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Serious Weakness
its going to get really dark now
Unknown Binding
First published October 30, 2022
About the author
Porpentine Charity Heartscape
8 books239 followerswrote Serious Weakness, Torture Works, a bunch of other shit
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
November 9, 2022
The history of art, in general, manifests itself as a ghastly scab that certain informed people can’t help but keep picking at. We are learning that any restoration work worth bragging about needs a coat of actual human effluent—that is, a fuckton of it. Porpentine Charity Heartscape’s Serious Weakness is a thruple meal deal combining Antiques Roadshow, The Little Mermaid and de Sade’s The 120 Days of Sodom. It’s all “man vs. pus” in this near-future universe of consolidated museological excess, floorbound pizza slices and blood-thinning codependency.
A shift in emphasis for the Slimetrash Cinematic Universe, for those familiar with Low Kill Shelter or PSYCHO NYMPH EXILE. The characters here probably are the ones who will have grown up hyperdependent on those very franchises. But don’t worry Draconic Boys: you’ll absolutely find the same underlying cladist-masochist tendencies, and in some cases significantly intensified.
The last time I felt this claustrophilically repulsed by a power couple was my Schedoni / Ellena ship from Ann Radcliffe’s 1796 creepypasto-RPF The Italian. There is actually a fair amount of Italian in this book too. And energy drinks and aquariums. It was getting pretty dark outside as I was hitting the last 100 pages and I actually couldn’t even get up to turn on the lights, so contagious is the soporific weakness of this future-perfect disaster mockumentary’s emetopilled dénouement. I sat in the goddamn dark and finished it with my shirt collar clenched between my teeth.
Importantly, the novel contains the following indestructible sentence and if for nothing else deserves to be read in its entirety just to unpack the layers that cake around it: “Trepanation works, if you do it on someone else.” Make blood, not pour. What your Moby-Dick was for 19th century whaling, Serious Weakness is for Spirit Halloween.
A shift in emphasis for the Slimetrash Cinematic Universe, for those familiar with Low Kill Shelter or PSYCHO NYMPH EXILE. The characters here probably are the ones who will have grown up hyperdependent on those very franchises. But don’t worry Draconic Boys: you’ll absolutely find the same underlying cladist-masochist tendencies, and in some cases significantly intensified.
The last time I felt this claustrophilically repulsed by a power couple was my Schedoni / Ellena ship from Ann Radcliffe’s 1796 creepypasto-RPF The Italian. There is actually a fair amount of Italian in this book too. And energy drinks and aquariums. It was getting pretty dark outside as I was hitting the last 100 pages and I actually couldn’t even get up to turn on the lights, so contagious is the soporific weakness of this future-perfect disaster mockumentary’s emetopilled dénouement. I sat in the goddamn dark and finished it with my shirt collar clenched between my teeth.
Importantly, the novel contains the following indestructible sentence and if for nothing else deserves to be read in its entirety just to unpack the layers that cake around it: “Trepanation works, if you do it on someone else.” Make blood, not pour. What your Moby-Dick was for 19th century whaling, Serious Weakness is for Spirit Halloween.
March 5, 2024
seminal piece for the burgeoning transwomen guro fujoshi field
December 12, 2022
This book is truly cathartic, and I mean that in the original Greek sense. A purification of the mind through raw violence, through tragedy. It’s an emotional laxative, poison pumped into your body to be feverishly evacuated, prepped for a colonoscopy. There’s few books I’ve read that I immediately wanted to return to, pore over, force onto other people (my mother, my friends, heterosexual male coworkers) because I refuse to be trapped in this dark elevator by myself, but this one stared into my soul. It punched me in the face. It dragged me to the eye of the hurricane, kicking and screaming, through the high winds and mass destruction, so I could sit in that calm in the center of the storm, gazing at the broken world around me, knowing the worst is behind me and also the worst is yet to come but at least today is a good day.
This book made me want to start writing again.
This book is the quintessence of the phrase “The only way out is through”, and in such a situation, once you’re through, there’s no going back and the future is scary, but Triannon and Insul aren’t alone anymore. They have each other, for better and worse, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
This book is for Scorpio Venuses, autists, and people with father and/or older brother issues (and I happen to be all of the above).
This book is like if Killing/Stalking was set in the universe of Children of Men. The world is crumbling around us and no one wants to acknowledge it--because then it would be real--except people like Insul and eventually Trianon as well. (And isn’t that what love is all about, mutual understanding?) We really live in a society and the alternative Insul offers us is quite appealing when you know how fucking abysmal the status quo is, how cruel the world is while the people doling out that cruelty pretend it isn’t. At least Insul doesn’t pretend.
Insul is a character whose life and philosophy seems ripped from the lines of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl: a great mind “destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging [himself] through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix”, and I’m with him in Rockland. Trianon’s mind breaks in the best way possible, purged of the lies of Late Capitalist social conventions and societal obligations, the fuckedness of the world revealed to him. Realizing that is always traumatizing, whatever way one comes upon it, and a less kind story (because I believe this is a kind story in the end), might use such a realization as a trumpet of doom but Trianon survives the apocalypse of Insul as well as that more impersonal, slowly encroaching, apocalypse that nips at the heels of humanity’s hubris.
There is so much brutality and suffering here mixed with so much helpless desperate insane love and tenderness and endearing warmth, like the warmth of fresh blood on your mutilated chest or piss soaked bedsheets or hot tears streaming down a psychopath’s face, and I found it hard to truly ever hate Insul, even though he’s an evil demonic sadistic bastard because he tries so hard to love even though he’s so bad at it and I found that really heartwarming, in that conflicting way the best Yandere characters make one feel. I think he’d be at home graffitiing a bullet perforated wall in a war ravaged failed state wearing a leather jacket that says FUCK THE WORLD or PISSFAGGOT on the back of it spitting slurs at an amnesiac alcoholic cop.
There, is that something?
This book made me want to start writing again.
This book is the quintessence of the phrase “The only way out is through”, and in such a situation, once you’re through, there’s no going back and the future is scary, but Triannon and Insul aren’t alone anymore. They have each other, for better and worse, and sometimes that’s all you can ask for.
This book is for Scorpio Venuses, autists, and people with father and/or older brother issues (and I happen to be all of the above).
This book is like if Killing/Stalking was set in the universe of Children of Men. The world is crumbling around us and no one wants to acknowledge it--because then it would be real--except people like Insul and eventually Trianon as well. (And isn’t that what love is all about, mutual understanding?) We really live in a society and the alternative Insul offers us is quite appealing when you know how fucking abysmal the status quo is, how cruel the world is while the people doling out that cruelty pretend it isn’t. At least Insul doesn’t pretend.
Insul is a character whose life and philosophy seems ripped from the lines of Allen Ginsberg’s Howl: a great mind “destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging [himself] through the negro streets at dawn looking for an angry fix”, and I’m with him in Rockland. Trianon’s mind breaks in the best way possible, purged of the lies of Late Capitalist social conventions and societal obligations, the fuckedness of the world revealed to him. Realizing that is always traumatizing, whatever way one comes upon it, and a less kind story (because I believe this is a kind story in the end), might use such a realization as a trumpet of doom but Trianon survives the apocalypse of Insul as well as that more impersonal, slowly encroaching, apocalypse that nips at the heels of humanity’s hubris.
There is so much brutality and suffering here mixed with so much helpless desperate insane love and tenderness and endearing warmth, like the warmth of fresh blood on your mutilated chest or piss soaked bedsheets or hot tears streaming down a psychopath’s face, and I found it hard to truly ever hate Insul, even though he’s an evil demonic sadistic bastard because he tries so hard to love even though he’s so bad at it and I found that really heartwarming, in that conflicting way the best Yandere characters make one feel. I think he’d be at home graffitiing a bullet perforated wall in a war ravaged failed state wearing a leather jacket that says FUCK THE WORLD or PISSFAGGOT on the back of it spitting slurs at an amnesiac alcoholic cop.
There, is that something?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2026
I don't think I'll ever be able to describe my love for this book. It transcends the confines of language.
March 19, 2023
In some ways, really different from most of Porpentine's prior work: there's absolutely nothing here to indicate a fantasy or sci-fi setting. As far as I can tell, everything in the story could really happen, at least technically speaking; there are elements that suggest the setting is intended to be the near future, or a slightly divergent version of our present day world, but it's pretty grounded. The violence, rape, murder, and torture aren't surreal, magical, or abstract, and that makes them much more difficult to read; the first ~250 pages of this 800 page e-book were something of a slog for that reason, in much the way parts of Dennis Cooper novels or EXQUISITE CORPSE were slogs for me. But, like those, SERIOUS WEAKNESS becomes magnetic when it starts probing into the psychology of its antagonist, Insul, and when the relationship between Insul and Trianon begins to grow more complex than that of kidnapper/tormentor and hostage/victim. The character writing here is some of the strongest I think Porpentine's ever done, at least that I've seen, and that extends to side characters it would be easy and unremarkable to quickly write out of the story and/or turn into one-note jokes. Ultimately, this book wants the reader to exercise empathy for everyone, even/especially where that's extremely uncomfortable or feels purposeless.
June 10, 2024
about halfway thru serious weakness a pressure built in my core, and i realized i was about to scream out loud, suddenly, a desperate attempt to exorcise myself from the hostage/kidnapper relationship this book slowly and insidiously places the reader in alongside its characters. captivating, insane, unspeakably fucked up nightmare eroticism for only the most brain damaged and brave fujoshi. if you are wondering if you should read this or not with no external prompting it probably wasnt a coincidence you wound up here. make no mistake: this is dangerous, mind altering necronomicon yaoi. i unconsciously writhe in a hysterical something - repulsion? ecstasy? horror? jealousy? - as a twink in a dress is tortured in a basement. the world is ending and a terminal empire has no use for its sick children. dad was a gamer and a fascist and your boyfriend likes to hurt you. i think i love everyone ive ever known.
December 27, 2022
M/M/MF/F/M/FM/M/F/fM/mF/M, Canon Typical Violence, Established Relationship, Enemies to Lovers, Drug Use, Non Con, Threats, Domestic Bliss, Body, Dead Body In the Water, First Kiss, Childhood Memories, Attempted Murder, Animal Death, Dead Body In the Water You're the Only Ones There, Sci-Fi AU, You're the Only Ones There and No One Else Can See It, No One Else Can See Anything, Salad
August 25, 2025
this is like if killing/stalking was more pretentious
January 10, 2025
Más que una reseña quisiera escribir un ensayo, y quizás algún día lo haga. Serious Weakness es incansable. Siempre va más allá y un poco más allá todavía. No para, no se detiene, sigue. Siempre hay más.
La prosa de Porpentine es brillante de un modo que duele. Y Serious Weakness es Lolita si Nabokov fuera furry, o es un hijo ilegítimo de Homestuck y It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, o es el Necromonicón, un libro que no hay que leer porque te daña.
Creo que hay tres lecturas posibles sobre este libro, y las tres tienen que dar cuenta de ese modo en que la escritura está permanentemente desestabilizada, desbordada.
Primero, como una narrativa sobre cómo las personas se rompen. Es lineamente lo que relata el libro: Insul secuestra a Trianon y lo destruye hasta que no puede más, y entonces empiezan a destruirse mutuamente, y entonces vuelve a entrar en escena Oenone y se destruyen de a tres. No es una narrativa de abuso, solamente, es siempre más. En esta lectura querría detenerme en las frases que me perforaron el cerebro ("you're like a retarded little brother I can put my tongue inside", "it's not gay, it's incest", etcétera) porque el modo en que Porpentine escribe la violencia es trascendental. Y es trascendental ese final: desde el momento en que Trianon finalmente se salva, por segunda vez y, finalmente, algo sobre el poder cambia; desde ese momento hasta la escena de cierre: los tres viviendo juntos, todavía.
Segundo, como una narrativa apocalíptica; ni pre- ni post-, una narrativa sobre el lento fin del mundo, una narrativa que agoniza porque el mundo agoniza. Es estrictamente una novela sobre el capitalismo tardío, bastante explícitamente (aun si nunca aclaran cuándo está ocurriendo). Esta narrativa habla sobre la creciente precariedad de las cosas, no necesariamente la "enshitifficación" pero sí algo del convertirse en mierda de todo. Sobre cómo todo va dejando de importar un poco porque hay problemas más importantes que a la vez son irresolubles: el cambio climático es un agente, un protagonista casi de la novela.
Y hay un motivo para unificar esta narrativa con la primera: no porque la crueldad de Insul refleje la del mundo, sino porque si Insul puede escapar de las consecuencias de sus actos es justamente por esa indiferencia, esa fragilidad de las cosas. No quiero dejar de mencionar lo difícil que es escribir una novela que use continuamente palabras como "cringe" y referencias a la cultura online de los años 20 sin quedar inmediatamente vieja (en este sentido, escribir desde un futuro donde esto es nostálgico es una decisión brillante).
Tercero, como otra cosa. No sé bien qué. En la edición que leí, después de los agradecimientos hay dos capítulos más (!), que luego me enteré (con ligera decepción) que son en realidad dos cuentos incorporados a posteriori. Prefiero leerlos como capítulos de la novela, una novela que se rehúsa a terminar. Serious Weakness es una metástasis. Trascurren aún más en el futuro, volviendo real el mundo de videojuegos que sólo aparecía como interfaz previamente. Son fanfiction de una novela que, en sí misma, se siente como un fanfic y, también y al mismo tiempo, como literatura. La literatura puede hacer metástasis porque la cultura tiene cáncer, porque la humanidad es un tumor de la Tierra. Y algunas de esas células cobra la forma de dos tipos meándose y llamándose hermanos mientras se violan. Gracias.
La prosa de Porpentine es brillante de un modo que duele. Y Serious Weakness es Lolita si Nabokov fuera furry, o es un hijo ilegítimo de Homestuck y It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, o es el Necromonicón, un libro que no hay que leer porque te daña.
Creo que hay tres lecturas posibles sobre este libro, y las tres tienen que dar cuenta de ese modo en que la escritura está permanentemente desestabilizada, desbordada.
Primero, como una narrativa sobre cómo las personas se rompen. Es lineamente lo que relata el libro: Insul secuestra a Trianon y lo destruye hasta que no puede más, y entonces empiezan a destruirse mutuamente, y entonces vuelve a entrar en escena Oenone y se destruyen de a tres. No es una narrativa de abuso, solamente, es siempre más. En esta lectura querría detenerme en las frases que me perforaron el cerebro ("you're like a retarded little brother I can put my tongue inside", "it's not gay, it's incest", etcétera) porque el modo en que Porpentine escribe la violencia es trascendental. Y es trascendental ese final: desde el momento en que Trianon finalmente se salva, por segunda vez y, finalmente, algo sobre el poder cambia; desde ese momento hasta la escena de cierre: los tres viviendo juntos, todavía.
Segundo, como una narrativa apocalíptica; ni pre- ni post-, una narrativa sobre el lento fin del mundo, una narrativa que agoniza porque el mundo agoniza. Es estrictamente una novela sobre el capitalismo tardío, bastante explícitamente (aun si nunca aclaran cuándo está ocurriendo). Esta narrativa habla sobre la creciente precariedad de las cosas, no necesariamente la "enshitifficación" pero sí algo del convertirse en mierda de todo. Sobre cómo todo va dejando de importar un poco porque hay problemas más importantes que a la vez son irresolubles: el cambio climático es un agente, un protagonista casi de la novela.
Y hay un motivo para unificar esta narrativa con la primera: no porque la crueldad de Insul refleje la del mundo, sino porque si Insul puede escapar de las consecuencias de sus actos es justamente por esa indiferencia, esa fragilidad de las cosas. No quiero dejar de mencionar lo difícil que es escribir una novela que use continuamente palabras como "cringe" y referencias a la cultura online de los años 20 sin quedar inmediatamente vieja (en este sentido, escribir desde un futuro donde esto es nostálgico es una decisión brillante).
Tercero, como otra cosa. No sé bien qué. En la edición que leí, después de los agradecimientos hay dos capítulos más (!), que luego me enteré (con ligera decepción) que son en realidad dos cuentos incorporados a posteriori. Prefiero leerlos como capítulos de la novela, una novela que se rehúsa a terminar. Serious Weakness es una metástasis. Trascurren aún más en el futuro, volviendo real el mundo de videojuegos que sólo aparecía como interfaz previamente. Son fanfiction de una novela que, en sí misma, se siente como un fanfic y, también y al mismo tiempo, como literatura. La literatura puede hacer metástasis porque la cultura tiene cáncer, porque la humanidad es un tumor de la Tierra. Y algunas de esas células cobra la forma de dos tipos meándose y llamándose hermanos mientras se violan. Gracias.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 5, 2025
Es tremendo este libro. Pensé que quizás no llegaba a las cinco estrellas, calificación que me reservo para cosas que me parecieron genuinamente magistrales, o clásicos, o me cambiaron la vida. No pensé que fuese el caso de Serious Weakness, pero pasan las semanas y este libro se insertó en mi cerebro como un parásito. No sé si me cambió la vida a mí personalmente, pero es el tipo de narrativa sobre el que se pueden escribir libros enteros. Creo que que puedo calificarlo de clásico moderno sin que eso me genere conflicto. PEDAZO de literatura.
Para ser un concepto relativamente simple hay mucho jugo que se le puede sacar. Por supuesto que en un nivel superficial es una historia sobre sadismo y trauma, y también sobre amor y conexión humana, ponele, pero lo que en realidad estás leyendo es una historia profundamente anclada en la crítica social, y sobre todo un relato del fin de los tiempos. Sí, Triannon está siendo secuestrado y torturado, pero en la gran trama del mundo, ¿qué es eso? Cosas que pasan todo el tiempo, la crueldad haciéndose manifiesta cuando en realidad es rutinaria. Podés salir a la calle cubierto de moretones y sangre, nadie te va a ayudar. Ese dolor es invisible para la gente. Más aun hay, también, un comentario constante sobre las instituciones (la escuela y la familia, fundamentalmente, pero también lo profesional, y acá entra también en discusión lo que es "el mundo del arte", la sacralización insípida y vacua del arte vía el dinero) y sobre la norma social, específicamente en lo que respecta a la psicología; ¿qué implica ser "normal", a quién sirve, qué consecuencias tiene apartarse de eso? La exploración del género y la sexualidad se enmarcan también dentro de la discusión sobre la "normalidad", magníficamente.
Todas estas cosas existen con el trasfondo de un futuro cercano en el que el cambio climático lleva a pequeños apocalipsis cotidianos. Esa construcción de mundo me pareció, también, magistral: sutil y pertinente. Los nombres, los géneros musicales, los eventos, qué cosas se describen como "retro" o "nostálgicas".
No podría decir todas las cosas que pienso sobre este libro porque serían infinitas. Enfocándome menos en la filosofía de la novela, los personajes me parecieron maravillosos e ir conociendo de a poco cómo funcionan me resultó muy gratificante. El lenguaje es también muy bueno, sobre todo los diálogos, y también me pareció innovadora la forma en la que pasa sin demasiado problema de la tercera persona limitada a la omnisciente a la primera persona a la segunda. Y es muy efectivo en hacerte sentir verdaderamente mal, lo cual valoro. ¡Al mismo tiempo es muy cómico! Tiene un humor sardónico muy divertido.
Lo recomiendo muchísimo, pero no a cualquiera. Como ya leí a varias personas mencionar, es difícil describirlo sin hacerlo parecer ni más "suave" ni más oscuro de lo que es. Es ambas cosas.
Para ser un concepto relativamente simple hay mucho jugo que se le puede sacar. Por supuesto que en un nivel superficial es una historia sobre sadismo y trauma, y también sobre amor y conexión humana, ponele, pero lo que en realidad estás leyendo es una historia profundamente anclada en la crítica social, y sobre todo un relato del fin de los tiempos. Sí, Triannon está siendo secuestrado y torturado, pero en la gran trama del mundo, ¿qué es eso? Cosas que pasan todo el tiempo, la crueldad haciéndose manifiesta cuando en realidad es rutinaria. Podés salir a la calle cubierto de moretones y sangre, nadie te va a ayudar. Ese dolor es invisible para la gente. Más aun hay, también, un comentario constante sobre las instituciones (la escuela y la familia, fundamentalmente, pero también lo profesional, y acá entra también en discusión lo que es "el mundo del arte", la sacralización insípida y vacua del arte vía el dinero) y sobre la norma social, específicamente en lo que respecta a la psicología; ¿qué implica ser "normal", a quién sirve, qué consecuencias tiene apartarse de eso? La exploración del género y la sexualidad se enmarcan también dentro de la discusión sobre la "normalidad", magníficamente.
Todas estas cosas existen con el trasfondo de un futuro cercano en el que el cambio climático lleva a pequeños apocalipsis cotidianos. Esa construcción de mundo me pareció, también, magistral: sutil y pertinente. Los nombres, los géneros musicales, los eventos, qué cosas se describen como "retro" o "nostálgicas".
No podría decir todas las cosas que pienso sobre este libro porque serían infinitas. Enfocándome menos en la filosofía de la novela, los personajes me parecieron maravillosos e ir conociendo de a poco cómo funcionan me resultó muy gratificante. El lenguaje es también muy bueno, sobre todo los diálogos, y también me pareció innovadora la forma en la que pasa sin demasiado problema de la tercera persona limitada a la omnisciente a la primera persona a la segunda. Y es muy efectivo en hacerte sentir verdaderamente mal, lo cual valoro. ¡Al mismo tiempo es muy cómico! Tiene un humor sardónico muy divertido.
Lo recomiendo muchísimo, pero no a cualquiera. Como ya leí a varias personas mencionar, es difícil describirlo sin hacerlo parecer ni más "suave" ni más oscuro de lo que es. Es ambas cosas.
May 30, 2023
Serious Weakness is a book that is difficult for me to review or even talk about without hyperfixating on the minute details, which made the book one of the most thrilling things I've read in recent memory. That being said, I will do my best to avoid spoilers because this is a book that rewards the reader for going in blind and experiencing the trauma it contians along with its character. I will, however, talk about the books' vivid descriptions of neurodivergency and the autistic experience.
Serious Weakness is a story about trauma on multiple levels but the parts of the book that hit the hardest for me weren't the details of physical truama, violence, and murder (which are brutal af and sometimes might be hard to read). It was the books unveiling of the more insidious everyday trauma of a high masking autistic adult that has continued to burrow a pinhole in my brain like an illegal substance snorted in the bathroom of a dive bar.
The book immerses you into the heightened sensory world of Trianon as he experiences trauma and connection, not only at the hands of Insul but with the crumbling neurotypical world at large. From his compulsive info dumping to his social awkwardness to the comfort of pressure applied to his body by a stolen cars drivers seat pinning him to the vehicles floorboard; we are shown Trianons autistic sensory experiences. What we also see as the story progresses is the slow unmasking of other autistic traits belonging to Trianon.
For a book containing a vast amount of abuse, rape, and murder... this is really a story about self-acceptance, belonging, and unmasking.
As a 31-year-old self-dignosed autistic queer who's just starting the process of unmasking while working on my mental health, this book feels like it was written specifically for me.
"I'd rather be a fucking toilet if it means people stop expecting things of me."
Serious Weakness is a story about trauma on multiple levels but the parts of the book that hit the hardest for me weren't the details of physical truama, violence, and murder (which are brutal af and sometimes might be hard to read). It was the books unveiling of the more insidious everyday trauma of a high masking autistic adult that has continued to burrow a pinhole in my brain like an illegal substance snorted in the bathroom of a dive bar.
The book immerses you into the heightened sensory world of Trianon as he experiences trauma and connection, not only at the hands of Insul but with the crumbling neurotypical world at large. From his compulsive info dumping to his social awkwardness to the comfort of pressure applied to his body by a stolen cars drivers seat pinning him to the vehicles floorboard; we are shown Trianons autistic sensory experiences. What we also see as the story progresses is the slow unmasking of other autistic traits belonging to Trianon.
For a book containing a vast amount of abuse, rape, and murder... this is really a story about self-acceptance, belonging, and unmasking.
As a 31-year-old self-dignosed autistic queer who's just starting the process of unmasking while working on my mental health, this book feels like it was written specifically for me.
"I'd rather be a fucking toilet if it means people stop expecting things of me."
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 11, 2023
holy shit this book has rewired my brain in such an important way. it's like finding a part of myself I blocked out for years. this book genuinely made me want to puke time and time again and yet I could never put it down. sickening and intrusive and relatable and fucked up. I will re-read this again and again in a desperate attempt to understand myself. I could never recommend a book more, although it may seem horrible and torturous to some instead of intrinsic and relatable. wow
December 5, 2023
easiest five stars i've given in years. completely engrossed me. left my real review for porpentine lol but i'll say here that this was visceral, graphic, utterly enthralling, drenched in neon and blood, soul-crushing, clever, hilarious, a mirror of our modern world, etc etc etc. just insanely good. i can only recommend this to certain people but to those that can stomach it it will be one of the best books youve ever read.
March 1, 2026
I need to talk about this and will revert to a primordial form if unable to.
I was bound to this book as if by some kind of thick twine, for days. I remain firm in my belief that Serious Weakness has the power to kill, or rewrite DNA. It’s a life changer, and it might actually even be better than Psycho Nymph Exile.
(I promise not to mention Psycho Nymph 90,000 times, it’s mostly for contrast, the two books have surprisingly little in common)
At its core Serious Weakness is actually pretty simple, guts uncomplicated and not marred by bourgeoisie subtletly. I know authors who use subtext, and they’re all cowards. No, Serious Weakness centers on Trianon, who at the outset works an art conservator type of job with his pretty girlfriend, and is at a client’s house doing an assessment on a painting recently damaged in a rash of art vandalism. Which, lol, lmao, but from his first conversation with the story’s other leading man, Insul, (again not subtle) I was jumping off the couch and shouting at the page, “Nope! Not a fucking chance, he’s not cut out for it!! He’ll never make it, ask me how I know!! It’s unhealthy for him!!”
The foremost thing I knew about this novel before going in was that it had been described as “autistic failson yaoi”. This descriptor is both “what it says on the tin” and also fails to capture the range that Serious Weakness has. This is a story about being autistic, down to its marrow. The Trianon we see in the first chapter appears as a relatively put-together individual. You know, a ‘respectable adult’, right? He has a job and a girlfriend, he justifies his existence. He takes pyridostigmine for myasthenia, (a muscular degenerative disease mostly affecting the face) and doesn’t do anything “cringe” or otherwise out-of-line. He clearly has a passion for art, but it’s mixed up in masking behaviour, isn’t it? It doesn’t seem like he gets to infodump enough about it. Insul stops him partway through.
Ostensibly the painter of the destroyed work in question, but c’mon get serious, Insul instead beats Trianon half to death with a tennis racket, burns all of his stuff and kidnaps him from this gigantic fancy house. This is initially because Insul wants access to the gallery Trianon works for, to fuck up more artworks, (everything from abstract sculptures to renaissance-era paintings) but c’mon, get serious. Insul is destructive because he hasn’t developed since high school.
I’ll try not to get bogged down in summary, because Serious Weakness actually is pretty simple, even though it feels hard to explain. Insul removes Trianon from the safe, “normal” life he had, and thus removes him from everything that weighed on him. Feels like it’s hard to explain eloquently, but at that point Trianon doesn’t have to worry about desperately fumbling through arcane social rituals and facial expressions he can barely understand even with his girlfriend’s help. He doesn’t have to worry about how to dress himself right, or if his interests are considered “cringy”, or if he’s taking his medicine on time, or even like schedule anything.
It feels almost kind of ugly, laying out Serious Weakness in its component parts like that, but that is what it is. It’s kind of like a twisted and fucked up “which way, western man?” sorta thing, in a way. This novel does contain at least one utterance of the phrase “traps are gay” so it’s not that far off of that vibe.
The downshot of all that, of course, is that his removal is at the behest of Insul, who is for all the world a former-would-be school shooter and pretty much a Columbine kind of kid. Maybe less gleeful about it than usual, though, because like me, in Trianon he spotted one of his own, instantly: autistic. Say it with me now, “You’re like an autistic little brother I can put my tongue inside”. So it’s troubling and distressing on one level, because Insul beats Trianon within an inch of his life and then chains him to the toilet in the beach house of a woman he drowned. Y’know, that’d get to anybody. The trouble is, the more Trianon flails and reaches for escape, for a return to his life, the more it becomes clear that maybe he isn’t best served by it.
Trianon’s girlfriend is named Oenone, and I swear to fuck she absolutely isn’t a bad person. I liveblogged about hating her guts, and while I’d still give her the stink-eye for referring to Trianon’s condition as “your disability stuff”, she is always doing her best. Yes, she is a complete “normie” (which in Serious Weakness’ case, translates almost 1:1 as “neurotypical) and living like it, but she’s nice, right? She loves Trianon and tries to support him, right? By getting him a nepobaby job? Coaching him through social challenges and whatever? Yeah...
Initially I was sure that I was just being presumptuous again, seeing what wasn’t there, but as it turns out I was right on the fucking money. Just being nice and offering someone the option to sell their labour to survive isn’t close to enough, and so Oenone has NO FUCKING IDEA how to help Trianon more specifically. His needs, to some extent unmet. It makes sense, he’s a little autistic guy and he’s trying to move through a world designed exclusively by and for neurotypicals with a disability. There’s a question mark hanging over Oenone’s understanding of Trianon in the first place, a question of whether or not she even knows him truly. He did shed a lot of his more “embarrassing” hobbies and interests after high school. The longer he stays trapped with Insul, the clearer it becomes that shit wasn’t working anyway. Insul might be an assole 99% of the time, but he has a point when he talks about how obviously Oenone sucks. I mean, she can’t even protect him, right? After becoming concerned at texts she received, (because Insul forced Trianon to write an “im breaking up with u” thing) the primary content of their discussion in the aquarium (with Insul close by) is her admonishing Trianon for losing the conservator report. Even though he is very obviously under duress and kidnapped, she still can’t tell. Excellent work, ma’am.
Still, this obviously isn’t a fucking get-out-of-jail-free card for Trianon, or Insul for that matter, and that’s pretty much what makes Serious Weakness a TOXIC yaoi. Trianon might desperately need a life that better suits him, but he really does not need this weird blank-faced guy who seems to get off on hurting him and literally doesn’t respect him as a person. “It’s not gay, it’s incest” may be one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, but even if much of what goes on between Trianon and Insul in the first half could be construed as hot, it was obviously never going to end well.
It’s weird, but in the second half, Trianon starts nudging toward this realisation too.
Serious Weakness is (from my view) the foremost respresentative of the Slimetrash Cinematic Universe, and yet it changed my definition of what that is considerably. If you think about Psycho Nymph Exile, it has futuristic gory mecha and a full-bore apocalypse with tones of anime influence, and everything is sticky and wet and organic in the worst way and there’s kudzu everywhere, right? By contrast, Serious Weakness takes place pretty close to the modern day in the United States, actually. For the first half it seems entirely contemporary, at least until the skyscraper penthouse where Trianon (still kidnapped by Insul, also attending) and Oenone attend a work party lurches and vibrates. An earthquake, which in pretty short order means a flood. Past the halfway point it starts raining and pretty much doesn’t ever stop, which felt both surprisingly tame and very in keeping with the tone. Sections of road falling away, infrastructure destroyed, it all pretty much rocks.
Since I don’t think enough people have read Serious Weakness and had their brains rewritten, I’ll stop short of spoiling the full thing even though I REALLY would like to discuss it.
The thing that hurt the most, the best, about Trianon’s little journey was making calls early like I saw them, and being dead-on accurate. He does have to work harder than everyone else just to get half as far as they do, he does have to play a constant zero-sum game of trying desperately not to be “annoying” that half the time ends up with people thinking that anyway. He’s exhausted by it all, and past a point all he wants is someone else to care for him. Not the way Oenone does, like a “normal functioning member of society”, but actually making sure his needs are met, his sensory considerations, allowed to stim. He feels deathly afraid of letting his mask slip around Oenone, since she always seems so put together and their relationship is kind of predicated on him being a “functioning”, social being. They met at a concert while they were both on ecstacy, of course.
This book almost hurts just to write about.
I’ve seen various books and stuff have autistic protagonists that I relate to or who I think rock, it’s not totally unheard of, but what I see in Trianon is a mirror, honestly. I jumped off the couch and shouted at the page, saying he’d be burnt out in five years, because I know how it goes personally. I tried my best to be likeable and employable at a job I got through a minor nepo connection in service to being “normal” and “functioning”, and it basically fucking killed me. I worked my stupid ass off until I physically couldn’t function anymore, and what did I get for it? Fired. Dumped out like all that mattered was the veneer of normalcy and functioning I kept up. It’s not exactly the same, but like a vision I foresaw a similar fate for Trianon. The way he talks about having to justify his existence in order to be cared for at all fucking hurt. To paraphrase the book, Oenone’s an understanding person with a sense of humor, so maybe he could have been more himself and allowed them to grow together. Or maybe she would have hated it. Dude must be so fucking tired.
There isn’t really any respite for Trianon, though. All that Insul does is push his boundaries, dressing him in feminine outfits, making him an accomplice to murder and pushing gross, horrible feelings onto him in between tiny, savoured moments of kindness and tenderness. Dates at boba tea joints. It’s kind of awful, but Insul enjoys having someone who hurts, whose feelings are written on their face and can’t be hidden. This is not a good autism4autism relationship, no, but Insul says he’s going to keep pushing until one of them breaks. He’s not well adjusted, either.
Insul is kind of a strange critter. I can’t even reliably say if he’s gay or not, because again, “It’s not gay, it’s incest”. He clearly enjoys having an autistic little brother to forcibly kiss, with tongue, which is unusual given that he’s a school shooter. He looked up to this kid his age in highschool, Blake, and they bonded and felt edgy about how empty and hollow and constructed society is. When Blake went all Dylan Klebold, though, he didn’t really cut Insul in on the plan, and so Insul has been feeling empty ever since. Suppose that’s why he’s taken to slashing up paintings and battering sculptures.
Of course, there’s a lot more strangeness afoot than just Insul. I’m not sure I could reliably tell you how Trianon feels about the skirts, the slogan tees from Forever 21, the cardigans and stuff. He spends a lot of this novel forcefemmed at Insul’s behest, which, I feel it’s also worthy to note that every single boy in this book is at least pretty good at makeup. Is that just a goth-kid thing, or is there something else there...? It’s a book of unique proclivities. It also really likes using the r-slur, which made it hurt more in a good way. Easy winner for the most horrifying fiction I’ve ever read.
Serious Weakness left me utterly exhausted and deeply satisfied. After finishing Psycho Nymph Exile, I erred away from the (indirect) followup for fear of having my brain overloaded and detonated again. On one hand, I’m glad that I did, because who I was a year ago would NOT have dealt with Serious Weakness properly and I may have actually died. On the other hand, it’s an extremely intense yet relatively uncomplicated story. I felt great while I was reading it, and now that it’s over, having sat and ruminated about it for a while, I feel that usual emptiness I feel when I finish something truly great. I say it with my whole chest when I say that Serious Weakness is probably one of my favourite books ever now. I wasn’t expecting to get suplexed by it the way I was, and I’m very pleased. Porpentine has outdone themself, which is pretty awesome. Been a long time since I finished something this big this fast.
If you know me and you’ve read this, I fucking dare you to talk to me about it. Kinda disappointed that nobody I know of has read or plans on reading this fuckin masterwork. I had to go discover it.
I was bound to this book as if by some kind of thick twine, for days. I remain firm in my belief that Serious Weakness has the power to kill, or rewrite DNA. It’s a life changer, and it might actually even be better than Psycho Nymph Exile.
(I promise not to mention Psycho Nymph 90,000 times, it’s mostly for contrast, the two books have surprisingly little in common)
At its core Serious Weakness is actually pretty simple, guts uncomplicated and not marred by bourgeoisie subtletly. I know authors who use subtext, and they’re all cowards. No, Serious Weakness centers on Trianon, who at the outset works an art conservator type of job with his pretty girlfriend, and is at a client’s house doing an assessment on a painting recently damaged in a rash of art vandalism. Which, lol, lmao, but from his first conversation with the story’s other leading man, Insul, (again not subtle) I was jumping off the couch and shouting at the page, “Nope! Not a fucking chance, he’s not cut out for it!! He’ll never make it, ask me how I know!! It’s unhealthy for him!!”
The foremost thing I knew about this novel before going in was that it had been described as “autistic failson yaoi”. This descriptor is both “what it says on the tin” and also fails to capture the range that Serious Weakness has. This is a story about being autistic, down to its marrow. The Trianon we see in the first chapter appears as a relatively put-together individual. You know, a ‘respectable adult’, right? He has a job and a girlfriend, he justifies his existence. He takes pyridostigmine for myasthenia, (a muscular degenerative disease mostly affecting the face) and doesn’t do anything “cringe” or otherwise out-of-line. He clearly has a passion for art, but it’s mixed up in masking behaviour, isn’t it? It doesn’t seem like he gets to infodump enough about it. Insul stops him partway through.
Ostensibly the painter of the destroyed work in question, but c’mon get serious, Insul instead beats Trianon half to death with a tennis racket, burns all of his stuff and kidnaps him from this gigantic fancy house. This is initially because Insul wants access to the gallery Trianon works for, to fuck up more artworks, (everything from abstract sculptures to renaissance-era paintings) but c’mon, get serious. Insul is destructive because he hasn’t developed since high school.
I’ll try not to get bogged down in summary, because Serious Weakness actually is pretty simple, even though it feels hard to explain. Insul removes Trianon from the safe, “normal” life he had, and thus removes him from everything that weighed on him. Feels like it’s hard to explain eloquently, but at that point Trianon doesn’t have to worry about desperately fumbling through arcane social rituals and facial expressions he can barely understand even with his girlfriend’s help. He doesn’t have to worry about how to dress himself right, or if his interests are considered “cringy”, or if he’s taking his medicine on time, or even like schedule anything.
It feels almost kind of ugly, laying out Serious Weakness in its component parts like that, but that is what it is. It’s kind of like a twisted and fucked up “which way, western man?” sorta thing, in a way. This novel does contain at least one utterance of the phrase “traps are gay” so it’s not that far off of that vibe.
The downshot of all that, of course, is that his removal is at the behest of Insul, who is for all the world a former-would-be school shooter and pretty much a Columbine kind of kid. Maybe less gleeful about it than usual, though, because like me, in Trianon he spotted one of his own, instantly: autistic. Say it with me now, “You’re like an autistic little brother I can put my tongue inside”. So it’s troubling and distressing on one level, because Insul beats Trianon within an inch of his life and then chains him to the toilet in the beach house of a woman he drowned. Y’know, that’d get to anybody. The trouble is, the more Trianon flails and reaches for escape, for a return to his life, the more it becomes clear that maybe he isn’t best served by it.
Trianon’s girlfriend is named Oenone, and I swear to fuck she absolutely isn’t a bad person. I liveblogged about hating her guts, and while I’d still give her the stink-eye for referring to Trianon’s condition as “your disability stuff”, she is always doing her best. Yes, she is a complete “normie” (which in Serious Weakness’ case, translates almost 1:1 as “neurotypical) and living like it, but she’s nice, right? She loves Trianon and tries to support him, right? By getting him a nepobaby job? Coaching him through social challenges and whatever? Yeah...
Initially I was sure that I was just being presumptuous again, seeing what wasn’t there, but as it turns out I was right on the fucking money. Just being nice and offering someone the option to sell their labour to survive isn’t close to enough, and so Oenone has NO FUCKING IDEA how to help Trianon more specifically. His needs, to some extent unmet. It makes sense, he’s a little autistic guy and he’s trying to move through a world designed exclusively by and for neurotypicals with a disability. There’s a question mark hanging over Oenone’s understanding of Trianon in the first place, a question of whether or not she even knows him truly. He did shed a lot of his more “embarrassing” hobbies and interests after high school. The longer he stays trapped with Insul, the clearer it becomes that shit wasn’t working anyway. Insul might be an assole 99% of the time, but he has a point when he talks about how obviously Oenone sucks. I mean, she can’t even protect him, right? After becoming concerned at texts she received, (because Insul forced Trianon to write an “im breaking up with u” thing) the primary content of their discussion in the aquarium (with Insul close by) is her admonishing Trianon for losing the conservator report. Even though he is very obviously under duress and kidnapped, she still can’t tell. Excellent work, ma’am.
Still, this obviously isn’t a fucking get-out-of-jail-free card for Trianon, or Insul for that matter, and that’s pretty much what makes Serious Weakness a TOXIC yaoi. Trianon might desperately need a life that better suits him, but he really does not need this weird blank-faced guy who seems to get off on hurting him and literally doesn’t respect him as a person. “It’s not gay, it’s incest” may be one of the funniest things I’ve ever read, but even if much of what goes on between Trianon and Insul in the first half could be construed as hot, it was obviously never going to end well.
It’s weird, but in the second half, Trianon starts nudging toward this realisation too.
Serious Weakness is (from my view) the foremost respresentative of the Slimetrash Cinematic Universe, and yet it changed my definition of what that is considerably. If you think about Psycho Nymph Exile, it has futuristic gory mecha and a full-bore apocalypse with tones of anime influence, and everything is sticky and wet and organic in the worst way and there’s kudzu everywhere, right? By contrast, Serious Weakness takes place pretty close to the modern day in the United States, actually. For the first half it seems entirely contemporary, at least until the skyscraper penthouse where Trianon (still kidnapped by Insul, also attending) and Oenone attend a work party lurches and vibrates. An earthquake, which in pretty short order means a flood. Past the halfway point it starts raining and pretty much doesn’t ever stop, which felt both surprisingly tame and very in keeping with the tone. Sections of road falling away, infrastructure destroyed, it all pretty much rocks.
Since I don’t think enough people have read Serious Weakness and had their brains rewritten, I’ll stop short of spoiling the full thing even though I REALLY would like to discuss it.
The thing that hurt the most, the best, about Trianon’s little journey was making calls early like I saw them, and being dead-on accurate. He does have to work harder than everyone else just to get half as far as they do, he does have to play a constant zero-sum game of trying desperately not to be “annoying” that half the time ends up with people thinking that anyway. He’s exhausted by it all, and past a point all he wants is someone else to care for him. Not the way Oenone does, like a “normal functioning member of society”, but actually making sure his needs are met, his sensory considerations, allowed to stim. He feels deathly afraid of letting his mask slip around Oenone, since she always seems so put together and their relationship is kind of predicated on him being a “functioning”, social being. They met at a concert while they were both on ecstacy, of course.
This book almost hurts just to write about.
I’ve seen various books and stuff have autistic protagonists that I relate to or who I think rock, it’s not totally unheard of, but what I see in Trianon is a mirror, honestly. I jumped off the couch and shouted at the page, saying he’d be burnt out in five years, because I know how it goes personally. I tried my best to be likeable and employable at a job I got through a minor nepo connection in service to being “normal” and “functioning”, and it basically fucking killed me. I worked my stupid ass off until I physically couldn’t function anymore, and what did I get for it? Fired. Dumped out like all that mattered was the veneer of normalcy and functioning I kept up. It’s not exactly the same, but like a vision I foresaw a similar fate for Trianon. The way he talks about having to justify his existence in order to be cared for at all fucking hurt. To paraphrase the book, Oenone’s an understanding person with a sense of humor, so maybe he could have been more himself and allowed them to grow together. Or maybe she would have hated it. Dude must be so fucking tired.
There isn’t really any respite for Trianon, though. All that Insul does is push his boundaries, dressing him in feminine outfits, making him an accomplice to murder and pushing gross, horrible feelings onto him in between tiny, savoured moments of kindness and tenderness. Dates at boba tea joints. It’s kind of awful, but Insul enjoys having someone who hurts, whose feelings are written on their face and can’t be hidden. This is not a good autism4autism relationship, no, but Insul says he’s going to keep pushing until one of them breaks. He’s not well adjusted, either.
Insul is kind of a strange critter. I can’t even reliably say if he’s gay or not, because again, “It’s not gay, it’s incest”. He clearly enjoys having an autistic little brother to forcibly kiss, with tongue, which is unusual given that he’s a school shooter. He looked up to this kid his age in highschool, Blake, and they bonded and felt edgy about how empty and hollow and constructed society is. When Blake went all Dylan Klebold, though, he didn’t really cut Insul in on the plan, and so Insul has been feeling empty ever since. Suppose that’s why he’s taken to slashing up paintings and battering sculptures.
Of course, there’s a lot more strangeness afoot than just Insul. I’m not sure I could reliably tell you how Trianon feels about the skirts, the slogan tees from Forever 21, the cardigans and stuff. He spends a lot of this novel forcefemmed at Insul’s behest, which, I feel it’s also worthy to note that every single boy in this book is at least pretty good at makeup. Is that just a goth-kid thing, or is there something else there...? It’s a book of unique proclivities. It also really likes using the r-slur, which made it hurt more in a good way. Easy winner for the most horrifying fiction I’ve ever read.
Serious Weakness left me utterly exhausted and deeply satisfied. After finishing Psycho Nymph Exile, I erred away from the (indirect) followup for fear of having my brain overloaded and detonated again. On one hand, I’m glad that I did, because who I was a year ago would NOT have dealt with Serious Weakness properly and I may have actually died. On the other hand, it’s an extremely intense yet relatively uncomplicated story. I felt great while I was reading it, and now that it’s over, having sat and ruminated about it for a while, I feel that usual emptiness I feel when I finish something truly great. I say it with my whole chest when I say that Serious Weakness is probably one of my favourite books ever now. I wasn’t expecting to get suplexed by it the way I was, and I’m very pleased. Porpentine has outdone themself, which is pretty awesome. Been a long time since I finished something this big this fast.
If you know me and you’ve read this, I fucking dare you to talk to me about it. Kinda disappointed that nobody I know of has read or plans on reading this fuckin masterwork. I had to go discover it.
November 4, 2022
Not what I expected, very disturbing and uncomfortable. My chest was tense basically the entire time I was reading it. Not for the faint of heart, but incredibly effective at what it sets out to do with some fascinating, terrifying, heartbreaking characterization.
February 11, 2025
I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about it beyond the fact I love the author’s writing. I didn’t know how long it was (625 pages) and there was no blurb or reviews on the back to indicate literally anything about the plot, setting, etc. I bought it because I had just read two extremely captivating and intense novels and knew I was going to need something even more captivating and intense to get me out of my book hangover, and I figured I could reliably count on Porpentine for that.
It did the trick, that’s for sure. What a fucking book. What a blast. What a delight. My face has ached from three days of manic grinning. I ate this shit up, I brought the gigantic tome with me everywhere to steal a few lines here and there and kept forgetting my water bottle because I was so into it. This is a brilliant novel. It is SO funny and SO sexy and SO immersive and the writing is SO vivid and the characters are SO real. I loved every second of it.
However I came over here to leave a review, and was actually sort of shocked to find that most people had a really different reading experience than I did, and took away really different things from this book. So instead of rehashing shit that’s already been said about Serious Weakness, I thought I’d share a few things I took away from it that I have not seen mentioned yet:
This is a book largely about the cult of masculinity and the deep, complex trenches of male solidarity, even in the face of superficial feminization. Insul and his victim turned bullet wife Trianon choose each other, again and again, under increasingly absurd circumstances and after numerous deaths and resurrections. You could argue that Insul traumatizes Trianon into this, but it’s more messy and technicolor than that. This is a love story. They choose to freeze time together: embrace the immortality chimera together. Trianon’s girlfriend is so deeply insignificant and superfluous to this dynamic that despite her doing everything she can to penetrate their duality (fighting back, offering love, mothering Trianon, bargaining with Insul) they STILL choose each other, because they are the same. That sameness is illustrated explicitly as other things— neurodivergence, lack of empathy, selfishness, a super humanity born from dehumanization, an otherness, shared exclusion from idealized manhood— but the unspoken layer of homo social supremacy permeates everything about this novel. It is a 625 page study (and I’d even say criticism) of the specific breed of misogyny that grows like mushrooms in the deepest recesses of every man born in to and under the patriarchy. Even feminine men. Even gay men. Even abused men. Even disabled men. Even men who choose to cede their power and embrace subjugation at the hands of other men. At the end of the day— there’s still a woman chained to the bed who did nothing wrong.
Other stuff I loved about this novel I see very few people discussing: it takes place in a near future California amid a landscape altering climate disaster and the world building of this near future is SO chillingly and wonderfully done. Porpentine is so insanely talented at this sort of speculative immersion, it blows my mind. The main character is a the son of a right wing d list celebrity streamer and it alters Trianons worldview and characterization in such a well observed and hilariously organic way. I laughed aloud at every other page of this book honestly, because it is just packed, claustrophobically, with holistic near future cultural references that feel SO insanely real to me.
I wish everyone could read this novel. It’s genius. It raw and fresh and incisive and honest. It’s tender and malicious and cute and hollow. But tbh I wouldn’t recommend it to most people because I don’t think they’d enjoy it as much as I did, or get far enough into it to actually reach the point it all comes together as a brilliant work of art. However, if you wish the Passenger (2023) had been explicitly instead of implicitly gay, are in school shooter/ TCC fandom, or have idly wondered what Disco Bloodbath/Party Monster would be like if it was 600 pages and fictional and pornographic, then you will likely love this book as much as I did.
It did the trick, that’s for sure. What a fucking book. What a blast. What a delight. My face has ached from three days of manic grinning. I ate this shit up, I brought the gigantic tome with me everywhere to steal a few lines here and there and kept forgetting my water bottle because I was so into it. This is a brilliant novel. It is SO funny and SO sexy and SO immersive and the writing is SO vivid and the characters are SO real. I loved every second of it.
However I came over here to leave a review, and was actually sort of shocked to find that most people had a really different reading experience than I did, and took away really different things from this book. So instead of rehashing shit that’s already been said about Serious Weakness, I thought I’d share a few things I took away from it that I have not seen mentioned yet:
This is a book largely about the cult of masculinity and the deep, complex trenches of male solidarity, even in the face of superficial feminization. Insul and his victim turned bullet wife Trianon choose each other, again and again, under increasingly absurd circumstances and after numerous deaths and resurrections. You could argue that Insul traumatizes Trianon into this, but it’s more messy and technicolor than that. This is a love story. They choose to freeze time together: embrace the immortality chimera together. Trianon’s girlfriend is so deeply insignificant and superfluous to this dynamic that despite her doing everything she can to penetrate their duality (fighting back, offering love, mothering Trianon, bargaining with Insul) they STILL choose each other, because they are the same. That sameness is illustrated explicitly as other things— neurodivergence, lack of empathy, selfishness, a super humanity born from dehumanization, an otherness, shared exclusion from idealized manhood— but the unspoken layer of homo social supremacy permeates everything about this novel. It is a 625 page study (and I’d even say criticism) of the specific breed of misogyny that grows like mushrooms in the deepest recesses of every man born in to and under the patriarchy. Even feminine men. Even gay men. Even abused men. Even disabled men. Even men who choose to cede their power and embrace subjugation at the hands of other men. At the end of the day— there’s still a woman chained to the bed who did nothing wrong.
Other stuff I loved about this novel I see very few people discussing: it takes place in a near future California amid a landscape altering climate disaster and the world building of this near future is SO chillingly and wonderfully done. Porpentine is so insanely talented at this sort of speculative immersion, it blows my mind. The main character is a the son of a right wing d list celebrity streamer and it alters Trianons worldview and characterization in such a well observed and hilariously organic way. I laughed aloud at every other page of this book honestly, because it is just packed, claustrophobically, with holistic near future cultural references that feel SO insanely real to me.
I wish everyone could read this novel. It’s genius. It raw and fresh and incisive and honest. It’s tender and malicious and cute and hollow. But tbh I wouldn’t recommend it to most people because I don’t think they’d enjoy it as much as I did, or get far enough into it to actually reach the point it all comes together as a brilliant work of art. However, if you wish the Passenger (2023) had been explicitly instead of implicitly gay, are in school shooter/ TCC fandom, or have idly wondered what Disco Bloodbath/Party Monster would be like if it was 600 pages and fictional and pornographic, then you will likely love this book as much as I did.
June 19, 2024
i would give this more of a 3.5/5 stars, if only because the author's way of writing dialogue made me confused about who was speaking sometimes, and that annoyed me. also, her writing style, which runs the gamut from disgusting & shudder-inducing to gorgeous & moving, took me a bit of time to get adjusted to. the book started off a little rough for me, & i was like "wtf am i even reading?" until things really started to make sense about what was going on. (i knew barely anything about this book before diving in other than how fucked up it is. i kinda recommend the same to anyone else who reads the book, except u should probably know there's lots of violence, multiple rape scenes, school shootings, animal violence, pretty much everything lol)
one of the grossest, most violent & disturbing things i've read in a long time, but strangely tender, moving & captivating. i don't like it when horror fiction makes me feel like the creator is smugly rubbing their hands together & saying over my shoulder "oh yeah, i did that! bet that pissed u off, didn't it? bet i made you uncomfortable, didn't i?" it's one of the biggest things that will turn me off of a movie/tv show (like American Horror Story, Game of Thrones) or novel (see my review "Manhunter" by Gretchen Felker-Martin)
but i didn't feel that at all while reading "Serious Weakness." i don't know how to articulate this fully, but it was empathetic in its brutality. or maybe brutal in its empathy? (i have similar feelings about the film "Titane") i had to reread the last 50 pages after i finished the book the first time because the ending hadn't quite sunk in. i really do recommend this book to people who like hyperviolent horror & are interested in a kidnapper/hostage situation, or just anyone who likes transgressive fiction, but only after you read the trigger warnings and HEED THEM.
there are also lots of really interesting nuances to this story re: gender, neurodivergence & Society (TM). some of the discussions the characters had about The State Of The World & The People In It veered slightly close to "We live in a society" territory, but there was such a keen sense of Self-Awareness throughout the entire novel that it never felt... well, "i'm da Joker, babey" if that makes sense. i'm saying that given the subject matter, it rly could have, but it DIDN'T, at least to me. it all felt horribly real, & i couldn't believe it when i felt myself empathizing with a murderous rapist. after a while of reading this 600+ page novel, i think i started to get stockholm syndrome a little bit.
i read a review from someone who said they felt like they were molested by this book. i kind of agree with this sentiment... but at the same time, i feel like i would love to meet porpentine charity heartscape & just have coffee & chat for hours? i am going to read more of her work. i will also eventually reread this book, which is something i am looking forward to and simultaneously dreading. i've never read anything like this before.
one of the grossest, most violent & disturbing things i've read in a long time, but strangely tender, moving & captivating. i don't like it when horror fiction makes me feel like the creator is smugly rubbing their hands together & saying over my shoulder "oh yeah, i did that! bet that pissed u off, didn't it? bet i made you uncomfortable, didn't i?" it's one of the biggest things that will turn me off of a movie/tv show (like American Horror Story, Game of Thrones) or novel (see my review "Manhunter" by Gretchen Felker-Martin)
but i didn't feel that at all while reading "Serious Weakness." i don't know how to articulate this fully, but it was empathetic in its brutality. or maybe brutal in its empathy? (i have similar feelings about the film "Titane") i had to reread the last 50 pages after i finished the book the first time because the ending hadn't quite sunk in. i really do recommend this book to people who like hyperviolent horror & are interested in a kidnapper/hostage situation, or just anyone who likes transgressive fiction, but only after you read the trigger warnings and HEED THEM.
there are also lots of really interesting nuances to this story re: gender, neurodivergence & Society (TM). some of the discussions the characters had about The State Of The World & The People In It veered slightly close to "We live in a society" territory, but there was such a keen sense of Self-Awareness throughout the entire novel that it never felt... well, "i'm da Joker, babey" if that makes sense. i'm saying that given the subject matter, it rly could have, but it DIDN'T, at least to me. it all felt horribly real, & i couldn't believe it when i felt myself empathizing with a murderous rapist. after a while of reading this 600+ page novel, i think i started to get stockholm syndrome a little bit.
i read a review from someone who said they felt like they were molested by this book. i kind of agree with this sentiment... but at the same time, i feel like i would love to meet porpentine charity heartscape & just have coffee & chat for hours? i am going to read more of her work. i will also eventually reread this book, which is something i am looking forward to and simultaneously dreading. i've never read anything like this before.
January 10, 2026
"I think there was an age where someone could have done whatever they wanted with you. And they did. And now I'm going to do what I want with you. But not like they did. I hope it's different enough to end another way. Maybe they could have changed your life. Your dad. Blake. If they hadn't abused their power. Maybe not. I know it's not that simple. Some people don't know what to do with other people's kindness. They take it until it's gone and move on. Love is a game that adults play with you to get what they want, and you can go decades or even your whole life before meeting someone who isn't playing that game. So why would you act otherwise?"
Wow. Okay. Shit. This is one of my favorite books of all time. This book is perhaps the most wonderful, amazing, horrific, vile, grotesque, sick thing to ever be written. Serious Weakness is intrusive and invasive and packed to the brim with trauma, if suffering was an art form, it would be this book. I don't think it's even possible for me to convey just how important this book is, it has permanently altered my brain chemistry, it has ripped the soul from my body and trampled it into an obtrusive pulpy smear in some nasty little alleyway. Holy fuck, am I thankful to be alive in an age where books like this actually exist. This book is a biblical event, it's the rapture, it's the end of everything you've ever loved. It's like being fucked up on acid and finally meeting God. It's stunning, a nightmare of intimacy and eroticism and abuse and ruined lives, told against a backdrop of a decaying world.
Serious Weakness is one of those most shocking, subversive and daring books that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The sheer cavernous depths of depravity that this book is willing to explore left me both shocked and devastated. It's been a long, long time since any book has left me this broken. And, it's so difficult to say what this book is even about - there's this twink in a skirt that's being held captive, whose abusive boyfriend but not boyfriend (kidnapper) likes to hurt him and whose dad is a right wing podcaster who hates him, and the world is ending and everything is on fire. That's the plot, but that's not really what Serious Weakness is about, it's about the cult of masculinity, climate disaster, the fragile state of the whole world, male solidarity and queerness and not conforming to what society expects of neurodiverse people, and even all of that only scratches the surface. It's unrelenting, and fierce, and I promise, you'll never encounter another book like this, ever.
It's crazy how Serious Weakness made me emotionally vulnerable in a way that I had almost forgotten books even could. What a fucking sickening and cruel book, it's so viscerally upsetting it will ruin your entire life. This is only my second book by Porpentine, it's early days for me and their work, but, it's so clear that Porpentine is insanely talented, there's a level of immersion and intimacy here that is second to none, it makes you feel as if this book is fucking consuming you. There's no escape from the horrors of this novel, yet, despite all the fucked up, vile, foul shit happening, there's something really beautiful here, climate disaster and queerness and toxic masculinity is portrayed with such tenderness, it's startling in a book like this. This is one of the scariest books I have ever read, not because it's horror, but because it dragged me out of my comfort zone and forced me to confront feelings I have spent years being afraid of. A masterpiece. I will never stop thinking about this book.
Thank you, Porpentine, for writing perhaps the most horrific book I've ever read, thank you for forcing me to make "this book about a school shooter forcing someone to be his boyfriend and them fucking a ton was the best thing I've ever read" sound eloquent.
"He lays there, paralyzed. He'd assumed Insul didn't function down there, his urges sublimated into vandalistic fetishism. This is too personal. This is - "Even if your cuts heal perfectly, you won't be the same. Every day you'll make mistakes because of me. You won't be as confident." Trianon can't hold the tears back any longer, his lips tearing open with the poison air he was holding inside, shaking with incoherent throat sounds. He tries to pull free, willing to fall off the bed if he has to, but Insul holds him tight. Their bodies twitch together in jagged humidity, until Insul finally rolls back, panting."
Wow. Okay. Shit. This is one of my favorite books of all time. This book is perhaps the most wonderful, amazing, horrific, vile, grotesque, sick thing to ever be written. Serious Weakness is intrusive and invasive and packed to the brim with trauma, if suffering was an art form, it would be this book. I don't think it's even possible for me to convey just how important this book is, it has permanently altered my brain chemistry, it has ripped the soul from my body and trampled it into an obtrusive pulpy smear in some nasty little alleyway. Holy fuck, am I thankful to be alive in an age where books like this actually exist. This book is a biblical event, it's the rapture, it's the end of everything you've ever loved. It's like being fucked up on acid and finally meeting God. It's stunning, a nightmare of intimacy and eroticism and abuse and ruined lives, told against a backdrop of a decaying world.
Serious Weakness is one of those most shocking, subversive and daring books that I've ever had the pleasure of reading. The sheer cavernous depths of depravity that this book is willing to explore left me both shocked and devastated. It's been a long, long time since any book has left me this broken. And, it's so difficult to say what this book is even about - there's this twink in a skirt that's being held captive, whose abusive boyfriend but not boyfriend (kidnapper) likes to hurt him and whose dad is a right wing podcaster who hates him, and the world is ending and everything is on fire. That's the plot, but that's not really what Serious Weakness is about, it's about the cult of masculinity, climate disaster, the fragile state of the whole world, male solidarity and queerness and not conforming to what society expects of neurodiverse people, and even all of that only scratches the surface. It's unrelenting, and fierce, and I promise, you'll never encounter another book like this, ever.
"Trianon looks at the crushed pills. The dosage wouldn't be right. And someone's germs are down there, thriving in a humid environment. But he can't go back to being so weak, pinned under those arms, struggling helplessly-He kneels down and pinches at the pill paste forming on the moist tile. Something hits his back, pushing him down. Insul's boot, grinding between his shoulder blades. "Use your mouth or I wash them away." Trianon feels like he's going to puke again, all over the medicine. "You're being really mean." "You know it's the only thing people respect." He licks pyridostigmine powder off the shower floor, gross, disgusting, but it's in him now, a percetage of his bloodstream reclaimed, and Insul can't take that away."
It's crazy how Serious Weakness made me emotionally vulnerable in a way that I had almost forgotten books even could. What a fucking sickening and cruel book, it's so viscerally upsetting it will ruin your entire life. This is only my second book by Porpentine, it's early days for me and their work, but, it's so clear that Porpentine is insanely talented, there's a level of immersion and intimacy here that is second to none, it makes you feel as if this book is fucking consuming you. There's no escape from the horrors of this novel, yet, despite all the fucked up, vile, foul shit happening, there's something really beautiful here, climate disaster and queerness and toxic masculinity is portrayed with such tenderness, it's startling in a book like this. This is one of the scariest books I have ever read, not because it's horror, but because it dragged me out of my comfort zone and forced me to confront feelings I have spent years being afraid of. A masterpiece. I will never stop thinking about this book.
Thank you, Porpentine, for writing perhaps the most horrific book I've ever read, thank you for forcing me to make "this book about a school shooter forcing someone to be his boyfriend and them fucking a ton was the best thing I've ever read" sound eloquent.
"He lays there, paralyzed. He'd assumed Insul didn't function down there, his urges sublimated into vandalistic fetishism. This is too personal. This is - "Even if your cuts heal perfectly, you won't be the same. Every day you'll make mistakes because of me. You won't be as confident." Trianon can't hold the tears back any longer, his lips tearing open with the poison air he was holding inside, shaking with incoherent throat sounds. He tries to pull free, willing to fall off the bed if he has to, but Insul holds him tight. Their bodies twitch together in jagged humidity, until Insul finally rolls back, panting."
July 26, 2025
really fantastic stuff. serious weakness is meaty and juicy like nothing ive read before.
loses a star for two reasons: purely as preference i wasn't a huge fan of when the prose would shift to poetry. the bigger thing is that the third act stumbled for me. it started to feel repetitive, like the author wanted to continue in the setting but didn't have much plot left (honestly fair - i didn't want to leave the setting either), and the ending was a bit disappointing. it felt a little bit like the central relationship jumped from a to c and left b behind.
but in the ending's defense i am really glad that a lot of things went technically unresolved and unspoken, and it also left me with an extremely strong mental image of the protagonist that keeps popping up in my head. yay for serious weakness!!
loses a star for two reasons: purely as preference i wasn't a huge fan of when the prose would shift to poetry. the bigger thing is that the third act stumbled for me. it started to feel repetitive, like the author wanted to continue in the setting but didn't have much plot left (honestly fair - i didn't want to leave the setting either), and the ending was a bit disappointing. it felt a little bit like the central relationship jumped from a to c and left b behind.
but in the ending's defense i am really glad that a lot of things went technically unresolved and unspoken, and it also left me with an extremely strong mental image of the protagonist that keeps popping up in my head. yay for serious weakness!!
September 13, 2025
i had such high hopes for this one. i wanted to love it so bad, the premise sounded so promising but i ended up struggling to get through this book. i don’t know if it’s because the writing was so painfully gen z (and bad) or maybe it’s because i couldn’t bring myself to care about any of the characters no matter how hard i tried, or maybe because it simply wasn’t disturbing enough for me. in fact, this book wasn’t really that disturbing, it tried soo hard to be edgy and ended up being incredibly cringe.
i don’t actually know if my main problem with this book is it’s abysmal style of writing (sorry i think i have a taste and it’s a good one) or the plot (actually i think any plot can be saved by good writing), but the fact is i suffered through this book and it makes me so sad because i expected a lot more from it based on reviews.
it had its moments but overall i regret spending so much time on it.
p.s. ever since i read that one review that says “this is want hannibal wants to be” i remember it once a day and seethe with rage
i don’t actually know if my main problem with this book is it’s abysmal style of writing (sorry i think i have a taste and it’s a good one) or the plot (actually i think any plot can be saved by good writing), but the fact is i suffered through this book and it makes me so sad because i expected a lot more from it based on reviews.
it had its moments but overall i regret spending so much time on it.
p.s. ever since i read that one review that says “this is want hannibal wants to be” i remember it once a day and seethe with rage
August 12, 2024
A disgusting and cruel book, but with depth and reason that left me stunned. In today’s world it feels like things like gayness and neurodivergence have been finally accepted, but only on the condition that you still adhere to the ideals of neurotypical/straight people. That’s why it’s so refreshing to have a book which recognises this, and exposes you, ripping you out of your numbed socially acceptable existence, and forcing you to feel the things you were always too scared to. Although it may not be healthy or entertaining to have a book hurl slurs at you, and confront you with disgusting things which you likely wouldn’t enjoy even if it was socially acceptable, it is still unspeakably cathartic to know what’s possible.
January 28, 2026
People talk about this book like it’s some transcendent simultaneously gross-and-gorgeous realistic LGBTQ autistic blah-blah-blah, but being serious this book was written in a way that is completely uninterested in being anything else but a uninspired perverted basic story in the same vein as a fan-fiction on Ao3 with the tag “dead dove: do not eat”. It is not a good romance, and unfortunately not a good horror novel either. It seems more interested in the aesthetics of appearing like a surrealistic avant-garde novel rather than holding anything of substance. I came in with high expectations, and it truly did disappoint.
October 26, 2024
this was completely insane. intensely humanising, cathartic, disgusting, and beautiful. somehow all horrifying, hilarious, and... heartwarming? in some ways trianon is viscerally relatable to me. physically disabled, socially disabled, genderally disabled, weak-bodied, drifting-eyed autist. i love him.
February 6, 2024
It all bled together in the end - it was so horrific I had to take breaks, it was an out of body experience, with a strange sense of catharsis. I’m scared of how this book made me feel and I love that feeling. So many emotions, such incredible writing.
November 23, 2022
abject suffering
November 4, 2024
autistic gays never beating the school shooter allegations
December 1, 2024
Go into this blind. PLEASE
November 13, 2025
"Its going to get really dark now"
Obra maestra del dolor. Lo leí en el trabajo, donde al terminar cada jornada, me sentía más cansado por el libro que el laburo en sí. Me pareció dolorosísimo y me cuesta escribir a detalle de él, así que solo dos ideas:
1. Propentine entiende a la literatura en esa forma purista de ser el medio que mejor captura la forma y los ritmos del pensamiento. Sus casi seiscientas páginas no las abarcan tanto eventos, sino la forma de procesarlos. Es un libro que se revolca en cada idea, sentir, textura y sufrir.
2. Me movió cosas muy personales que creeía olvidadas, de las que en parte va la novela: ese constante, pero bien escondido miedo, de nunca haber dejado de ser aquella versión tuya que tanto despreciabas, aunque nunca lograste sofocar la idea de que era tu verdadero yo: y al verdadero tú nadie lo ama; y a la persona que sí aman no eres tú; y que la forma de amar a ese verdadero tú es a través del daño, de lo insano, de lo subhumano, lo cringe, lo denigrante, lo infantilizado, la desnudez absoluta. Confundir la vulnerabilidad con el abuso, y que no tanto creas que aquello es verdad, pero que resulte serlo: ser libre es ser tu mismo, y tú, estás roto.
Propentine es increíble. Una de mis nuevas escritoras favoritas.
Obra maestra del dolor. Lo leí en el trabajo, donde al terminar cada jornada, me sentía más cansado por el libro que el laburo en sí. Me pareció dolorosísimo y me cuesta escribir a detalle de él, así que solo dos ideas:
1. Propentine entiende a la literatura en esa forma purista de ser el medio que mejor captura la forma y los ritmos del pensamiento. Sus casi seiscientas páginas no las abarcan tanto eventos, sino la forma de procesarlos. Es un libro que se revolca en cada idea, sentir, textura y sufrir.
2. Me movió cosas muy personales que creeía olvidadas, de las que en parte va la novela: ese constante, pero bien escondido miedo, de nunca haber dejado de ser aquella versión tuya que tanto despreciabas, aunque nunca lograste sofocar la idea de que era tu verdadero yo: y al verdadero tú nadie lo ama; y a la persona que sí aman no eres tú; y que la forma de amar a ese verdadero tú es a través del daño, de lo insano, de lo subhumano, lo cringe, lo denigrante, lo infantilizado, la desnudez absoluta. Confundir la vulnerabilidad con el abuso, y que no tanto creas que aquello es verdad, pero que resulte serlo: ser libre es ser tu mismo, y tú, estás roto.
Propentine es increíble. Una de mis nuevas escritoras favoritas.
October 17, 2025
I regret reading this book. My morbid curiosity really screwed me over this time.
This reads like a bad fanfic. Almost all the characters had names I couldn’t pronounce if you asked me to. The characters are constantly on the verge of dying and probably should’ve died at least three times over. The use of the R slur was unnecessary and made me very uncomfortable. The lyrics made me want to throw my phone at the wall, and in the end I wish I could get back the days it took me to read this because I hated it. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
This reads like a bad fanfic. Almost all the characters had names I couldn’t pronounce if you asked me to. The characters are constantly on the verge of dying and probably should’ve died at least three times over. The use of the R slur was unnecessary and made me very uncomfortable. The lyrics made me want to throw my phone at the wall, and in the end I wish I could get back the days it took me to read this because I hated it. Thank you for coming to my ted talk.
February 2, 2026
Amazing book, somehow manages to cram so many ideas about art and culture and humanity into the shape of some irreperably fucked up yaoi. I think the most fascinating thing for me was my response. I usually struggle to read stuff like this, I used to be better about it but as I've gotten older I think I've gotten a weaker stomach. but this totally broke through that barrier, it was a tough read but I had no desire to stop reading either. there was something almost nostalgic or familiar. maybe I identify with the POV characters lack of willpower? my break is almost over, but i wanna keep thinking abt this.
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