A dystopia about the normalization and control of the body and the unpersoning of anybody who falls outside the "correct" parameters, showcasing oppressive government control and a subculture outside of it. I found the inclusion of "axes" fascinating, people who aren't citizens but can become citizens of a secondary class of people (who are still treated badly and clearly labelled as class II citizens, but at least they are citizens now!) by axing other defiants and earning their citizenship through blood and especially the fact that a society that claims to abhor violence to see who is tasked with carrying it out and where ("outside their pur(e)view"). I also was very intrigued by the many "corrupt" bodies and minds the book included (the eating disordered, the fat, the trans, the disabled, the Deaf, the mad, the self-harming, the queer, the inter body), which are all bodies targeted by the government's focus on purity and health (as they were and are in our society). I also liked the acknowledgement that society's fatphobia and discrimination against fat people is a factor in many eating disorders (not the only one, but certainly part of many), while society (current and the dystopian one in the novel) like to pretend that eating disorders are a purely personal failing without acknowledging the way society's fatphobia influences and forms them. What I found fascinating also was the many bodies that were inherently excised from the population (the visibly disabled body that cannot hide their disability, the intersex body, those that cannot stomach the food regime due to allergies or other digestive issues). Any body that cannot be fixed to fit the norm was disappeared. And while the exclusion of non-white people is not explicitly stated, there are quite a few hints (emphasis of the palebright skin that allows people to become dr, RSCH, or police, "long dead englishes", the fact that the only (afaik) darker skins that are mentioned is in a pile of corpses), and so even the non-white body has become excluded in this society. The parallel of whiteness and purity (a white wall against ungoverned thoughts, white clothes for drs., white streets and houses) is also constantly reinforced.
There's also a disabled t4t romance that doesn't shy away from showing the ways in which even those relationships can cause harm, but can also be lifesaving love and connection.
The plot itself meanders, gets lost in time and memory, skips like a scratched record and gives small memory flashes as insights to the past. The only true constant we have is the main character I and so we follow I through their journey, with flashbacks to memories, more recent past, hypothetical pasts and futures and the "factual" present. The story is challenging to read, but fascinating and if you've ever wanted to see a book do incredibly interesting things with language and genre, please check this out!
My absolutely favorite part of this novel was the writing style, making use of blank space, different fonts, the inclusion of poetry, word play such as "It was where I first learned to shrug off my parole. (p)erforming (a) (role)", "I ow(n)ed myself", "outside their pur(e)view". Grammar, vocabulary and language in general is portrayed as a shaper (word makes world) and so it is disrupted, reorganized and reclaimed.

Absolutely recommended to anybody who wants more trans, Mad and disabled liberation, if you enjoy the writing style of Charity Heartscape Porpentine and House of Leaves, if you're a true Matrix-Head or want to see something interesting done to linguistics.

tw: oppressive government, control and coercion, ableism, transphobia, eating disorders, fatphobia, interphobia, institutionalization, medical abuse, force feeding, self-harm (probably more that I missed. It's an intense story)

Disclaimer: I received an e-ARC from netgalley in exchange for a review.

3.5 stars rounded up to 4.

I've already read & enjoyed some works by Al Hess and so I was quite excited to check out their newest work. He really has a knack for speculative works with a sweet romance and transgender autistic MCs and this one is no exception.
As someone who enjoys horror, I have to say that one of my favorite parts was the gore-y beginning. If you are squeamish and feel put off by it though I can assure you it doesn't play a very huge role in the story, so please don't let it put you off. Soon after we are thrown back in time to the beginning of this story as Denver, our blunt autistic MC does xir job: testing pie in diners and writing a review on it. On xir way home xe spots a strange thing in the sky. Once xe gets home though xe sees that xir eye lenses have failed to record anything of note and nobody else in town has seen anything unusual. In fact it soon becomes obvious that people in town think of Denver as a bit of an oddball. We are soon told that xe is very blunt and can often rub people the wrong way with xir intense honesty. As xir blog (which is one of xir main sources of income, as xe can't work regular jobs due to xir disability) suddenly starts taking of xe begins to investigate this alien invasion. Soon people disappear or become violent and the creepy alien invasion begins!
I quite enjoyed the way the internet eye lenses are used and while I can imagine how useful something like that could be, I can also imagine how annoying it would be to have notifications appear right in your eyes, always. Yikes.
The story features a relatively small cast of main characters, including Denver, the love interest Ezra, a neighbor that was abducted (whose name I've forgotten) and a few survivors, Taisha, Molly and her brothers. The brothers aren't really given any character traits and I can't even remember if they ever talk? And while I liked Denver, Ezra, Taisha (and the neighbor), I really disliked Molly. Molly is an asshole from the beginning and returns regularly to act like an even bigger bitch throughout the book. While characters can certainly be evil, it felt a bit over the top and ridiculous to me how Incredibly evil she was. From being a generic asshole post office worker, to an unhinged prepper that wants to prolong the apocalypse forever, kidnaps other characters, fools them repeatedly as well as being fatphobic and ableist, it felt a bit too much. While I'm sure prepper types like that would exist in the real world, I kept hoping for something interesting to happen to her character and it only does all the way at the end, which was a bit too late for me to care.
Another thing I would have enjoyed more if characters had grieved for all the people that disappeared in town. While it makes sense that they didn't break down immediately as they aren't really close to anyone in town (especially Denver, whose character arc includes xem figuring out that xe does have connections with people in town even though xe does not really awknowledge them), I wish a major character of the cast had shown some type of grief and devastation about the people that disappeared (in fact that only one I can remember awknowledging being sad about the disappearance is Taisha, who is sad about a friend who disappeared, but Taisha does not get that much screentime). I think it would have made the ending feel more impactful for me.
In general I quite enjoyed the ending!
Regarding the representation of autism, I found it okay that Denver has a lot of stereotypical autismTM traits, but I would have found it interesting if another autistic character existed in the story that has other traits to further the representation. And finally, this is a bit nitpicky, but it is something I notice in a lot of diverse apocalypse stories, but this one also fails to awknowledge who is excluded from most apocalypses, this being physically disabled people. And since the story features some people who experienced severe cognitive impairment (due to alien-weirdness) I also wish that the specific ableism against people with cognitive impairment had been addressed directly instead of through ableism directed towards the alien-impaired people instead of the people with actual cognitive impairments that have to exist in a town that size!
Despite my issues with the story (and again, some of them are nitpicky, I admit that) I enjoyed this short fun romp through an interesting alien invasion that changes life in a small town.

TWs for ableism (particularly towards autistic people and people with lowered cognitive function), malicious nicknaming (and refusing to change it even after being called on it), fatphobia, outing somebody as having been to prison, abusive ex partner, gore, imprisonment and gaslighting by government agencies