Kritika Kapoor

CW: Emotional Abuse, Alcohol Abuse, Eating Disorder, Body Shaming, Family Issues, Abusive Therapist, Forced Stay in Mental Health Facility

I only write reviews for books I DNF if I get a decent chunk in (69%) and I have some constructive things to say. Judging by reviews all over the place, I am also in the minority, so your mileage may vary

Batshit is the story of a bourgeois Indian woman in her late 20s with a partner and family who treat her with varying amounts of distance, controlling, and emotional abuse. She has a vague mental health issue and/ or childhood trauma that is a catalyst for supernatural events. Due to all of this, she is understandably depressed and not looking after herself, which her wonderful kith and kin are taking as a cue to treat her worse. Also, there's a demon.

I think this book is advertised incorrectly. I have seen it advertised as horror and feminist horror, which may become more accurate in the last bit I didn't read, but these do not seem accurate. I don't know exactly what I would characterise this, but I think it needs contemporary life or romance or something because the vast majority of this book is just an upper class woman with incredible material privilege and shitty people in her life. Like, you could tag a different final third on this book and it could be a Bridget Jones' Diary or Algorithms set in Delhi. I wasn't to be clear that I am not disparaging those or this story, simply making it clear how little foreboding, foreshadowing, or anything vaguely horror related showed up.

I think horror books have a tough time (particularly in my experience/ to my taste) balancing the spooky elements with the framing and with there being a lot of pressure on the non horror elements of the book to be good enough to justify themselves and play into the horror. Let me be clear, I totally get that a horror book can't be all nightmare time all the time, but the story building up to it has to serve the horror, and, personally, I want to see elements of horror, blurring reality and comprehension, and/ or some line of effect, deterioration, etc. I'm not saying they aren't in this book, well, the former is, but the latter really isn't so much, but the narrative is only a woman's awful family and partner. That only is only there to mean there is a single element, I'm a woman with a shitty family that left me with C-PTSD, so I'm not playing down the effects of these things on her. But, we only see this, and no real foreshadowing or building or tension for the horror.

This could be the point and I'm just not getting it.

Regarding the feminism, I'm not sure I'm seeing it. Referencing things that are discussed within feminism and having cartoonishly shitty me who (paraphrasing as I can't remember the exact quote) 'might get triggered if they think art is too feminist because they have already been called out as part of #MeToo' doesn't feel like feminism to me. The inclusion of judgments around weight, makeup, looks, diet, eating disorders are all well and good, but they are rather hamfisted and the language around them and the way they play out doesn't feel like the feminist critique it thinks it is. There's a crucial moment I won't spoil around one of these topics and maybe I'm just not looking at it the right way, but I'm not sure I like it. I'm getting myself worked up and I don't want to be mean and there's a chance I'm totally wrong, but the feminism I'm seeing is more of the girlboss and not intersectional.

I didn't like the way mental health is handled and equating mental health and the demon. Using mental health and disability as allusions/ effects/ representations of horror elements is an age old tradition that traditionally fucking sucks and is handled incredibly poorly. I can't comment on where this goes, but I was getting bad vibes that only got worse.

Look, as a contemporary romance, awkwardness story like those I mentioned it's fine. The writing isn't awful and getting an Indian perspective and all the cultural elements was great. I don't want to be too hard on the things I've raised because so much of media is as bad or much, much worse on these topics, but seeing it touted as feminist and sold as straight horror I wasn't setup to give this book the fair shake it deserved. That's on the advertising and me to a large extent, but the book definitely seems to have some issues.

I did love the description of the gallery of femme demons Pia painted, but that was literally my favourite moment of the book and I would have trades this book for a glimpse at one of those paintings in a heartbeat.

I DNF'd with about a quarter to go. I'm in the minority. I'm very autistic and opinionated about the importance of intersectional feminism. I really don't like bourgeois people and stories about them. This is all subjective and you shouldn't trust me. I am absolutely not telling you to avoid this book and if you like it, great. Ideally, this review would either put off someone who feels even more strongly than I do about the things I've mentioned, but more than anything I would like it to have a prospective reader going in forewarned and forearmed so they can have the best experience possible. I know I would have if I had the heads up.… (meer)