REWILD

*SPOILER REVIEW OF THE ENDING*
My God having Weila stay with Ijis because she's deluded herself into thinking his birth mother lives on within him is SOOO good. Having the victim also be toxic is the perfect way to wrap a "gets with the rapist" ending. 

However, that epilogue has to be my biggest gripe with the story. I admit, I returned to the text after dinner, so I was a bit out of the zone, but it was just a slough to read. I like kids. Seeing Frankie really wasn't important to the story and the entire read felt like it should have taken a few paragraphs. 

Also, with how hopeful and triumphant Weila's moment was, where she comes to her feelings about seal mom and how that leads to her accepting Ijis back into her life... especially the bit about resurrecting her fertility, that was such a powerful part.

So, with the epilogue revealing that yes, she's still infertile, it felt like that moment was wasted and replaced with redundancy. I fully expected, with how its been reiterated that Ijis does not care for kids, for Weila to have aborted the offspring. Just my musings, but I feel that it would have been a more impactful moment, to show again the mindset Peripoeds have towards life and death. 

I LOVE THIS STUPID AUTISTIC SEAL AND HIS BIG LESBIAN MOMWIFE

this book is so funny yet dark! lots of moments where you’re not sure who to root for, but you’re having a great time regardless. i found iijs to be such an interesting main character because his view on the world is so disjointed by his obsession with his mommy and his animal instincts. plus, the unreliable narrator aspect because he quite literally does not know better is sooo delicious.

tthe cast of side characters are so great. i loved james so much, i can just picture him so well in my head. like this dude was a reddit mod in his past life, getting into internet slapfights over big titty anime figures. i’m so happy he learned to touch grass by… fucking hot seal ladies??? his character arc was so fun. i really like how he acted as a foil to iijs (one “dominant alpha male” to the next, haha) which just made iijs’s growth (or lack of growth in some areas, lol) so much more prominent. i feel like james and iijs went on similar journeys, but they came out at the end so differently

prose, as always, is great! piamo takes a lot of care in choosing their words and it really shows through purposeful language and pinpoint dialogue. character voices are so distinct that you can pretty much tell who’s talking just by the language they’re using. iijs is very literal, doesn’t like to describe anything, and avoids introspection in a way that other characters who get POVs don’t.

thank you for this food, i will be eating many a hot dog this weekend in honor of the selkies