21st Century Literature discussion

Welcome everyone to the October read of Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. It's always fun to read a haunted house story in the fall.

Who is planning to join?

Picked up my copy of the book from the library late last week!

I'm in, planning to start today (group reads snuck up on me this month).

I've finished it. Nothing like what I usually read, but I was glad to stretch my reading horizons. I think it's imaginative and creative.

I'll be curious to see what folks think of this. I used this work as a purchase suggestion for a local library to test how welcoming the area is to trans folks such as I. They accepted it, which was nice (as well as useful).

Just picked up my copy from the library. Will finish up a couple little reading projects and join.

My library had it. It's great so far. Strong parallels to the Brit series I May Destroy You. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt11204260...

Also a big nod of appreciation to her use of the epigraph by Isabel Fall, who suffered more from her advocacy of gender choice than the characters in this novel; SHE is a real person. Isabel's story can be heard at: https://youtu.be/VG2kRAouORw?si=k5lYK...

Picking it up from the library this week!

I loved this when I read in - fittingly on Halloween in 2021 (and I read her next Brainwyrms at the same time in 2023). Some very clever intertextuality.

I will start a second thread where we can share spoiler comments. I'm glad to see so many joining.

Barely started, and so far completely hooked and completely creeped out.

Ms. Rumfitt has this to say in the acknowledgements: "Tell Me I'm Worthless was written in the haze of the first Lockdown, after I retreated from the very small room I rented in someone else's house back to my parents' place. So firstly I have to thank them, for providing me with a place to hide from the world for a little while, and for forcing me to go outside and touch grass every couple of days. But they probably shouldn't be reading this, considering they aren't meant to be reading the book due to all the sex, so they'll never know I thanked them here. So it goes." Do I sense a tip of the hat to Vonnegut?

I've read a lot of Alison Rumfitt's non-fiction online - probably all of it - and liked it. But this really didn't work for me, I gave up fairly early on. I could go with the whole England's a right-wing, violent, phobic, "shithole" concept. But I found the execution awkward and excruciatingly heavy-handed. It just felt so desperate to be outrageous and transgressive, it left me cold. Or maybe it's just that when you've actually experienced sexual violence it doesn't work so well as a plot device. I think I was supposed to be all wtf but ended up more ffs!

The huge county consortium I'm part of on Libby finally got an ebook of this, so that's pretty cool.