This was weird and I kind of loved it. After seeing this cover I absolutely needed to read it, and that just goes to show you that sometimes you CAN judge a book by its cover.
But before I get to what I liked about the book, I do want to nitpick a little, mostly with the marketing. This book is being billed as a “horror comedy” and while it’s most definitely horror, I don’t think it’s comedy. Unless you count satire as a subgenre of comedy (which I don’t). This book really isn’t funny. It takes itself pretty seriously. It’s just, things the book takes seriously are oftentimes silly or weird, and the situations portrayed are often heightened (like, wait for it, a satire). I actually didn’t laugh once while reading this, but I did enjoy the funky atmosphere.
So, yes, this is a book about a lesbian bigfoot (or Sasquatch, if you’d rather) who lives on an island. Except, she’s not as present as you might expect going in, so be prepared for that. Instead, our main characters are four reality show contestants on a show called The Catch. Think a trashier version of The Bachelor. Or, you know, just like The Bachelor actually, but you’re wearing your cynical/realism tinted glasses. We also get POV from Casey, the producer of the show, and basically the brains behind it.
There’s a LOT in here about image-consciousness and social media and hypocrisy, and the general shallowness and pretense of 21st century life. And, you know, there’s also some blood and gore and creepy nights up on top of a mountain where potentially an ape-woman is lurking. And as the title tells us, she just wants to cuddle.
I do recommend this, but only if you like weird shit, and also if you like character pieces that gradually turn into like, the rending of bodies. That stuff doesn’t start for a while, so you do have to know going in that large chunk of this is satire and the horror ramps up more towards the end. But I love when genres smash together, so this was right up my alley.
