“Plums. Well. I did it. I – oh, sweet nectarines, I don’t entirely know what it is I’ve done – but I have most thoroughly and irrevocably done it nonetheless.”

Farcical, for better or for worse. Hijinks, lots of secrets and misunderstandings, everyone gasping and gaping and stammering in disbelief. Fun if you’re into that.

The main focus is Henry fumbling through life and figuring herself out –

her gender, her crush on Septimus, and her place in the world.

This coming-of-age narrative, along with the preoccupation with eloquence and grace (Henry struggles to find the words to express herself; she’s very aware of how clumsily she speaks so she overcompensates in her writing with verbosity, a very self-conscious performance of intelligence and charisma, modelled after the competent characters she looks up to) made me think she was maybe fourteen? I was surprised to find out she’s twenty-one. The quirky “figs!” exclamations and the “my wretched self” angst feel more befitting of a teenager than a full grown adult. It’s just a bit odd.

The other character I was drawn to was Pip Property, the eccentric and vaguely sinister cravat designer.

Except their villainous role was disappointingly undercut by the reveal that they’re simply “under coercion” (in their own words), and dampened by a humanising moment before then where we see them chilling in their home and even learn their deadname. It does feel like Reeve struggled with the whole queer-coded villain thing, toying with the idea of this enigmatic and transgressive figure stalking our protagonists, but also not wanting to demonise them and cast their queerness as evidence of evil. I say go all in and commit to writing a genderfucky pervert. Seriously, just do it. If the rest of the story is going to boil down to relationship drama with a veneer of quirky macabre, you may as well lean in and write a suitably flamboyant villain.

I dunno. I’m not sure what to make of it. It’s not for me, but there were aspects I enjoyed.

CONTENT WARNINGS:

sexism, transphobia, allusions to racism and antisemitism, anxiety and panic attacks, self-loathing, some drunken incestuous flirting, outing, blackmail, kidnap, gun violence, nonconsensual cutting of hair, injury, death, a severed head