“I think this book does the leaked nudies story in a way that’s maybe a little too simple. Everyone except our main character is kind of a cartoon. The way it’s handled is very straw man, and I don’t love it.
I think there’s a more interesting version of the story in this comic, which is the version where the main character has a leaked sex tape, and it causes her to be MORE famous than she was before. Where it causes her to be in the public eye in a way she didn’t plan, and…perhaps she likes where her career is at 5 years later, but can she really escape the beginnings? Is the result worth it? What happens when she’s 35, and she’s had a couple kids, and her kids are hearing about their mother from other kids at school, hearing what THEIR parents are saying, and things are coming back up again.
I think there’s a more interesting version of this story where almost everyone is on this woman’s side, when she speaks to them in person, but everyone is also pulling a CYA and can’t really help her out in a more public way, which she needs.
I think there’s a more complex, better story here about how a sex tape ruins your life in a way that’s different from the pure fact of doing something like banging your boss. Even if EVERYONE knows you did it, how is it different from everyone being able to watch the whole thing?
I think the story is more interesting if it’s the woman who recorded the sex act. The way this book works, she’s 100% a victim throughout the entire thing. She’s tossed around by the events of the book rather than having any agency or modicum of blame (even blaming herself, unfairly, the way we would blame ourselves if a friend was hurt in a car crash on the way to pick us up). I know and you know that it’s not her fault, but human emotions don’t work that way, and that’s complexity.
I think there’s a more interesting story about how, in the future, there may be ways to put that genie back in the bottle. Maybe technology will develop where you could really scrub the internet and any connected computers of this video, but it’s costly. How does she raise the money? And how do you balance trying to scrub it while also not making it even more public? Or, does scrubbing it become meaningless because people still KNOW it existed? Or, does the attempt to scrub it become the bigger story, so while people can’t watch the actual video anymore, they still know it existed?
I think part of my frustration with the book is that it seems like a warning about technology, a Black Mirror thing, but it just sort of makes the point, “People who take nudes shouldn’t be hacked, that’s messed up.” Which is 100% true as a statement, but I don’t necessarily think it’s a story. And then the reveal at the end is pretty silly, IMO.
I’m just going to put it out there: SPOILERS
it turns out that the main character is being dosed with LSD…for some reason, and here’s what I hate about this: This is not how LSD works. You cannot control or determine or even really guess how LSD is going to affect someone, so you can’t really control what the person experiences while hallucinating.
In fiction, hallucination is often used like this. The character’s hallucinations are dark and scary, and they conform to the story’s aesthetics. Where in reality, microdosing LSD might actually make the character cope with the situation better? Might help her with her PTSD? Or, her hallucinations may have nothing whatsoever to do with her real-life situation?
I don’t know, I just felt like this is one of those books I read very differently from everyone else.”