Rating: 1 star

This book is supposedly a Heart of Darkness retelling. Nothing of that sort stood out to me at all. And I’ve read Heart of Darkness. (Not for school or anything, just because I had not long discovered audiobooks and was looking for short ones to read... I have a very minimal attention span.) I would never have known that this book was trying to do anything except be weird. Because this book is really weird. My first note is just a single word: weird. There are some elephants and some other things too I think (I read this book exactly 20 days ago, I have little but what I wrote to go off). But it's all just weird. This is one weird-ass book.

I like to think I have more of a tolerance now for weird books. More than I did, anyway. I started out reading classic sci fi with Hitchhiker's, then Fahrenheit 451, Asimov's Foundation trilogy plus I, Robot, a couple of H.G. Wells's works and some Phillip K. Dick, before jumping straight into freaking Stranger In A Strange Land! The weirdest of the weird books! All within the space of like six months or something! I was not ready for that monstrosity. Why did I think that was a good idea?? Why did I do it?? (Well I know why... it was mentioned in a Billy Joel song. I was planning on doing Catcher in the Rye next but I think my experience with Stranger threw me off.) I thought I was experienced enough in weird classic sci fi from watching all of the original Star Trek series but nope. I was still a weird-classic-sci-fi baby. This is all to say that (I think) I am more learned in that sphere now, and now I can look past the weirdness of a book and appreciate it for its other characteristics. Not this one. Nope. Too weird.

But anyway. Getting off topic. This book is weird, we have established that. Now let's talk about the other weird stuff: the weird sexy stuff, because of course it has to be here. Of course we have to have the sexy naked (or naked-adjacent) lady because why should we leave that out. And of course she’s married. And of course we need to keep mentioning her breasts. Especially the nipples. (What is it with old male sci fi authors and female nipples?!) Well, I suppose it is all a very integral part of the story. Adds lots of character depth and plot advancement. The book would be a mere shell of itself without it. Every line of it must be scrutinised in intense detail and bookmarked for further reference. It is paramount that this chapter and no other is considered this book's proudest achievement. Ahhh this scene went on for awhile. It made me extremely uncomfortable. I skip sexy times in books, just pick up plot details and skim over details of the other kind, but this one seemed never ending.

I was going to give the book two stars because it had some good points to make, but no, the weirdness has pushed it down to one. Mmmm maybe one and a half. No it's pretty weird. One.



P.S. if you were wondering, I used the word "weird" 18 times in this review. Including that one.