child pornography. Avoid this one.
0/5 don't read this book, I'd say I'm on a government watchlist for owning it but the government has no idea who G. C. McKay is because he's not half as important as he thinks
Thank you to author G. C. McKay for providing me with a copy of Heather in exchange for this very honest review.
Have you ever read an erotic novel? Many of us likely have. They are usually a subgenre of romace but they're actually just long form porn. There's not usually anything wrong with that. You know going in that you're going to read some porn. You consent to reading porn and you try to find the porn you're into. Male/female, male/male, male/vampire, ghost/pirate. Whatever you like you can find it!
Heather by author G. C. McKay, is porn. The first problem with the book is that it doesn't market itself as porn. You don't get to consent to the porn before reading. And if this book was honest about what kind of porn it is, I hope you wouldn't want to consent.
Heather is child pornography.
There's really no other way to describe it. I knew beforehand that it would be a book about an adult male forming a relationship with a 14 year old girl. That's not super out there. Many people fantasize, or feel tempted or curious at some point in their lives. A book about someone acting on that impulse could be quite interesting. I mean, there's a reason Lolita is considered a classic right?
But Heather by G. C. McKay is no classic. Let's really get into it.
I knew from the start that this book was no masterpiece. G. C. McKay seems to have an addiction to the word "whilst" and uses vocabulary words that he thinks make him sound smart *whilst* actually just making him sound like the infinite grad student who "doesn't even own a tv." I don't know him personally, never talked to him, his book was brought to me by the publisher, but I would like to never meet him.
Heather begins with our unreliable narrator telling us he's going to be an unreliable narrator. He discloses that he will not be giving us backstory on his past or what brought him to work at a bookstore in his 30s. Well that just seems like a lazy excuse to not develop a character. It's not mysterious or intriguing, it's just aggravating.
So this man child is working with a bunch of young adult women while he spots 14 year old Heather and falls in lust. There's really no nuance to it, he sees a pubescent girl and wants to put his penis in her.
All of his coworkers already call him a pedo because he does creepy pedo stuff all of the time. He hits on them and their little sisters, he puts out copies of Lolita as his book recommendation for the store, he makes it very clear that he's a creep so everyone around him is creeped out. And yet, somehow, he's not supposed to be the bad guy in this book.
He hates women. He uses words like "gynocentric" and "misandrist" while worrying that his coworkers are going to "me too" him. He calls his coworkers "the Dungaree club" because they all wear dungarees. This is apparently something 18 year old females do in G. C. McKay's universe. One, this is not a common American term for women's pants so maybe I'm a little out of touch with what they do elsewhere but according to google dungarees is a term mostly used for sturdy work jeans. Not exactly what I see all the teen girls wearing these days.
But G. C. McKay is really the one out of touch. At one point in the novel he spends two pages describing an older episode of The Simpsons. He uses this episode to describe the protagonist pedophile's feelings instead of actually describing the feelings in ways that could be considered literary. He then laments his efforts by saying Heather is too young to have watched The Simpsons. Yo, bro, it's still on the air. New episodes currently being watched by the latest generation.
Around this point in the novel we've started to get to know Heather. By the end of the book it is extraordinarily clear that Heather is the worst human to walk the face of the Earth. She's so evil it's almost comical. The author had to go universes out of his way to make it so that she is the villain of this story, not the pedophile creep who was "manipulated" into sleeping with her.
And he does. More than once, and in very graphic detail. The sexual relationship between Heather and the author's avatar is grotesquely described in painful detail. It has it's edgy checklist that it has to go through to make sure it makes you squirm, because just pedophilia isn't enough!
In this book you'll get: (spoilers duh)
a 14 year old girl losing her virginity on her period *whilst* in public
the 14 year old girl molesting a 5 year old girl *whilst* losing her virginity
rape blackmail
complicated cuckolding fantasies
the rape of an additional 14 year old girl
hard core necrophilia
light cannibalism
All of that described in pornographic detail. Seriously, nothing is implied, it is hard cock in wet pussy shoved down your throat.
Clearly, Heather is a fetish piece. I don't necessarily think G. C. McKay is a pedophile but I do think he gets off on people squirming in their wet panties. I think he wants you to be offended and aroused and that confusion is what gets his dick up in the morning. He's like a flasher but he pops this book out of his trenchcoat instead.
Well, I am offended. I'm offended that this book is so poorly written and so out of touch. I'm offended that the author wants to manipulate the reader. And most of all, I'm offended that the author doesn't understand how this book could have been so much more discomforting.
The protagonist sucks. He's an incel jack off who I hated the whole time. Know what would've made this book so much better? If he was relatable. Imagine me reading a book and putting myself in the main character's shoes. Imagine then that that main character finds himself in a sexual relationship with an underaged girl.
Suddenly, I'm not reading about some creep doing what creeps do but I'm reading about myself having an inappropriate relationship. That's way more edgy! There are many ways to make an audience squirm but Heather went for cheap shock value.
Here's the thing, longtime readers of mine know I went through that edgy phase in my youth. I've read the Palahniuks and seen all of the most infamous exploitation movies. Here's where they're different, they're smarter and/or funnier than G. C. McKay.
Two movies kept coming to mind while reading Heather: A Serbian Film and Visitor Q. A Serbian Film is infamous for being one of the most extreme exploitation movies ever made. It's best known for a scene of "newborn porn" in which someone is shown giving birth and then the baby is taken straight from the womb to being raped. It's an animatronic but it is shown.
This movie, with that scene I just described, is better than Heather for one main reason. They made the main character (not the baby raper just to be clear) sympathetic. By the end of it I actually did care that the protagonist had gotten sucked into this hellish underworld. A Serbian Film, the movie at the top of so many sickest movies of all time lists, is smarter and better written than Heather.
At the end of the book I started to think about Takashi Miike's Visitor Q. At the end of Heather the pedophile has sex to completion with her dead body. Once again, it's super graphic. Visitor Q contains a scene of graphic necophilia as well but Takashi Miike is a master and knows how to do exploitation right. He brings it so far over the top it cycles back to absurdism and becomes uncomfortably funny. But because the whole movie is shot and acted in such a way we know that we're supposed to laugh. Visitor Q is funnier than Heather.
If you're looking to cross your boundaries I'd recommend those two movies far more than Heather. Exploitation isn't as easy as people think it is. There is an art to it, John Waters wrote the book on it and G. C. McKay was too busy telling college freshman why Lolita is the best Kubrick film to read it.
Heather has no moral to the story, it has no message. It isn't heartfelt and it isn't funny. So all that's left for it to be is child pornography. Avoid this one.
0/5 don't read this book, I'd say I'm on a government watchlist for owning it but the government has no idea who G. C. McKay is because he's not half as important as he thinks
December 20, 2022
I came across G.C McKay's bookish YouTube channel where he encouraged his subscribers to read the novel he published this year. In the past I've enjoyed 'transgressive' literature that delves into the darker, unsavoury parts of the psyche, so I thought I would give this a go.
McKay really doesn't hold back. His narrator plunges into a downward spiral from being an irritating, self-important arsehole to something much more menacing all in the space of less than 200 pages. If you like Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk and you have some grasp of the ideology of the 'manosphere/redpill/MGTOW' communities online, you might enjoy the themes touched on in this novel.
Stories written in first person narrative from the pov of an unreliable narrator always brings up the question - has the author written a certain way because this is how they want their narrator to write OR does the author genuinely write like this? The narrator of the story is unintelligent, narcissistic and unhinged so I don't know whether McKay has written the story 'poorly' to communicate to the readers that his narrator ain't shit. The prose is unnecessarily overwritten and the dialogue between the characters is unrealistic, which makes it difficult to comfortably read the novel. It wasn't made obvious to me whether the writing is uninspiring on purpose.
The second issue I had with this book isn't really McKay's fault. Any story told from the point of view of a self confessed ( or in-the-closet) paedo will naturally be compared to Lolita. I think that even the best of writers would struggle to write something that elicits the same emotions from it's readers as Lolita does. The narrator of Heather has none of the charm and eloquence that Nabokov's Humbert did and none of the characters seem like real people, which makes it difficult to feel any kind of way about what happens to them.
If you want to read something dirty and shocking that you might not easily find in traditionally published books this might be for you. If you want beautiful writing/realistic characters/a book that gives you the Lolita tingles - than I'd say give this one a miss.
McKay really doesn't hold back. His narrator plunges into a downward spiral from being an irritating, self-important arsehole to something much more menacing all in the space of less than 200 pages. If you like Bret Easton Ellis and Chuck Palahniuk and you have some grasp of the ideology of the 'manosphere/redpill/MGTOW' communities online, you might enjoy the themes touched on in this novel.
Stories written in first person narrative from the pov of an unreliable narrator always brings up the question - has the author written a certain way because this is how they want their narrator to write OR does the author genuinely write like this? The narrator of the story is unintelligent, narcissistic and unhinged so I don't know whether McKay has written the story 'poorly' to communicate to the readers that his narrator ain't shit. The prose is unnecessarily overwritten and the dialogue between the characters is unrealistic, which makes it difficult to comfortably read the novel. It wasn't made obvious to me whether the writing is uninspiring on purpose.
The second issue I had with this book isn't really McKay's fault. Any story told from the point of view of a self confessed ( or in-the-closet) paedo will naturally be compared to Lolita. I think that even the best of writers would struggle to write something that elicits the same emotions from it's readers as Lolita does. The narrator of Heather has none of the charm and eloquence that Nabokov's Humbert did and none of the characters seem like real people, which makes it difficult to feel any kind of way about what happens to them.
If you want to read something dirty and shocking that you might not easily find in traditionally published books this might be for you. If you want beautiful writing/realistic characters/a book that gives you the Lolita tingles - than I'd say give this one a miss.
July 10, 2021
This book is like watching a car crash where you are in control of events, with each page you turn the more involved you become and the closer events are to reaching that ultimate impact. The book is disgusting, Michael is evil even though he is always trying to convince the reader he is the one being controlled, Michael shows the reader the utter contempt he has for the world and the people in it…all whilst trying to convince you to understand what he has gone through. Heather is a twisted young girl, whether she was like that before Michael or she was broken by Michael is hard to tell at first, but as events start to play out you get an idea of which one it is.
You can’t possibly read this book without comparing it to Lolita, personally I found that book dull and after reading this book I think I understand why. Lolita was written about an era before I was born and it was difficult to understand those characters, it all felt a bit meh! Heather is written during modern times about characters I understand and see all the time, having 2 daughters helps me understand the threat of somebody like Michael and that makes this book all the more horrifying.
McKay has written a story that is gross, the topic is plain nasty and yet it still pulls you in, there is just the right amount of intrigue at the beginning to have you wondering how this is going to play out, there is almost a glimmer of hope that maybe it will all be ok in the end. Fantastic characters and really well written with plenty of plot twists. I have hated and loved this book that I just couldn’t put down, would I recommend it to anybody? Hell no! Should you ignore that and give the book a go anyway? Hell yes!
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021...
You can’t possibly read this book without comparing it to Lolita, personally I found that book dull and after reading this book I think I understand why. Lolita was written about an era before I was born and it was difficult to understand those characters, it all felt a bit meh! Heather is written during modern times about characters I understand and see all the time, having 2 daughters helps me understand the threat of somebody like Michael and that makes this book all the more horrifying.
McKay has written a story that is gross, the topic is plain nasty and yet it still pulls you in, there is just the right amount of intrigue at the beginning to have you wondering how this is going to play out, there is almost a glimmer of hope that maybe it will all be ok in the end. Fantastic characters and really well written with plenty of plot twists. I have hated and loved this book that I just couldn’t put down, would I recommend it to anybody? Hell no! Should you ignore that and give the book a go anyway? Hell yes!
Blog review: https://felcherman.wordpress.com/2021...
January 8, 2021
G.C. McKay’s Heather disgusted me like no other book up to this day. The author curses the reader with a novel which will not cease to become worse until the bitter end. Before I knew I had to stop, it was already too late, and finishing this nightmare was the only option left. Armed with Nabokov’s themes and style, McKay weaves a Shakespearian web of intrigues in a modern fashion, and rounds it all up with a dark humour which reminds of Dostoevsky’s biting satires. Combining high-brow literature with low-brow smut, the narrator, Michael Harlowe, shares his nihilistic world-view and brilliantly exposes not only his own but also the nastiness of his fellow human beings.
The exposition does not prepare the reader for what is to come in the least. In all seriousness: This novel should not end up in the wrong hands. I would have locked it away after reading, if it had not been the first e-book I have read in ages.
Horrible book. Highly entertaining!
The exposition does not prepare the reader for what is to come in the least. In all seriousness: This novel should not end up in the wrong hands. I would have locked it away after reading, if it had not been the first e-book I have read in ages.
Horrible book. Highly entertaining!
December 12, 2020
A great new effort on the part of G.C. McKay! If you're a fan of authors such as Vladimir Nabokov, Albert Camus, Ernesto Sabato, Edgar Allen Poe, William Shakespeare, Bret Easton Ellis, Ryu Murakami, Charles Bukowski, and even a splash of George Orwell, as well as a fan of transgressive fiction with biting satire and social commentary, you'll enjoy this novel.
Our 35 year old protagonist/narrator, Michael Harlow, works in a cafe inside a bookstore alongside an all female staff, all of which are in their late teens and 20's. To begin with, the work environment is extremely "woke," and "feminazi," meaning Michael off the bat is an outsider among them, but the situation is further complicated when a rumor starts circulating about him around the workplace, causing further ostracization. As if that wasn't complicated enough, the situation is pushed into overdrive when a customer of the cafe turns out to be a 14 year old girl named Heather, to whom Michael is instantly attracted and becomes increasingly obsessed with, Heather making it perfectly clear that she reciprocates. It seems fated that Michael and Heather will commence an affair, igniting a stream of chaotic events that there may be no turning back from...
The overall plot is simpler (at least on surface level) than that of McKay's previous novel "Fubar," (which I have also written a goodreads review of and recommend checking out), but equally as strong leaving the reader with just as much to unpack with an equal need of reading in between the lines. McKay has certainly grown as a writer since his debut novel, and this one is perhaps even more gruesome in content, which is seriously saying something, as well as containing a great deal of symbolism. At times the author is subtle, others he is quite in your face with brutality, with a nice and even mix of both making for a fascinating read.
His most obvious influence here is "Lolita." In Nabokov's work, not only was Humbert Humbert an unreliable narrator, the author also found a way with his words to make the reader equally as unreliable, and it's quite possible G.C. McKay has done the exact same thing with "Heather." Michael is an unreliable narrator as well, however, in the case of Humbert, despite a charming and eloquent exterior, I still thought Humbert to be an evil man. Michael on the other hand, while clearly troubled, and harboring nihilistic and misanthropic worldviews, still had a certain charm to him and a reader almost couldn't help but feel for him, and there were even moments where he at least appeared to genuinely care. Michael certainly wasn't the blatant vile bastard that Juan Pablo Castel was in Sabato's "The Tunnel." However, as I say this, I am aware of the strong possibility that McKay may have just completely mind fucked his readers in that sense in a similar way to Nabokov. Although Michael is mentally disturbed, and he is absolutely in the wrong to be pursuing a 14 year old girl sexually/romantically, Heather, as the reader will learn over time, is not so innocent herself, actually being a rather fucked up individual. Quite a bit of the title character's behavior is not exactly dissimilar to Asami from Murakami's "Audition," although McKay takes that type of idea and heads in a different kind of direction with it in such a way that you probably won't see coming. There are some scenes in "Heather" that are shocking in their brutality and gruesomeness, but the novel also has it's fair share of humorous moments as well.
In addition to the pedophilia, other social topics the author satirizes or otherwise criticizes in this piece include, cancel culture, metoo, the "woke" generation, political correctness, feminism, MGTOW, incels, red pill, simps, modern technology, social media, mental illness, and general narcissism among modern people, all making for fascinating philosophical discussions.
One of the things G.C. McKay is adept at as a writer (as can be seen in both his novels), is utilizing storytelling devices that have been used countless times but finding his own ways of subverting them and somehow finding a way to make something original out of them, which I imagine is challenging for a writer in an era where everything has been done to death, but quite the talent for someone who can pull it off. For example, in "Fubar," McKay subverts the classic revenge story, whereas in "Heather," he does the same to the classic "hero's journey," as well as the noir femme fatale trope, in many cases taking a satirical approach to such themes.
Highly recommend this novel as well as other works by G.C. McKay!
Our 35 year old protagonist/narrator, Michael Harlow, works in a cafe inside a bookstore alongside an all female staff, all of which are in their late teens and 20's. To begin with, the work environment is extremely "woke," and "feminazi," meaning Michael off the bat is an outsider among them, but the situation is further complicated when a rumor starts circulating about him around the workplace, causing further ostracization. As if that wasn't complicated enough, the situation is pushed into overdrive when a customer of the cafe turns out to be a 14 year old girl named Heather, to whom Michael is instantly attracted and becomes increasingly obsessed with, Heather making it perfectly clear that she reciprocates. It seems fated that Michael and Heather will commence an affair, igniting a stream of chaotic events that there may be no turning back from...
The overall plot is simpler (at least on surface level) than that of McKay's previous novel "Fubar," (which I have also written a goodreads review of and recommend checking out), but equally as strong leaving the reader with just as much to unpack with an equal need of reading in between the lines. McKay has certainly grown as a writer since his debut novel, and this one is perhaps even more gruesome in content, which is seriously saying something, as well as containing a great deal of symbolism. At times the author is subtle, others he is quite in your face with brutality, with a nice and even mix of both making for a fascinating read.
His most obvious influence here is "Lolita." In Nabokov's work, not only was Humbert Humbert an unreliable narrator, the author also found a way with his words to make the reader equally as unreliable, and it's quite possible G.C. McKay has done the exact same thing with "Heather." Michael is an unreliable narrator as well, however, in the case of Humbert, despite a charming and eloquent exterior, I still thought Humbert to be an evil man. Michael on the other hand, while clearly troubled, and harboring nihilistic and misanthropic worldviews, still had a certain charm to him and a reader almost couldn't help but feel for him, and there were even moments where he at least appeared to genuinely care. Michael certainly wasn't the blatant vile bastard that Juan Pablo Castel was in Sabato's "The Tunnel." However, as I say this, I am aware of the strong possibility that McKay may have just completely mind fucked his readers in that sense in a similar way to Nabokov. Although Michael is mentally disturbed, and he is absolutely in the wrong to be pursuing a 14 year old girl sexually/romantically, Heather, as the reader will learn over time, is not so innocent herself, actually being a rather fucked up individual. Quite a bit of the title character's behavior is not exactly dissimilar to Asami from Murakami's "Audition," although McKay takes that type of idea and heads in a different kind of direction with it in such a way that you probably won't see coming. There are some scenes in "Heather" that are shocking in their brutality and gruesomeness, but the novel also has it's fair share of humorous moments as well.
In addition to the pedophilia, other social topics the author satirizes or otherwise criticizes in this piece include, cancel culture, metoo, the "woke" generation, political correctness, feminism, MGTOW, incels, red pill, simps, modern technology, social media, mental illness, and general narcissism among modern people, all making for fascinating philosophical discussions.
One of the things G.C. McKay is adept at as a writer (as can be seen in both his novels), is utilizing storytelling devices that have been used countless times but finding his own ways of subverting them and somehow finding a way to make something original out of them, which I imagine is challenging for a writer in an era where everything has been done to death, but quite the talent for someone who can pull it off. For example, in "Fubar," McKay subverts the classic revenge story, whereas in "Heather," he does the same to the classic "hero's journey," as well as the noir femme fatale trope, in many cases taking a satirical approach to such themes.
Highly recommend this novel as well as other works by G.C. McKay!
March 20, 2021
So, the first thing I will say about this book is that it is not what it seems. You will read the summary and think you know what it’s going to be about, and then you will start reading it and still believe that you know where things are going, and then at some point you will be completely blindsided and sent spinning when you realize what is actually happening. I won’t give any more details because I think it’s important that what happens remains a surprise to the reader—as that’s part of the utter deliciousness of this story—but I will warn readers to be prepared to not take anything at face value. This is a twisty labyrinth kind of novel and it will definitely mess with your head. As someone who is a huge fan of books like House of Leaves and 1Q84, I deeply appreciated this aspect.
Beyond that, the book itself is just flat-out excellent. We start with a cast of seemingly ordinary characters in a seemingly ordinary coffee shop, but the writing style and the way we are so intimately shown the POV of the protagonist, Michael, immediately drew me in and had me addicted from the very first chapter. Michael is a character I can very much relate to because he’s an independent thinker, which means he doesn’t automatically go along with the ideologies and belief systems spoon-fed to him by popular culture and mass media. As a result, many of the more conventionally-minded people around him complain that he comes off as “pessimistic,” or “bitter,” but he’s actually a skeptic, and a true cynic, in the style of someone like George Carlin. He calls it as he sees it, even if that offends the people around him who are all-too-ready to be offended in this day and age. Through Michael’s eyes, we see the absurdity of our modern-day world, with everyone glued to the screen of their phone, and the more dysfunctional souls among us using technology like social media and the ability to instantly capture photographic evidence and send it to anyone, anywhere, at any time, all in the service of enhancing their own delusions and manipulations.
Early on we get allusions to Lolita by Nabokov and Wuthering Heights by Bronte, and the references to these two works were pure genius on the part of the author, because the careful reader can see echoes of both classics in this novel, but also how both works are turned on their head. It’s like the author pulled them apart, limb by limb, and then put them back together in a Frankenstein sort of way in the story of Heather. The final effect is stunning. Again, nothing is what it seems, and everything you thought you knew is called into question.
I think that’s what I loved best about this book, that it calls what you thought you knew into question. In my opinion, that’s something the very best works of transgressive fiction do. They push you to examine your own values and beliefs and ideas, and then further, to ask yourself WHY you hold those values and beliefs and ideas. Where did you get them from? Are they truly yours or are you just imitating what you see in your surrounding culture? Where are the limits? Who decides those limits? Are you really thinking for yourself, or just deluding yourself and parroting the party line? All interesting questions, and ones that arose again and again for me in the course of reading this novel.
The last thing I’ll say about this book is that it reminded me so much of the work of David Lynch, one of my favorite directors. In particular I was reminded of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and Lost Highway, two of my top picks out of his filmography. If you are also a fan of the beautifully weird Mr. Lynch, you’ll probably love this book too.
Beyond that, the book itself is just flat-out excellent. We start with a cast of seemingly ordinary characters in a seemingly ordinary coffee shop, but the writing style and the way we are so intimately shown the POV of the protagonist, Michael, immediately drew me in and had me addicted from the very first chapter. Michael is a character I can very much relate to because he’s an independent thinker, which means he doesn’t automatically go along with the ideologies and belief systems spoon-fed to him by popular culture and mass media. As a result, many of the more conventionally-minded people around him complain that he comes off as “pessimistic,” or “bitter,” but he’s actually a skeptic, and a true cynic, in the style of someone like George Carlin. He calls it as he sees it, even if that offends the people around him who are all-too-ready to be offended in this day and age. Through Michael’s eyes, we see the absurdity of our modern-day world, with everyone glued to the screen of their phone, and the more dysfunctional souls among us using technology like social media and the ability to instantly capture photographic evidence and send it to anyone, anywhere, at any time, all in the service of enhancing their own delusions and manipulations.
Early on we get allusions to Lolita by Nabokov and Wuthering Heights by Bronte, and the references to these two works were pure genius on the part of the author, because the careful reader can see echoes of both classics in this novel, but also how both works are turned on their head. It’s like the author pulled them apart, limb by limb, and then put them back together in a Frankenstein sort of way in the story of Heather. The final effect is stunning. Again, nothing is what it seems, and everything you thought you knew is called into question.
I think that’s what I loved best about this book, that it calls what you thought you knew into question. In my opinion, that’s something the very best works of transgressive fiction do. They push you to examine your own values and beliefs and ideas, and then further, to ask yourself WHY you hold those values and beliefs and ideas. Where did you get them from? Are they truly yours or are you just imitating what you see in your surrounding culture? Where are the limits? Who decides those limits? Are you really thinking for yourself, or just deluding yourself and parroting the party line? All interesting questions, and ones that arose again and again for me in the course of reading this novel.
The last thing I’ll say about this book is that it reminded me so much of the work of David Lynch, one of my favorite directors. In particular I was reminded of Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me, and Lost Highway, two of my top picks out of his filmography. If you are also a fan of the beautifully weird Mr. Lynch, you’ll probably love this book too.
January 9, 2021
Wtf did I just read?! Geez. It isn’t even the content of the book that was the issue for me, it’s the writing style and the random shit added in here. It just wasn’t for my tastes. The POV is all in Michael’s perspective and it seems like he’s just ranting about things half of the time while somewhat ‘retelling’ his story.
There’s a lot of trigger warnings:
-Underage girl (14) with a 35 year old man
-Necrophilia
-Suicide
-Threesome of 35 yr old dude with 14yr old girl AND another 14 year old girl without her knowing it was the 35 yr old dude
-Reference to a 5 year old girl seeing the 2 have sex in a park, then the 14yr old makes the younger girl approach and kisses her, then wipes her period blood mixed with cum over her lips (narrator states he isn’t sure this actually happened, but it’s still disturbing nonetheless)
There’s also so much back and forth between all of these characters it’s ridiculous. This definitely isn’t a romance but I was intrigued by the summary. It definitely isn’t anything like I thought it would be, it isn’t a love story, and the girl Heather was definitely manipulative and possibly messed up in the head... but it doesn’t excuse the guy for being creepy.
2⭐️ not for the content so much as it was hard to read this type of writing for me. Bleh.
Although I do have to say if you want to read this, better grab it from Amazon now because I have a feeling it might be banned later on.
There’s a lot of trigger warnings:
-Underage girl (14) with a 35 year old man
-Necrophilia
-Suicide
-Threesome of 35 yr old dude with 14yr old girl AND another 14 year old girl without her knowing it was the 35 yr old dude
-Reference to a 5 year old girl seeing the 2 have sex in a park, then the 14yr old makes the younger girl approach and kisses her, then wipes her period blood mixed with cum over her lips (narrator states he isn’t sure this actually happened, but it’s still disturbing nonetheless)
There’s also so much back and forth between all of these characters it’s ridiculous. This definitely isn’t a romance but I was intrigued by the summary. It definitely isn’t anything like I thought it would be, it isn’t a love story, and the girl Heather was definitely manipulative and possibly messed up in the head... but it doesn’t excuse the guy for being creepy.
2⭐️ not for the content so much as it was hard to read this type of writing for me. Bleh.
Although I do have to say if you want to read this, better grab it from Amazon now because I have a feeling it might be banned later on.
December 13, 2020
You are reading a timebomb. Tick, tick, tick BOOM!!!
Ever wonder how Wiley Coyote feels when he's strapped to a rocket, careening down a mountain toward the Roadrunner? That's what it's like taking a walk in Michael's shoes. A slow motion, out of order carpet bombing. From the very beginning you know what you're in for, but you don't look away. You are as curious as everyone else who deludes themselves into a state of moral perfection, when you have the same thirsty cracks in the clay, ready to absorb the perverse. Crumbling the facade. When you finish this, look in the mirror and admire the new lines you have acquired.
This book is a cleverly crafted take on a topic that has seen works of genius and over loaded shock. This is the perfect mix. If you think you're in for a basic story, you are sorely mistaken. If you think it's becoming predictable, you'll soon realize the mistake. If you are appalled, you haven't seen the worst of it yet. The best part is that it is completely believable.
Ever wonder how Wiley Coyote feels when he's strapped to a rocket, careening down a mountain toward the Roadrunner? That's what it's like taking a walk in Michael's shoes. A slow motion, out of order carpet bombing. From the very beginning you know what you're in for, but you don't look away. You are as curious as everyone else who deludes themselves into a state of moral perfection, when you have the same thirsty cracks in the clay, ready to absorb the perverse. Crumbling the facade. When you finish this, look in the mirror and admire the new lines you have acquired.
This book is a cleverly crafted take on a topic that has seen works of genius and over loaded shock. This is the perfect mix. If you think you're in for a basic story, you are sorely mistaken. If you think it's becoming predictable, you'll soon realize the mistake. If you are appalled, you haven't seen the worst of it yet. The best part is that it is completely believable.
January 7, 2021
I was kindly given a free copy of Heather from the author.
Heather, Heather, Heather.
Humorous, unexpected and painful like a bee sting.
This book is truly -and without doubt- a piece of art.
Heather is the first work I read of G.C. McKay. I find him to be a GENIUS in the way he constructed his novel; well written, well developed and has a way of absorbing the readers (if not repulsing them to the point of throwing away the book). The plot was like a roller-coaster, except it keeps speeding up and as it does, the seats turn on fire and everything burns down. But one must admit that there's beauty in destruction.
For the past couple of days, I've been going MAD because of Heather. I have SO MANY questions and I can't seem to find a sufficient answer to them. It's really overworking my brain.. Just why..? I read the reviews of the other readers and I was surprised to see that no one's asking WHY or WHAT or HOW.. I'm either very dumb and missed something or they are.. Or maybe I just can't accept a simple answer and I'm overthinking it too much.
Sadpun
Heather, Heather, Heather.
Humorous, unexpected and painful like a bee sting.
This book is truly -and without doubt- a piece of art.
Heather is the first work I read of G.C. McKay. I find him to be a GENIUS in the way he constructed his novel; well written, well developed and has a way of absorbing the readers (if not repulsing them to the point of throwing away the book). The plot was like a roller-coaster, except it keeps speeding up and as it does, the seats turn on fire and everything burns down. But one must admit that there's beauty in destruction.
For the past couple of days, I've been going MAD because of Heather. I have SO MANY questions and I can't seem to find a sufficient answer to them. It's really overworking my brain.. Just why..? I read the reviews of the other readers and I was surprised to see that no one's asking WHY or WHAT or HOW.. I'm either very dumb and missed something or they are.. Or maybe I just can't accept a simple answer and I'm overthinking it too much.
Sadpun
Read
January 25, 2021DNF.
I really hate DNFing this. I try not to DNF. I recieved an advanced reader copy from book sirens too but I can't waste my time on something that has me being angry at the book in not a fun way.
It's not the premise that bothers me. I have read my fair share of f'ed up content. It's the pov from a pretentious entitled asshole(the protagonist) I couldn't stomach this story being told from. In real life I'm kinda tired of entitled white men who have excuses for their bad behavior so that might be a reason for me being so turned off by the protagonist. I think if the character wasn't trying to be so profound and flowery with his words I might have been able to stomach it more.
Objectively the author can write but unfortunately I can't bring myself to read it at this time.
Other people have given it high ratings so it might appeal to some people especially if you are interested in getting into this type of person's thought process.
The dedication to girls whoever said "Hi, I'm legal" annoyed me and had me eye rolling from the get go too.
I really hate DNFing this. I try not to DNF. I recieved an advanced reader copy from book sirens too but I can't waste my time on something that has me being angry at the book in not a fun way.
It's not the premise that bothers me. I have read my fair share of f'ed up content. It's the pov from a pretentious entitled asshole(the protagonist) I couldn't stomach this story being told from. In real life I'm kinda tired of entitled white men who have excuses for their bad behavior so that might be a reason for me being so turned off by the protagonist. I think if the character wasn't trying to be so profound and flowery with his words I might have been able to stomach it more.
Objectively the author can write but unfortunately I can't bring myself to read it at this time.
Other people have given it high ratings so it might appeal to some people especially if you are interested in getting into this type of person's thought process.
The dedication to girls whoever said "Hi, I'm legal" annoyed me and had me eye rolling from the get go too.
June 30, 2021
OMG!!! Can someone please explain to me why more people are NOT talking about G.C. Mckay and Heather?! WOW!! Seriously, we all should be talking about this book!! He pushed boundaries where no other author has gone before!! I commend him for having the balls to do that but DANG!! Heather is so taboo!!!
While I was reading this very controversial book I wondered how G.C. Dreamed up such a storyline. Infact, in one point of the story he apologized for taking a break due to the subject matter getting to him. That was a first for me.
I will say that G.C. Has a way with words and is an incredible storyteller!
My mind had a hard time wrapping around the intimate scenes let alone reading them. I was just blown away by the content. Let’s just say I am an open minded reader but not this open minded!
The end of the book left me speechless with no words!! It was so sick, twisted, perverse, and mind blowing!! Dang G.C. You can really tell a story!
March 28, 2023
A book that forces itself on you and at times assaults you in every direction.
January 7, 2021
This was an interesting read as the blurb grabbed me and I had the idea it was going to be a rather edgy age-gap romance as the main female character is only 14 and then the main male character Michael is 35. However, it went deeper than I imagined as the book is written like a confessional and expose - all Michael's cards are on the table. The book is written from his perspective. Michael works in a coffee shop with what I can guess are females aged between 18- 30's. The one he is on most with is Seraphina who is 18 but seems pretty naive. Michael often flirts with her but when he sees Heather and Freya, we can see he likes his girls a bit younger - 14 to be exact. This book touches on Michael who in a way is a predator as he starts to have a secret sordid affair with Heather who started as a customer with her parents at the coffee shop. Heather is very promiscuous and a sexual person as we watch her go fluidly between Michael and then Freya. It was a confusing read at times and I do have to admit, I wanted to put it down in parts as felt a bit uncomfortable reading it due to Michael preying on the younger audience. If you do not like Dark books, taboo reads, and ones that push the boundaries off into the far distance - then do not read this book as this isn't for everyone. It does touch on hard, forbidden, and sometimes troubling topics - so be forewarned. Heather is definitely despite the cover a book that is an R18 Read.
December 14, 2020
Suave language.
We would’ve thought the sexual passion in a professed paedophile is utterly corrupted and became an anomaly, to the world full of societal prejudice and circumspect reserves. The anomaly becomes an anomaly only because we see it through the lens of a microscope---the magnifier permits us to see the flesh and blood without the camouflage of decorous skin.
The germ is still the same germ-- the primordial will and fervour that we ourselves often dismiss in quiet hours, is the same voluptuous force that shapes the wildest human dream chained to reasoning. The dream just intensifies and condenses.
In a pool of bathos and pathos saturated with bodily fluid, this same duality and deception shared by all humanity is conveyed in its full selfishness in “Heather”.
The mellifluous confession in the first three chapters, including the brilliant foreshadowing in chapter III which binds the symbolic unity in its all prophesy, paves the road leading to the sex-sodden human delirium. On one side of this road indeed grows thorns that are full of inconceivable madness, but on the other side of it there is that majestic crow poised on the edge of a darker precipice, truth-telling. Even the veil of the truth is only lifted in poetic and poignant brevity in Chapters like XXX or XLIX, the pang to which anyone who is coping with life without the light in the early stage of existence can relate, is subtly and artfully expressed.
The phallic mania is the symptom underlying that dubious, obscure consciousness which surrounds the inalienable and lonely human will. The emotion is isolated in a vacuum, yearning for resurrection, and channelled out in the extreme form in the ending of the book. We all would feel the need, with all the hope and fear, to hold on to that precious shadow we know is disappearing.
If the protagonist Michael is selfish, let him follow to its extreme, the extreme of selfishness we should all not back out once in a lifetime.
We would’ve thought the sexual passion in a professed paedophile is utterly corrupted and became an anomaly, to the world full of societal prejudice and circumspect reserves. The anomaly becomes an anomaly only because we see it through the lens of a microscope---the magnifier permits us to see the flesh and blood without the camouflage of decorous skin.
The germ is still the same germ-- the primordial will and fervour that we ourselves often dismiss in quiet hours, is the same voluptuous force that shapes the wildest human dream chained to reasoning. The dream just intensifies and condenses.
In a pool of bathos and pathos saturated with bodily fluid, this same duality and deception shared by all humanity is conveyed in its full selfishness in “Heather”.
The mellifluous confession in the first three chapters, including the brilliant foreshadowing in chapter III which binds the symbolic unity in its all prophesy, paves the road leading to the sex-sodden human delirium. On one side of this road indeed grows thorns that are full of inconceivable madness, but on the other side of it there is that majestic crow poised on the edge of a darker precipice, truth-telling. Even the veil of the truth is only lifted in poetic and poignant brevity in Chapters like XXX or XLIX, the pang to which anyone who is coping with life without the light in the early stage of existence can relate, is subtly and artfully expressed.
The phallic mania is the symptom underlying that dubious, obscure consciousness which surrounds the inalienable and lonely human will. The emotion is isolated in a vacuum, yearning for resurrection, and channelled out in the extreme form in the ending of the book. We all would feel the need, with all the hope and fear, to hold on to that precious shadow we know is disappearing.
If the protagonist Michael is selfish, let him follow to its extreme, the extreme of selfishness we should all not back out once in a lifetime.
June 3, 2021
Fucking Michael. We’ve all met this guy; a 30-something no-hoper who has done nothing with his life, has no redeemable qualities, is an absolute pain in the arse, yet thinks he has wit and intelligence beyond anyone else around him. The type of guy who believes every woman (or girl) fancies him, because why wouldn’t they? Herein lies the problem.
Heather walks into the coffee shop he works in with her parents, and Michael would lead you to believe it was a fatalistic coup de foudre, a destined meeting of souls which had been foretold before the beginning of time. In reality, it’s a fourteen year old out with her mum and dad, being served by a self-absorbed pervert.
And this is really interesting, as McKay uses the narrator’s voice as a justifier, showing us his feelings and letting us into his mind. He’s overwhelmed by this girl, and there’s very little in his thought processes which tells him his actions and feelings are wrong. Living the story in this way is confusing and fascinating in equal measure - in parts, due to Michael’s commentary, I completely forgot I was disgusted.
Of course, things escalate, and disgust is the only thing you will feel. At times the plot felt so far-fetched that I was convinced we were in the narrator’s dream or fantasy, and the only interaction he’d had with Heather was the ordering of a hot chocolate. Michael tells us frequently that this account will not include any details of his past life, so fantasy could still be the case, god knows I’d feel better if it was simply a daydream. My mind has been plagued with questions for the four days since I finished the novel.
Reading this feels like something forbidden, and it feels wrong. Although we know this shit happens all the time, none of us are comfortable talking about it. McKay has lifted the stone to show you the worms underneath, and although it’s horrific and unsettling, there’s something utterly intriguing and transfixing about it too.
I’ll be thinking about this one for a long while to come.
Heather walks into the coffee shop he works in with her parents, and Michael would lead you to believe it was a fatalistic coup de foudre, a destined meeting of souls which had been foretold before the beginning of time. In reality, it’s a fourteen year old out with her mum and dad, being served by a self-absorbed pervert.
And this is really interesting, as McKay uses the narrator’s voice as a justifier, showing us his feelings and letting us into his mind. He’s overwhelmed by this girl, and there’s very little in his thought processes which tells him his actions and feelings are wrong. Living the story in this way is confusing and fascinating in equal measure - in parts, due to Michael’s commentary, I completely forgot I was disgusted.
Of course, things escalate, and disgust is the only thing you will feel. At times the plot felt so far-fetched that I was convinced we were in the narrator’s dream or fantasy, and the only interaction he’d had with Heather was the ordering of a hot chocolate. Michael tells us frequently that this account will not include any details of his past life, so fantasy could still be the case, god knows I’d feel better if it was simply a daydream. My mind has been plagued with questions for the four days since I finished the novel.
Reading this feels like something forbidden, and it feels wrong. Although we know this shit happens all the time, none of us are comfortable talking about it. McKay has lifted the stone to show you the worms underneath, and although it’s horrific and unsettling, there’s something utterly intriguing and transfixing about it too.
I’ll be thinking about this one for a long while to come.
March 9, 2022
Heather by GC Mckay is an absolute load to unpack. A story of fateless obsession in our closeted culture, it is a deep dive into the psyche of Michael, a 35 year old narcissistic paedophile, in love with a 14 year old nymphomaniac, Heather.
The beginning of the book was not overwhelming compared to what I expected- an ordinary cafe, frivolous teenagers, an independent thinking narrotor- caressing over the promiscuity that was to follow. Michael's thoughts are cynical, and contrast popular opinion which made him very interesting to me and I am ashamed to admit that I felt sympathetic towards him more than a few times.
When the plot developed and the characters began to slip down the rabit hole, as the relationship between Heather and Michael actualised, I felt blind sided by the dirt that was to follow. I do question the realism behind the shocking horniness of a 14 year old and wonder if it was a step too far.
What stood out to me what were the nudges to the reader- to think about why we accept the ways of the world the way that they are. I found the continuous references to woke culture amusing and after looking at it through the words of McKay, I wonder why it has taken so long for it to be said. However, I was underwhelmed by the writing style, but being a 1st person narrative, I do wonder if this was purposeful to reflect Michael's botched head.
I found it interesting that the most obvious comparison of Lolita had been explicitly mentioned within the book, fully knowing that the connection will be made by the readers. While the paedophilic theme may be the same, I felt that the manipulation angle is reversed. Lolita was naive orphan who manipulated, gaslit, and in a helpless situation that she couldn't escape, with Humbert Humbert as the closest thing she had to a guardian. Heather, on the other hand, initiated the forbidden relationship, being fully aware of the legal and social implications on Michael- which particular clearly mentions throughout the story. However, how much of either narrative is a real reflection of the situation is debatable with both narcissistic narrators being far from reliable.
Would I recommend this book to someone on the Internet? Sure.
Would I recommend this book to someone I know? No.
The beginning of the book was not overwhelming compared to what I expected- an ordinary cafe, frivolous teenagers, an independent thinking narrotor- caressing over the promiscuity that was to follow. Michael's thoughts are cynical, and contrast popular opinion which made him very interesting to me and I am ashamed to admit that I felt sympathetic towards him more than a few times.
When the plot developed and the characters began to slip down the rabit hole, as the relationship between Heather and Michael actualised, I felt blind sided by the dirt that was to follow. I do question the realism behind the shocking horniness of a 14 year old and wonder if it was a step too far.
What stood out to me what were the nudges to the reader- to think about why we accept the ways of the world the way that they are. I found the continuous references to woke culture amusing and after looking at it through the words of McKay, I wonder why it has taken so long for it to be said. However, I was underwhelmed by the writing style, but being a 1st person narrative, I do wonder if this was purposeful to reflect Michael's botched head.
I found it interesting that the most obvious comparison of Lolita had been explicitly mentioned within the book, fully knowing that the connection will be made by the readers. While the paedophilic theme may be the same, I felt that the manipulation angle is reversed. Lolita was naive orphan who manipulated, gaslit, and in a helpless situation that she couldn't escape, with Humbert Humbert as the closest thing she had to a guardian. Heather, on the other hand, initiated the forbidden relationship, being fully aware of the legal and social implications on Michael- which particular clearly mentions throughout the story. However, how much of either narrative is a real reflection of the situation is debatable with both narcissistic narrators being far from reliable.
Would I recommend this book to someone on the Internet? Sure.
Would I recommend this book to someone I know? No.
December 12, 2020
This is a truly dark piece, that asks really uncomfortable questions that stew in your mind throughout its whole read (maybe even after) and that forces you to examine it closer from different angles, from what it is, then from what you think it should be and yet leaves you in a really awkward position. But still with some beautiful elements that make you enjoy it somehow.
The descriptions are just breathtaking, there’s a particular metaphor in it that keeps the book altogether, in my opinion, and helps you understand it in a deeper level. McKay truly has a way with words, if that even means something in this day and age. It has also some satirical elements that make you question your sanity (or maybe I’m wrong and there’s actually something wrong with my sanity and I shouldn’t have laughed)
I think it also explores victimhood in a really interesting way, the fact that you can conveniently adapt your situation (at least in your mind) and not become one, instead see everybody around you as one of them. Which I think is something that you can see throughout the whole piece, and not only with victimhood but with a bunch other human traits I’d say, and how you can convince yourself that things are a certain way. The way you want them to be and not really what they truly are, and that’s pretty much how I would describe the relationship Michael and Heather have. With a beauty and attraction that blinds you from all the red flags, maybe even a desire, a longing from the other person that you think it might help you get something.
The radical rants felt just real and genuine, not to mention funny, and well, maybe not that radical after all. I think it just mocks behaviours that go unnoticed because of how common they are nowadays. The way it portrays the modern age is just really accurate and helps you confirm how everything is pretty much full of bullshit.
After reading Fubar and Chameleon (both pieces which I loved, by the way) I could really tell that McKay has a really particular style and it was something that I could easily recognise in Heather. Although the three pieces were pretty different in themselves there were certainly elements that persist in all of them. Maybe the fact that McKay tends to explore the worst and most fucked up behaviours in humanity and puts a really critical element into it, causing you to come closer in a way you never thought you would, leaving you with a repulsive uncomfortable feeling but also with some sort of fascination that you can’t really explain.
I would describe this read as grim and brutal. Just by getting to the ending this feeling of loss arose in me. And although it provokes all of the sensations I mentioned earlier I really enjoyed it and I would totally recommend it, and if you are still not sure about that, I have to admit that it somehow made me want to wear dungarees.
The descriptions are just breathtaking, there’s a particular metaphor in it that keeps the book altogether, in my opinion, and helps you understand it in a deeper level. McKay truly has a way with words, if that even means something in this day and age. It has also some satirical elements that make you question your sanity (or maybe I’m wrong and there’s actually something wrong with my sanity and I shouldn’t have laughed)
I think it also explores victimhood in a really interesting way, the fact that you can conveniently adapt your situation (at least in your mind) and not become one, instead see everybody around you as one of them. Which I think is something that you can see throughout the whole piece, and not only with victimhood but with a bunch other human traits I’d say, and how you can convince yourself that things are a certain way. The way you want them to be and not really what they truly are, and that’s pretty much how I would describe the relationship Michael and Heather have. With a beauty and attraction that blinds you from all the red flags, maybe even a desire, a longing from the other person that you think it might help you get something.
The radical rants felt just real and genuine, not to mention funny, and well, maybe not that radical after all. I think it just mocks behaviours that go unnoticed because of how common they are nowadays. The way it portrays the modern age is just really accurate and helps you confirm how everything is pretty much full of bullshit.
After reading Fubar and Chameleon (both pieces which I loved, by the way) I could really tell that McKay has a really particular style and it was something that I could easily recognise in Heather. Although the three pieces were pretty different in themselves there were certainly elements that persist in all of them. Maybe the fact that McKay tends to explore the worst and most fucked up behaviours in humanity and puts a really critical element into it, causing you to come closer in a way you never thought you would, leaving you with a repulsive uncomfortable feeling but also with some sort of fascination that you can’t really explain.
I would describe this read as grim and brutal. Just by getting to the ending this feeling of loss arose in me. And although it provokes all of the sensations I mentioned earlier I really enjoyed it and I would totally recommend it, and if you are still not sure about that, I have to admit that it somehow made me want to wear dungarees.
December 27, 2020
This is a tough one for me to rate. The book is very well written and the author has their own distinct style. However, the subject matter and content had me feeling ill at several points, so while that makes me want to rate the book a bit lower, I suppose the fact that it makes me feel that strongly means it was a good book.
I do not have any "triggers" as a reader, but this one was definitely tough to read. I would strongly suggest adding trigger warnings at the beginning of this book (even though the synopsis acts as its own warning regarding the content).
I did find that I was eager to see where this story was going and I finished the book within a day. I can definitely say that this book provided the reader with a very different perspective - instead of seeing things from the view of the victim, we were giving a glimpse in the psyche of the pedophile. While his thought process was messed up and vile, I did like getting to see things from his perspective.
The book definitely went in a direction that I did not anticipate, but I think it was a good twist. It really tied in some of the side characters and brought the story full circle.
I would only recommend this book to people that do not have triggers related to the content and that can handle reading such a difficult subject matter. I very nearly stopped reading after one particular scene but decided to finish so that I could complete the book and provide a fair review.
While I would say this book was not necessarily for me, I only felt it fair to rate it on the author's writing style and skill.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
I do not have any "triggers" as a reader, but this one was definitely tough to read. I would strongly suggest adding trigger warnings at the beginning of this book (even though the synopsis acts as its own warning regarding the content).
I did find that I was eager to see where this story was going and I finished the book within a day. I can definitely say that this book provided the reader with a very different perspective - instead of seeing things from the view of the victim, we were giving a glimpse in the psyche of the pedophile. While his thought process was messed up and vile, I did like getting to see things from his perspective.
The book definitely went in a direction that I did not anticipate, but I think it was a good twist. It really tied in some of the side characters and brought the story full circle.
I would only recommend this book to people that do not have triggers related to the content and that can handle reading such a difficult subject matter. I very nearly stopped reading after one particular scene but decided to finish so that I could complete the book and provide a fair review.
While I would say this book was not necessarily for me, I only felt it fair to rate it on the author's writing style and skill.
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.
June 14, 2024
This is actually the worst book I have read in my entire life. Congratulations.
October 6, 2021
The minute I finished this book, I lit a cigarette. I hadn’t smoked in six months.
“Heather” is twisted and dark and even grotesque at times, and I loved it. Not entirely sure what that says about me as a person but, the best advice I can give anyone willing to commit themselves to the very last page is to read with an open mind. Underneath all the weirdness and psychological stuff, there lies beautiful writing and sentence structure. Mckay’s talent is undeniable and this was definitely unlike any other book I’ve ever read. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
“Heather” is twisted and dark and even grotesque at times, and I loved it. Not entirely sure what that says about me as a person but, the best advice I can give anyone willing to commit themselves to the very last page is to read with an open mind. Underneath all the weirdness and psychological stuff, there lies beautiful writing and sentence structure. Mckay’s talent is undeniable and this was definitely unlike any other book I’ve ever read. I don’t think I’ll ever forget it.
Read
March 25, 2021In one moment the book goes from being an incely recounting of an ephebophile’s lust to becoming a Maldororian vision of blood and ravens and overt pedophilia (which up until now the author has tried to keep covert).
This rapid transition of what seems to be an attempt at an autobiographically submerged gritty realism into an unrestrained, dreamlike sex sequence is so at odds with the past 50 or so pages that one can’t help but feel rushed into some sort of unanticipated nightmare.
This would perhaps be justifiable if the tone was consistent with the rest of the narrative. While I admittedly struggle to read the book without a repulsed, kneejerk moralistic indignance, it is not merely the content that makes the scene so repugnant.
I do not think that MacKay rushed into this sequence in order to assault the reader before they knew what was happening. This reads more like the handiwork of someone who up until this point has been exercising incredible restraint, withholding their own pathological fantasies from the story, but can no longer hold back.
Like many pathological sexual or violent offenders, GC McKay goes further than he had intended, not only finally indulging in a graphic scene between a minor teenager and the flimsily disguised autobiographical character, but going so far as to drag a pre-school aged child into the mix. If this is an aesthetic choice (and not an insight into the roaring pathology of the author) it is a base one, redolent of the same sophomoric shock value one might discover in a GG Allin interview or a Sam Hyde sketch.
The author, I’m sure, would like to situate himself next to Bataille or Lautreamont. But unlike these visionaries McKay provides us with no higher truth, no occult atmosphere to hold these atrocious spectacles in place. Perhaps McKay is unaware that Bataille, Lautreamont, and Nabokov were all rigidly principled, the latter two even atavistic moralists. Even the anime director Hiroshi Harada, who frequently confronts the topic of child abuse with lurid, terroristic sequences can justify the subject matter with the consistency it bears in relation to the rest of the films’ jagged and horrific ambiance. Transgressive fiction is not just anything which transgresses. The art of a piece is precisely what separates it from pornography.
McKay, on the contrary, subverts the transgressive nature of the narrative by (albeit, self-admittedly) abandoning, to use his words, “the flow of the tale.” Though we might observe he interrupts this flow more frequently than even he realizes. It is not so much the brief interludes as it is the fluctuation between perfunctory incel-ish ramblings and narcissistic erotic indulgence. (These ramblings, by the way, unlike the inner dialogue Of Lolita’s Humbert, reveal nothing perspicacious about the character’s psychology, nor do they string together any richness of texture--they are merely the thought-vomit of a pallid Redditor)
If this is not a less subdued version of the author himself, if this is not some degenerate fantasy glossed over with pretentious, blackpill vitriol, then it is a caricature of incel-coomers. But Heather hardly seems an attempt to parody 4chan addicts. The protagonist hates modern technology, going so far as to not own a phone, and we can’t help but feel the author is writing from a personal place when writing down some of Michael’s self-righteous musings about modernity. The character smiles with parental pride when his 14 year old lover refers to his SJW co-worker (who actually is a contrived caricature) as a feminazi.
Naturally, it’s hard to imagine half the things coming out of Heather’s mouth as something a 14 year old girl--or even a full grown reactionary woman--would ever say. Why does this 14 year old have the dialect of some mole-person redditor, glued to his computer screen in the dungeon of his mother’s basement?
In the end, I can't tell if Heather is a failed attempt at transgressive literary fiction or smut designed for people who can't read the room of the times. It's a disappointment because I am a big fan of the author's Youtube channel and think he seems to be an insightful fellow with some real gumption to his character. I'd be interested to check out FUBAR and see if it has more to offer.
Either way, I finished the book, so that says something about it. While personally I find it to be a bit too questionable in its artistic integrity, it doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. It's short and just awful enough to see through to the ending. All in all a mildly entertaining one day read if you can stomach it. After all, who here can say they haven't spent more time watching contemptibly stupid Youtube videos or finished the last several GoT season?
At least give the dude's Youtube channel a peaky-poo so this hot boozy burnout can keep drinking wine and talking about interesting books.
Cheers.
This rapid transition of what seems to be an attempt at an autobiographically submerged gritty realism into an unrestrained, dreamlike sex sequence is so at odds with the past 50 or so pages that one can’t help but feel rushed into some sort of unanticipated nightmare.
This would perhaps be justifiable if the tone was consistent with the rest of the narrative. While I admittedly struggle to read the book without a repulsed, kneejerk moralistic indignance, it is not merely the content that makes the scene so repugnant.
I do not think that MacKay rushed into this sequence in order to assault the reader before they knew what was happening. This reads more like the handiwork of someone who up until this point has been exercising incredible restraint, withholding their own pathological fantasies from the story, but can no longer hold back.
Like many pathological sexual or violent offenders, GC McKay goes further than he had intended, not only finally indulging in a graphic scene between a minor teenager and the flimsily disguised autobiographical character, but going so far as to drag a pre-school aged child into the mix. If this is an aesthetic choice (and not an insight into the roaring pathology of the author) it is a base one, redolent of the same sophomoric shock value one might discover in a GG Allin interview or a Sam Hyde sketch.
The author, I’m sure, would like to situate himself next to Bataille or Lautreamont. But unlike these visionaries McKay provides us with no higher truth, no occult atmosphere to hold these atrocious spectacles in place. Perhaps McKay is unaware that Bataille, Lautreamont, and Nabokov were all rigidly principled, the latter two even atavistic moralists. Even the anime director Hiroshi Harada, who frequently confronts the topic of child abuse with lurid, terroristic sequences can justify the subject matter with the consistency it bears in relation to the rest of the films’ jagged and horrific ambiance. Transgressive fiction is not just anything which transgresses. The art of a piece is precisely what separates it from pornography.
McKay, on the contrary, subverts the transgressive nature of the narrative by (albeit, self-admittedly) abandoning, to use his words, “the flow of the tale.” Though we might observe he interrupts this flow more frequently than even he realizes. It is not so much the brief interludes as it is the fluctuation between perfunctory incel-ish ramblings and narcissistic erotic indulgence. (These ramblings, by the way, unlike the inner dialogue Of Lolita’s Humbert, reveal nothing perspicacious about the character’s psychology, nor do they string together any richness of texture--they are merely the thought-vomit of a pallid Redditor)
If this is not a less subdued version of the author himself, if this is not some degenerate fantasy glossed over with pretentious, blackpill vitriol, then it is a caricature of incel-coomers. But Heather hardly seems an attempt to parody 4chan addicts. The protagonist hates modern technology, going so far as to not own a phone, and we can’t help but feel the author is writing from a personal place when writing down some of Michael’s self-righteous musings about modernity. The character smiles with parental pride when his 14 year old lover refers to his SJW co-worker (who actually is a contrived caricature) as a feminazi.
Naturally, it’s hard to imagine half the things coming out of Heather’s mouth as something a 14 year old girl--or even a full grown reactionary woman--would ever say. Why does this 14 year old have the dialect of some mole-person redditor, glued to his computer screen in the dungeon of his mother’s basement?
In the end, I can't tell if Heather is a failed attempt at transgressive literary fiction or smut designed for people who can't read the room of the times. It's a disappointment because I am a big fan of the author's Youtube channel and think he seems to be an insightful fellow with some real gumption to his character. I'd be interested to check out FUBAR and see if it has more to offer.
Either way, I finished the book, so that says something about it. While personally I find it to be a bit too questionable in its artistic integrity, it doesn't mean you shouldn't read it. It's short and just awful enough to see through to the ending. All in all a mildly entertaining one day read if you can stomach it. After all, who here can say they haven't spent more time watching contemptibly stupid Youtube videos or finished the last several GoT season?
At least give the dude's Youtube channel a peaky-poo so this hot boozy burnout can keep drinking wine and talking about interesting books.
Cheers.
July 7, 2021
If a novel's about a guy of 35+ having an affair with a girl of 14, it's hard not to think immediately of Lolita. And it's even harder not to think of Lolita if the author clearly wants to position his work as a kind of Lolita-story - enough to think of the fact that the protagonist, Michael, working in a bookstore café, recommends Lolita to the 14-year-old Heather when they first meet in the café (and Heather likes the book, too).
Still, in this case, it might be better if the novel didn't invite comparisons to Lolita, and it might be better if the name of Lolita didn't come up at all - as the references to Nabokov's work make it all too clear that Heather simply doesn't compare. And it's OK that it doesn't compare, of course; what's not so OK (for me, personally) is that this novel is pure trash/exploitation fiction - which is something I didn't expect.
When I was approached by the author with the offer/request to review this book, he mentioned that this is a work of transgressive fiction - with which I'm more than fine, however, in this case, I felt that all the transgressive elements of the story (transgressive sex, pedophilia, cannibalism, necrophilia, rampant violence, etc.) mainly serve the purpose of hiding the fact that the text itself is... weak.
I wondered about why it's weak.
Hm.
For example.
1. Too many fucking exclamation marks! But really! Which is always suspicious in a literary work! Michael's first person singular narration, richly decorated with exclamation marks, creates the impression that I'm reading the text of a horny teenage boy who watched too much porn and is now recounting his high-school fantasies or experiences. And then Heather kissed me! The world turned upside down with me! But I knew that this couldn't go on like this! (I'm deliberately not looking for examples from the necrophiliac-cannibal-etc. parts.)
And I can well imagine that Michael's style is a deliberately made infantile, in order to highlight how he (like Humbert Humbert) is an essentially tragic character, emotionally stuck somewhere on the verge of adulthood.
However.
2. The story, and Michael's character are hanging in the air. Michael's past is shrouded in mystery, and all we learn is that at the age of 18, he had sex with a girl of 14, which technically or maybe also realistically makes him a pedophile, but no - simply based on this I don't feel that I'm there "in a kingdom by the sea", and I don't feel the depth of Michael's being stuck at the end of childhood - all I feel is that I'm facing a rather contrived plot device, and a bit of laziness from the author: after all, isn't it much easier to make the narrator say: "I don't want to talk about my past" than to come up with a background and motivation that can be believed?
And speaking about backgrounds, motivations, or simply about the story...
3. I don't know where the story goes wrong. It starts in a smart, funny, disturbing way - what with this loser Michael working in a café with a bunch of barely adult, very woke, very manipulatively me-too young women, with whom they mutually despise and scare each other. The setup is more than interesting, and ripe with possibilities. But then Heather comes along, and she, being 14, isn't yet a member of the liberal-ultrafeminist sisterhood that populates the café - no, she's still oh-so-pure, but at the same time oh-so-filthy, and she transforms from a shy teenager sharing a first tentative kiss with someone to a hardened, sadistic organizer of orgies within the work of what feels like minutes. How the hell did this happen? Did I miss some chapters? I don't think so - I have to conclude that there's really no logic to the development of the story, and the latter sections of the novel feel like a bunch of random scenes written with the sole aim to make it all as gory as possible. And gory it is, oh yes. I can't decide, though, if all this is deliberate - the story, the gore, the sex, the transgression - it all feels aimless to me. Is that the point? Perhaps it is. In that case, I'm missing it.
Still, in this case, it might be better if the novel didn't invite comparisons to Lolita, and it might be better if the name of Lolita didn't come up at all - as the references to Nabokov's work make it all too clear that Heather simply doesn't compare. And it's OK that it doesn't compare, of course; what's not so OK (for me, personally) is that this novel is pure trash/exploitation fiction - which is something I didn't expect.
When I was approached by the author with the offer/request to review this book, he mentioned that this is a work of transgressive fiction - with which I'm more than fine, however, in this case, I felt that all the transgressive elements of the story (transgressive sex, pedophilia, cannibalism, necrophilia, rampant violence, etc.) mainly serve the purpose of hiding the fact that the text itself is... weak.
I wondered about why it's weak.
Hm.
For example.
1. Too many fucking exclamation marks! But really! Which is always suspicious in a literary work! Michael's first person singular narration, richly decorated with exclamation marks, creates the impression that I'm reading the text of a horny teenage boy who watched too much porn and is now recounting his high-school fantasies or experiences. And then Heather kissed me! The world turned upside down with me! But I knew that this couldn't go on like this! (I'm deliberately not looking for examples from the necrophiliac-cannibal-etc. parts.)
And I can well imagine that Michael's style is a deliberately made infantile, in order to highlight how he (like Humbert Humbert) is an essentially tragic character, emotionally stuck somewhere on the verge of adulthood.
However.
2. The story, and Michael's character are hanging in the air. Michael's past is shrouded in mystery, and all we learn is that at the age of 18, he had sex with a girl of 14, which technically or maybe also realistically makes him a pedophile, but no - simply based on this I don't feel that I'm there "in a kingdom by the sea", and I don't feel the depth of Michael's being stuck at the end of childhood - all I feel is that I'm facing a rather contrived plot device, and a bit of laziness from the author: after all, isn't it much easier to make the narrator say: "I don't want to talk about my past" than to come up with a background and motivation that can be believed?
And speaking about backgrounds, motivations, or simply about the story...
3. I don't know where the story goes wrong. It starts in a smart, funny, disturbing way - what with this loser Michael working in a café with a bunch of barely adult, very woke, very manipulatively me-too young women, with whom they mutually despise and scare each other. The setup is more than interesting, and ripe with possibilities. But then Heather comes along, and she, being 14, isn't yet a member of the liberal-ultrafeminist sisterhood that populates the café - no, she's still oh-so-pure, but at the same time oh-so-filthy, and she transforms from a shy teenager sharing a first tentative kiss with someone to a hardened, sadistic organizer of orgies within the work of what feels like minutes. How the hell did this happen? Did I miss some chapters? I don't think so - I have to conclude that there's really no logic to the development of the story, and the latter sections of the novel feel like a bunch of random scenes written with the sole aim to make it all as gory as possible. And gory it is, oh yes. I can't decide, though, if all this is deliberate - the story, the gore, the sex, the transgression - it all feels aimless to me. Is that the point? Perhaps it is. In that case, I'm missing it.
December 19, 2020
This story is the story of Michael Harlow. He is a barista in a café inside a bookstore, and a rumor is going around saying that he is a pedophile. He then meets Heather Loralie. He describes her as the perfect girl for him. Just one problem, Heather is 14 years old.
Heather is the first book I read by this author, and I have to say that I enjoyed the writing style. I enjoyed my time reading Heather. It was a short book that I couldn't put down.
I feel like Michael's character was really layered and developed even though we don't know anything about his back story. The author writes to make you feel sympathy for Michael, and it works, at first. But, as the story progresses, Micheal's thoughts and behavior were getting darker and darker to the point where it was hard to read. Micheal thinks he is the victim and blames everyone but himself.
My problem with the book was Heather. She was described as a sweet young girl, but we never really see that aspect of her. We never get to know her when she's supposed to be innocent. So, we cannot see the full development of her character. When we actually get to know her, she came off as mature and not innocent at all. We also never got to know her as a person, but I feel like that is actually the whole point of her character. He is attracted to the idea of her, what she represents more than anything.
Heather is the first book I read by this author, and I have to say that I enjoyed the writing style. I enjoyed my time reading Heather. It was a short book that I couldn't put down.
I feel like Michael's character was really layered and developed even though we don't know anything about his back story. The author writes to make you feel sympathy for Michael, and it works, at first. But, as the story progresses, Micheal's thoughts and behavior were getting darker and darker to the point where it was hard to read. Micheal thinks he is the victim and blames everyone but himself.
My problem with the book was Heather. She was described as a sweet young girl, but we never really see that aspect of her. We never get to know her when she's supposed to be innocent. So, we cannot see the full development of her character. When we actually get to know her, she came off as mature and not innocent at all. We also never got to know her as a person, but I feel like that is actually the whole point of her character. He is attracted to the idea of her, what she represents more than anything.
June 20, 2022
YOU SHOULD READ HEATHER
BECAUSE THERE YOU WILL FIND:
1) Michael. (Kiddie-diddler and our protagonist, sadly)
2) Extra horny teens. (No, really, its porn-tier horniness)
3) Lolita reference as blunt as a head trauma.
4) A lot of edgy, pseudo-intellectual monologues. (It more likely, that author vents and spills out his frustration towards the world, but it just a theory)
5) Internet Free Zone! (Seriously, wtf McKay? Perhaps unreliable narrator is in effect, but Michael have no good reason to be afraid of online spaces. I am sure you did your research and you surely know how important a role does Internet plays for a modern day paedophile. You have crashed my hopes that Chris Hansen could be an antagonist *sobs*)
6) Shock value! (It doesn't have a point other than to be shocking, though)
7) Emotions. (Most human observations, touches and behaviors are described in such fine details that it somewhat feels realistic and sometimes relatable, even. Good job!)
8) Deus ex machina. (Debatable, but I think our main character is being too lucky at the end)
9) Twisty plot twist. (Final reveal saved this book for me, so avoid spoilers at all cost. I only can compare this to the plot twist from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, only ending of Heather is not as cool)
10) OINK MOTHERFOKING OINK
BECAUSE THERE YOU WILL FIND:
1) Michael. (Kiddie-diddler and our protagonist, sadly)
2) Extra horny teens. (No, really, its porn-tier horniness)
3) Lolita reference as blunt as a head trauma.
4) A lot of edgy, pseudo-intellectual monologues. (It more likely, that author vents and spills out his frustration towards the world, but it just a theory)
5) Internet Free Zone! (Seriously, wtf McKay? Perhaps unreliable narrator is in effect, but Michael have no good reason to be afraid of online spaces. I am sure you did your research and you surely know how important a role does Internet plays for a modern day paedophile. You have crashed my hopes that Chris Hansen could be an antagonist *sobs*)
6) Shock value! (It doesn't have a point other than to be shocking, though)
7) Emotions. (Most human observations, touches and behaviors are described in such fine details that it somewhat feels realistic and sometimes relatable, even. Good job!)
8) Deus ex machina. (Debatable, but I think our main character is being too lucky at the end)
9) Twisty plot twist. (Final reveal saved this book for me, so avoid spoilers at all cost. I only can compare this to the plot twist from The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, only ending of Heather is not as cool)
10) OINK MOTHERFOKING OINK
January 24, 2021
"Heather" by G.C Mckay, tells the story of a middle-aged man named Michael Harrow, who works a day to day job at a cafe filled with young and underaged women. Rumors go around that Michael is a so-called "Paedophile" and while trying to keep his presence unnoticed, a young underaged girl by the name of Heather appears in front of him one day. Immediately he begins to feel intense lustful emotions for Heather which heavily arouses him, as she also portrays similar feelings. Eventually, they end up falling for one another, which leads Michael into being forced to keep this affair a forbidden secret. From then on the story begins to unfold its self from its intriguing yet provocative occurrences. It is easily one of the most controversial novels I have ever read, but it has purpose and meaning. Some of the incidents in the story left me completely mortified, yet due to Mckay’s excellent style of writing, I could not stop reading. Michael Harrow is a character who is brilliantly crafted, and as repulsive and deceiving as he is, you cannot help but feel some type of empathy towards him, not in a sense of understanding and approving his intentions, but simply understanding his sick and lost mental state of mind. Funny as it is, he is far from the worst character in the story, as there are many others who are are some of the most awful individuals ever written, full of ignorance and completely narcissistic. While there does remain one character named Seraphina who is easily the most redemptive and likable character, due to her confused yet innocent traits. Mckay's character Michael speaks heavily throughout the story about his hatred towards modern technology and also about the perplexing simplicity that seems to linger through the minds of the people surrounding him. He is a well-read man who finds himself in captive of the simpletons around him who are all selfish and unaware of the undeniably horrific state the world their living in is in. Harrow is an individual that is stuck in a permanent existential-crisis-like state. Oddly enough, the story had me laughing at moments in which I immediately afterward felt a sense of guilt for laughing at such a provocative subject matter, which gives me the insight to believe that Mckay has the potential and talent to manipulate his readers into swirling them around with emotions that leave them intrigued. Furthermore, Mckay goes on further to mention and deeply describe the similarities sex and death have with one another, and the concept that rebirth and death have a strong connection with sex. If you enjoy reading the works of Georges Bataille, Bret Easton Ellis, Vladimir Nabavok, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, & Marquis De Sade, then I highly recommend you read this book, because, from my belief, this story was highly inspired by those writers. G.C. Mckay has a relationship with words like not many modern writers do, it is quite noticeable that he choices each and every word with his complete effort and thought. I give the book a 5/5, one of the greatest pieces of modern transgressive literature I have read.
September 30, 2024
Pollution: A Gritty Dive into the Abyss
I'd waited a long time for this book. The author, someone I'd followed on You-Tube, had sent it to me directly, which felt pretty cool - like some underground literary handoff. l'd only checked out one of his audiobooks before, but, to be honest, it was a trainwreck in terms of production. Seven hours of a guy talking through what I can only assume was a potato for a microphone. I mean, c'mon
—If you're going to vomit out an audio ejaculation for 7 whole hours, at least make it sound halfway decent. You could even think that could make you a bit skeptical about his writing, right?
Anyway, I started reading this. And... WOW.
From the first page, you get slammed with some seriously raw transgressive fiction. Like, real transgressive. The kind that makes you pause, question your moral compass, and wonder, "What the hell am I reading?" The opening scene hits you in the face — a pedophile's inner monologue. Yeah, it's uncomfortable.
Not uncomfortable because you want to compare yourself to the character or anything like that. It's just raw. You think,
"Oh, so this is going to be another Lolita story, right?" But you quickly realize that's not it at all. It's not even playing in the same league as Lolita or any of the other sanitized, well-packaged "taboo" fiction you've read.
As you dig deeper, the book shifts gears. You get pulled into these disturbing moments, and, at least for me, there was one particular scene that, to my surprise, made me hard. I’m not saying I jerked off or anything, but yeah, it got to me, and no, that's not something I'm ashamed to admit here. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's a book that hits your body as much as your mind, stirring reactions you didn't expect. I hadn't gotten that worked up in a while, so it stood out to me. But that's part of the draw - it pulls no punches. There’s no hiding behind metaphor or artistic flourish here. It's gritty, primal, and you either get dragged along for the ride or you walk away disgusted.
There are quotes that really stuck with me, too:
“The windows through which we see other people are so often tainted by how we ourselves want to be seen from the other side. Perspective is a hopeless spectacle, where, regardless of your viewpoint, you're only ever kaleidoscoping backwards, losing all colour as you spiral into an ever-darkening tunnel.”
“Smearing my own name, becoming the most colossal creep they'd ever known, would put me into the realm of the shunned and consequently unseen. For man knows of no greater punishment than that of exile.”
Just great language, such a joy to read:
“Plumes of smoke released from Heather's lips in long streams as she puffed away on a cigarette, her demeanour in mimicry of a femme fatale, inside the film noir remake of my worst nightmare. Just as the notion of potentially crossing the road without her noticing us dashed through my mind, since Heather's countenance appeared lost in smoke, her eyes darted through the opaque mist straight into mine, locking between the centre of Seraphina and I, then jerked to the bottom V of our holding hands.”
And then there was the ending. Man, the way this thing wraps up. I was carried away by the story at the end so I read till late night and fell asleep by the last page. So, I am laying in bed, one hand glides down to my pants, as a more of an instinctive, automatic movement. Right? Except this time, something was different. My hand came back wet, and I realized I wasn't just touching myself in the usual, half-conscious way. No, this book had reached in and yanked at something inside me that had been dormant for years. I hadn't felt like that in 15 or more years. That's when it hit me - this book had been inside me all along.
It wasn't just a story I read. It was a part of me, something l'd carried in the back of my head all this time, just waiting for the right spark to set it loose again.
Pollution. That's what it is. Not just the book's content, but what it does to you.
It gets inside your head, leaves a mark, and you're never quite the same after.
And for that, I'm thankful. It's not a book for everyone - hell, maybe not for most people - but for me, it's unforgettable.
I'd waited a long time for this book. The author, someone I'd followed on You-Tube, had sent it to me directly, which felt pretty cool - like some underground literary handoff. l'd only checked out one of his audiobooks before, but, to be honest, it was a trainwreck in terms of production. Seven hours of a guy talking through what I can only assume was a potato for a microphone. I mean, c'mon
—If you're going to vomit out an audio ejaculation for 7 whole hours, at least make it sound halfway decent. You could even think that could make you a bit skeptical about his writing, right?
Anyway, I started reading this. And... WOW.
From the first page, you get slammed with some seriously raw transgressive fiction. Like, real transgressive. The kind that makes you pause, question your moral compass, and wonder, "What the hell am I reading?" The opening scene hits you in the face — a pedophile's inner monologue. Yeah, it's uncomfortable.
Not uncomfortable because you want to compare yourself to the character or anything like that. It's just raw. You think,
"Oh, so this is going to be another Lolita story, right?" But you quickly realize that's not it at all. It's not even playing in the same league as Lolita or any of the other sanitized, well-packaged "taboo" fiction you've read.
As you dig deeper, the book shifts gears. You get pulled into these disturbing moments, and, at least for me, there was one particular scene that, to my surprise, made me hard. I’m not saying I jerked off or anything, but yeah, it got to me, and no, that's not something I'm ashamed to admit here. I'm not going to sugarcoat it. It's a book that hits your body as much as your mind, stirring reactions you didn't expect. I hadn't gotten that worked up in a while, so it stood out to me. But that's part of the draw - it pulls no punches. There’s no hiding behind metaphor or artistic flourish here. It's gritty, primal, and you either get dragged along for the ride or you walk away disgusted.
There are quotes that really stuck with me, too:
“The windows through which we see other people are so often tainted by how we ourselves want to be seen from the other side. Perspective is a hopeless spectacle, where, regardless of your viewpoint, you're only ever kaleidoscoping backwards, losing all colour as you spiral into an ever-darkening tunnel.”
“Smearing my own name, becoming the most colossal creep they'd ever known, would put me into the realm of the shunned and consequently unseen. For man knows of no greater punishment than that of exile.”
Just great language, such a joy to read:
“Plumes of smoke released from Heather's lips in long streams as she puffed away on a cigarette, her demeanour in mimicry of a femme fatale, inside the film noir remake of my worst nightmare. Just as the notion of potentially crossing the road without her noticing us dashed through my mind, since Heather's countenance appeared lost in smoke, her eyes darted through the opaque mist straight into mine, locking between the centre of Seraphina and I, then jerked to the bottom V of our holding hands.”
And then there was the ending. Man, the way this thing wraps up. I was carried away by the story at the end so I read till late night and fell asleep by the last page. So, I am laying in bed, one hand glides down to my pants, as a more of an instinctive, automatic movement. Right? Except this time, something was different. My hand came back wet, and I realized I wasn't just touching myself in the usual, half-conscious way. No, this book had reached in and yanked at something inside me that had been dormant for years. I hadn't felt like that in 15 or more years. That's when it hit me - this book had been inside me all along.
It wasn't just a story I read. It was a part of me, something l'd carried in the back of my head all this time, just waiting for the right spark to set it loose again.
Pollution. That's what it is. Not just the book's content, but what it does to you.
It gets inside your head, leaves a mark, and you're never quite the same after.
And for that, I'm thankful. It's not a book for everyone - hell, maybe not for most people - but for me, it's unforgettable.
February 24, 2021
The novel is exactly as described on the tin. A 35 year old man begins an illicit relationship with a 14 year old girl. This may be enough to instantly put some people off the book but I was intrigued, especially as there was a scandal at my high school involving a teenage girl and a man more than twice her age.
I wasn’t prepared for the dark, twisted rabbit hole I fell down as I was exposed to the narrator’s every twisted thought, sexual urge and experience with Heather. Michael works as a barista in a bookshop cafe, the location of their fateful meeting. He’s surrounded by Gen Z and woke millennial colleagues who belong to the digital world which he shuns. He’s bored, an outsider and his life is bleak. Then in walks Heather with her parents.
My daughter is 13 and I found Michael’s fantasies about Heather’s young body utterly repulsive. Yet a little like that “I can’t not look” sensation of a car crash, I felt compelled to continue. After all, it couldn’t get more graphic than that, surely. Oh my dear bookworm, it did.
The novel progresses from Michael’s fantasy to reality, and repulsive acts move to outright debauchery. I felt sick to the stomach reading a scene in a park involving a younger witness and willed them to be caught.
As much as I loathed Michael’s paedophilic awakening, Heather chilled me to the core. At once a child and a seductress, a victim and a psychopath, this conflicted and deadly character made me continue reading to the bitter end. I hoped for resolution, for it all to stop. I should have guessed the ending wouldn’t leave me feeling happy and warm. There are no cute kittens or happiness in this story, bookworm.
There are other characters too who feature on the periphery of Michael and Heather’s infatuation and lust. They’re all subjected to Michael’s scathing judgements and Heather’s manipulation and I didn’t find them particularly likeable either.
This is one of the most disturbing, sexually graphic, vile books I have ever read. And yet I have to give the author credit for the quality of his characterisation. Few writers would dare take on this subject matter unless it’s perhaps a dark crime thriller where the protagonist is a haunted detective who will ultimately make the perpetrator pay. I couldn’t relate to the characters but I felt a dark fascination for them that I can’t quite explain.
Would I recommend it? Not to my friends, I wouldn’t put them through that. But for those who enjoy the extreme discomfort of the darkest literary and transgressive fiction imaginable, I think they’ll love this.
I’m going to give it 4 stars because whilst I would happily never read a novel like this again, I can see the author’s skill in creating his characters and plot. Thanks to the author and Book Sirens for the digital copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.
I wasn’t prepared for the dark, twisted rabbit hole I fell down as I was exposed to the narrator’s every twisted thought, sexual urge and experience with Heather. Michael works as a barista in a bookshop cafe, the location of their fateful meeting. He’s surrounded by Gen Z and woke millennial colleagues who belong to the digital world which he shuns. He’s bored, an outsider and his life is bleak. Then in walks Heather with her parents.
My daughter is 13 and I found Michael’s fantasies about Heather’s young body utterly repulsive. Yet a little like that “I can’t not look” sensation of a car crash, I felt compelled to continue. After all, it couldn’t get more graphic than that, surely. Oh my dear bookworm, it did.
The novel progresses from Michael’s fantasy to reality, and repulsive acts move to outright debauchery. I felt sick to the stomach reading a scene in a park involving a younger witness and willed them to be caught.
As much as I loathed Michael’s paedophilic awakening, Heather chilled me to the core. At once a child and a seductress, a victim and a psychopath, this conflicted and deadly character made me continue reading to the bitter end. I hoped for resolution, for it all to stop. I should have guessed the ending wouldn’t leave me feeling happy and warm. There are no cute kittens or happiness in this story, bookworm.
There are other characters too who feature on the periphery of Michael and Heather’s infatuation and lust. They’re all subjected to Michael’s scathing judgements and Heather’s manipulation and I didn’t find them particularly likeable either.
This is one of the most disturbing, sexually graphic, vile books I have ever read. And yet I have to give the author credit for the quality of his characterisation. Few writers would dare take on this subject matter unless it’s perhaps a dark crime thriller where the protagonist is a haunted detective who will ultimately make the perpetrator pay. I couldn’t relate to the characters but I felt a dark fascination for them that I can’t quite explain.
Would I recommend it? Not to my friends, I wouldn’t put them through that. But for those who enjoy the extreme discomfort of the darkest literary and transgressive fiction imaginable, I think they’ll love this.
I’m going to give it 4 stars because whilst I would happily never read a novel like this again, I can see the author’s skill in creating his characters and plot. Thanks to the author and Book Sirens for the digital copy of this book in return for my honest opinion.
June 6, 2021
First off, paedophilia doesn't even come to mind when you tell me about a 14-year-old girl having sex with an adult.
I remember GCSE girls being super mature; most of them were no longer virgins. They would stalk the boys in sixth form (or hunt for older guys. I knew of kids who'd lost their virginity at 12, among other things.)
All I'm saying is that these things happen all the time, but people don't talk about it because they don't want to know about it. And it seems that if you write stories about it, they will criticise you with a one-dimensional approach.
Michael is not like Humbert, though his unreliable narration will remind you of Humbert's voice. Therefore, if you empathised with Humbert—here's a more contemporary voice for you.
I like dwelling in the heads of unreliable narrators. I let them trick me into accepting their unethical actions because we need novels that portray an immoral world. When you engage with their thoughts and feelings, you get a taste of their insanity, triggered by society, the media, and politics.
But it's fictional characters that help us express and understand ourselves.
Isn't a villain all the more interesting when their motivations are relatable? No, I'm not talking about Michael's love for Heather; I'm talking about Michael's existential crisis, his inability to connect with stupid people (i.e., Seraphina, who's 18 and can't think for herself). It's not like Michael isn't trying to adapt.
Every story is a universe that plays by its own rules. Its perception of reality might not be in accord with yours, but try to identify this book's aesthetic values. It's art that allows us to view things differently.
Literary and transgressive fiction gives us room to breathe, with storylines centring around moral dilemmas and issues that plague our minds. For that, you'll need to have the capacity for the extreme because literary works have no limits.
If you like, the entire book is a piece of literary art; just imagine Heather and Michael in a Francis Bacon painting, and you'll see the meaning of their flaws, accompanied by a beautiful use of language.
Oh, and I told McKay that I'm pretty sure Heather wasn't a virgin when she met Michael. The period blood was such a cover-up!
I remember GCSE girls being super mature; most of them were no longer virgins. They would stalk the boys in sixth form (or hunt for older guys. I knew of kids who'd lost their virginity at 12, among other things.)
All I'm saying is that these things happen all the time, but people don't talk about it because they don't want to know about it. And it seems that if you write stories about it, they will criticise you with a one-dimensional approach.
Michael is not like Humbert, though his unreliable narration will remind you of Humbert's voice. Therefore, if you empathised with Humbert—here's a more contemporary voice for you.
I like dwelling in the heads of unreliable narrators. I let them trick me into accepting their unethical actions because we need novels that portray an immoral world. When you engage with their thoughts and feelings, you get a taste of their insanity, triggered by society, the media, and politics.
But it's fictional characters that help us express and understand ourselves.
Isn't a villain all the more interesting when their motivations are relatable? No, I'm not talking about Michael's love for Heather; I'm talking about Michael's existential crisis, his inability to connect with stupid people (i.e., Seraphina, who's 18 and can't think for herself). It's not like Michael isn't trying to adapt.
Every story is a universe that plays by its own rules. Its perception of reality might not be in accord with yours, but try to identify this book's aesthetic values. It's art that allows us to view things differently.
Literary and transgressive fiction gives us room to breathe, with storylines centring around moral dilemmas and issues that plague our minds. For that, you'll need to have the capacity for the extreme because literary works have no limits.
If you like, the entire book is a piece of literary art; just imagine Heather and Michael in a Francis Bacon painting, and you'll see the meaning of their flaws, accompanied by a beautiful use of language.
Oh, and I told McKay that I'm pretty sure Heather wasn't a virgin when she met Michael. The period blood was such a cover-up!
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