The Damned Busters by Matthew Hughes

[lightreads]

The Damned Busters by Matthew Hughes

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


[Advance reader copy – the book is due out at the end of May].



I bounced hard off this one. And it’s not because I read in audio without access to the art. No, we were actually doing really good for the first quarter with the story of a hapless, nerdy (as opposed to geeky, I know my classifications thank you) actuary who accidentally summons a demon and causes a labor strike in hell. It was funny, it was whacky, it was sneakily quite sharp about good and evil, the writing was crisp.



And then the whole thing jolted sideways into stupid self-indulgent masturbatory superhero fantasies. I had a sinking feeling when the blonde bombshell appeared, flipped forward, went hell no, and backed away fast.



I could unpack why this went so suddenly toxic. I could talk about how incredibly fucking over I am these sorts of self-consciously self-mocking books about geeky sci-fi nerds who want to be superheroes, but when they get a chance to it’s not as easy as it looks and they have embarrassment squicky adventures but through accident and cleverness end up getting the keys to the city and access to the walking vagina of-the-moment anyway. I could talk about how what I find most obnoxious is the underlying narrative of power, how this white, middle-class, well-educated guy feels so oppressed and powerless and emasculated, and how he gains power by hitting some people and sticking his dick in someone. I could talk about how this feel-good redemptive underdog crap is actually a deeply toxic story that lets a bunch of privileged people feel smug and authentically downtrodden.



But I am so over this book in all of its seventeen thousand incarnations, I can’t even be fucking bothered to finish it and confirm my worst suspicions from the forward glances I took.





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