Brainwyrms by Alison Rumfitt
Alison Rumfitt's deliciously nauseating sophomore novel is an eviscerating exploration of queer dating and shame
It’s rare that I have to close a book and take a few deep breaths before continuing reading – in a twisted way, I pride myself on my tolerance for extremity. I get the sense that Alison Rumfitt would view that as a challenge.
Her latest novel Brainwyrms follows Frankie, a recovering victim of transphobic domestic terrorism, and Vanya, a mysterious sub hiding a parasite kink, as the conspiracies which lie beneath their turbulent relationship bubble up and consume them both. It is not so much a love story but a story of how misunderstanding, shame and trauma can plague queer dating, and how belonging to the same niche fetish community does not preclude causing harm.
Rumfitt's 2021 debut Tell Me I’m Worthless established her as an exciting new voice in transgressive queer horror, where she held up a cracked mirror to the rising tide of facism and transphobia in the UK. Brainwyrms tackles similar topics in a different register – it’s wry and playful, outright funny at points, and the murderous cabal of infested TERFs uncovered by Frankie have the quality of cartoon villains.
Despite this, where Tell Me I’m Worthless was viscerally scary, Brainwyrms is downright nauseating, toeing the line between subversion and a test of endurance. Rumfitt seems to goad the reader into putting the book down, walking away, but her frenetic prose keeps you hooked.