Waif caught my attention immediately. I mean, that cover! Underground plastic surgery! A queer girl gang! It sounded like the stuff my feminist horror dreams are made of.

And there are elements of this book that I adored. The sections about the protagonist's efforts to suppress her queerness--and even her own knowledge of her queerness--are an excellent depiction of compulsory heterosexuality, so relatable that they left me floored. All the stuff about her realizing that she must walk through the world of men alone? Yeah, that's real. That made me shiver.

It also tickled me to see the found family trope in a story completely divorced from the wholesome, bloodless, uwu context in which you typically see it. Because deep down I am a grizzled thing made out of rawhide and razorblades and I have a demon inside me that cannot abide joy, I guess.

But I also thought that Waif needed more time to develop its characters, their relationships, and their motivations. As it was, the plot felt a bit disjointed and I kept thinking, "Okay, but why is [character] doing [thing]?

Spoiler

If her husband doesn't value her and thinks you can replace anything/anyone with enough money... why is he down to get plastic surgery to be attractive to her? Wouldn't it be easier to cast her aside and get a different wife?

"

Verdict: I like the ideas Kolesnik is working toward, but I just think they needed a couple hundred more pages to percolate and a little more finesse.