ALC Review: Dead Animals by Phoebe Stuckes
Author: Phoebe Stuckes
Edition: ALC
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton Audio (April 11, 2024)
Genre: Adult, Horror, LGBTQIA+,
Synopsis
There is something creeping at the edge of your vision, lingering somewhere just out of focus. All it would take is to let your mind wander, to let it come into view.
A young woman wakes after a house party with scratches and bruises – and a gap in her memory.
As the violent truth comes back to her – a series of events she struggles to name – her anger grows.
Solace comes in the form of enigmatic, captivating Helene, who knows what the man at the party did, has suffered at his hands too. An act of violence demands one in return and Helene is planning revenge.
But who can afford to ask for justice, when the cost is murderously high?
My Review of Dead Animals
Dead Animals is a haunting and visceral queer horror novel steeped in feminine rage that explores the aftermath of sexual violence.
⚠️ trigger warnings: domestic and emotional abuse, sexual violence, death, animal death, bullying, panic attacks and dissociation ⚠️
I received a free digital ALC from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review
Queer Horror for the Moshfegh Girlies
Let me say it up front: his is one for the queer Ottessa Moshfegh fangirls, for sure. Dead Animals is visceral and haunting, filled with creeping dread that is equally imminent and nebulous, and soaked in rage. I am a little obsessed with it.
The reading experience (well, listening experience) was incredibly intense, Phoebe Stuckes captures the physical sensations of trauma, the way it takes over and haunts a body so well. I do not recommend listening to this audiobook on a train if, like me, you are prone to dissociate on those journeys anyway because oh boy was that an intensely disorienting reading experience! In a good way, but also definitely haunting.
The unnamed main character goes through the motions of life, barely staying afloat after being sexually assaulted by a man she met at a party. Her life is a series of foggy vignettes, shifting between rage and total numbness in the face of the weight of it all. Working at an offal restaurant as a vegetarian, needing to deal with the social dynamics of being a waitress, being poor and lost, all those aspects add to the creeping sense of dread that the more supernatural elements of horror provide in this book.
Visceral and Haunting
Overall, I was a big fan of the physical horror, the physical manifestation of the main characters emotions, both within her own body and in the world around her. Leaning into horror tropes like shadows in the mirror and flickering lights, the main character’s rage and fear and trauma are both a haunting to herself and leech out into the physical world, she is at once being haunted and the haunting.
As the narration is so close and personal, it barely leaves space for us to wonder how reliable of a narrator the main character is until the very end. We are so intertwined with her body and mind, so immersed in her fragmented reality that until she herself takes a step back in the final pages, her reality becomes all-consuming and unquestionable.
I love books that explore queer relationships, and the shifting dynamics between Helene and the main character was equally intriguing as it was terrifying. Helene, reassured and confident in her murderous rage swallows up the main character who is so eager and willing for someone to swoop in and take care of her. It’s strangely relatable and difficult to read about, this relationship that is so right and so wrong at the same time and devolves into a horror all of its own.
Your Mileage May Vary
Personally, I loved the ending but can also see other readers be a bit disappointed by the speed at which it moves. After all, isn’t this whole book building up to a desperate, rage-filled act of violence? It is, but I think the choice to wrap up those elements rather quickly, with a narrative distance unlike the rest of the book was a perfect choice. I don’t think we need to spend more time with that particular violence and I think the fact that the revenge plot is just brewing in the background, letting the main characters emotional experience take center stage, was the perfect choice.
However, I also think that the intense dissociative emotional quality of this book isn’t for everyone. It is at times difficult to listen to and you should absolutely take a look at the trigger warnings. But if you think that this book might be your cup of tea, I highly recommend giving it a try. It is definitely a book that devours you and spits you back up different.
An Intimate Audiobook Performance
This book managed to feel viscerally close and disconnected at the same time, a magical feat that narrator Anna Burnett masterfully accomplishes with her excellent performance of the audiobook. It felt like an intimate glimpse into the experience of the main character while also transporting the sense of dissociation and numbness, the slipping of time and purpose, reality even. If you love an immersive audiobook that intimately transports you into the mind of a character, this is the audiobook for you!
Overall…
…Combining feminine rage in the face of sexual violence of all magnitudes, a queer romance (if we can call it that) and delightfully eerie horror vibes, Dead Animals is a story that will stay with you long after you finish it, the dread and anger settling into your very bones.
This book is for you if…
…you like Ottessa Moshfegh
…you are looking for a short book that you won’t be able to put down
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One Comment
ahaana @ Windows to Worlds
So glad you liked this book! I love the cover, and I’ve been looking for something different to read lately, so this sounds perfect. Love your review ❤️