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margaret's review against another edition
dark
tense
5.0
*screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming and screaming and*
Lee Mandelo said is anyone going to find homoeroticism in the monstrous and then didn't wait for an answer
so like. THE WOODS ALL BLACK is basically a perfect novella?? and I don't know what to do with myself now that I've read it??
the story follows Leslie Bruin, a nurse traveling to a small town in 1927 Appalachia to administer vaccinations and health care. viewed as a woman, he is greeted with hostility by the townspeople who consider any deviation from the norm to be dangerous. throughout the 160 or so pages, an eerie, unsettling atmosphere underpins a story that asks: who are the true monsters - the ones who dare to live as themselves, or the ones who would force them back into the boxes prescribed upon them since birth?
this book has so much to say about queerness and transness, intolerance and complicity, justice and revenge. it breaks apart every expectation I had going in. I personally love when queer historical books allow their characters to be undefinable by modern standards, because even today's labels of gender and sexuality are imperfect and limiting.
I can't tell you how many times I screamed aloud while reading this, and after I finished I had to pace around my apartment for ten minutes. it was horrifying and sickening and satisfying and cathartic; I wanted to burst with how much I loved it and how awful (complimentary) it was. plus, lee mandelo's writing is SO gorgeous. this cements him as a favorite author for me, and this as one of my new favorite novellas.
Lee Mandelo said is anyone going to find homoeroticism in the monstrous and then didn't wait for an answer
so like. THE WOODS ALL BLACK is basically a perfect novella?? and I don't know what to do with myself now that I've read it??
the story follows Leslie Bruin, a nurse traveling to a small town in 1927 Appalachia to administer vaccinations and health care. viewed as a woman, he is greeted with hostility by the townspeople who consider any deviation from the norm to be dangerous. throughout the 160 or so pages, an eerie, unsettling atmosphere underpins a story that asks: who are the true monsters - the ones who dare to live as themselves, or the ones who would force them back into the boxes prescribed upon them since birth?
this book has so much to say about queerness and transness, intolerance and complicity, justice and revenge. it breaks apart every expectation I had going in. I personally love when queer historical books allow their characters to be undefinable by modern standards, because even today's labels of gender and sexuality are imperfect and limiting.
I can't tell you how many times I screamed aloud while reading this, and after I finished I had to pace around my apartment for ten minutes. it was horrifying and sickening and satisfying and cathartic; I wanted to burst with how much I loved it and how awful (complimentary) it was. plus, lee mandelo's writing is SO gorgeous. this cements him as a favorite author for me, and this as one of my new favorite novellas.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Homophobia, Deadnaming, Medical content, Gore, Transphobia, and Death
Moderate: Child abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Dysphoria, Animal death, Rape, and Cannibalism
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