/lit/ - Literature

>>22383658
Electric Forest - Tanith Lee (1979)

Magadala Cled, called Ugly by everyone she knows, is a twenty-six year old naturally born person who lives on planet Indigo. Seemingly literally everyone else was born through genetic engineering that selected for only the best examples of every trait. As to expected of a natural birth, she's considered deformed, hideous, and stunted. When others look upon her they're visibly unable to contain their revulsion. She doesn't let anyone know that this bothers her, but inside she intensely seethes and loathes everyone. Even if she could afford it, she knows that cosmetic surgery couldn't help her in any way. A life-changing opportunity comes her way when an ultrawealthy and extremely attractive young man offers her a new body. All she has to do is whatever he wants and she'll never have worry about anything again. Magadala is very suspicious and doesn't give in easily, but offer is so tempting, regardless of its cost.

Your enjoyment of Electric Forest probably will mostly depend on your perspective on and tolerance for the specific events of the story. I don't know how much you'd get from this if you approach it in an adversarial manner or believe it to be in bad taste. Magadala has understandably severe body image issues, low self-esteem, and a festering resentment for everything. She becomes part of a psychosexually domineering relationship, though she isn't submissive. Her situation is treated as a sort of voluntary horror that she endures because she believes the benefits to be worthwhile. I found its exploration of bodily autonomy, identity, and a host of other psychological issues to be enjoyably written. While there's a bit of flirting and sex, the primary focus of the plot is a mystery thriller. Magadala's new body was designed for a specific purpose, which she's not informed of, though it clearly involves social manipulation. The more involved she becomes, the more she realizes how little control she has over her life now.

There are several mentions of other literary works in the text that are used to describe what is being read. There's Frankenstein, Dracula, Pygmalion, Shakespeare, and others. It made me think of a few more as well. At first I thought it was a bit much, but given how it ends, their inclusion makes sense. I enjoyed this from the start until the end, and up until the epilogue this was a solid four stars. I found the epilogue to be hilarious because it reminded me of one of my all-time favorite movies. It was quite the unexpected experience and I found myself somewhat in disbelief that I wanted to give it five stars. I then looked at the reviews and many others had almost the exact opposite reaction to the ending, which is reasonable. I found it to be less reasonable though to include unmarked spoilers for the ending in a number of them, including the most liked. This book has greatly improved my opinion of Lee and eventually I'll have to read more from her.

Rating: 5/5