Book: Wretched by Erica Larocca
Reviewed by Darlene
Rating: 4.5/5
At its core, this is a story about grief and living with grief in all its forms.
There is a lot to unpack with Simeon’s story. His relationships with his ex-wife, his son, his recently deceased husband, and himself. Simeon started as a character I had a lot of empathy and sympathy for at the beginning of the book, but as I got further in, I found my empathy to become less and less, to the point that I couldn’t stand him. Maybe that was the point.
I understood his anxiety of being a previously closeted gay man who had married a woman and had a child, and the inevitable disconnect that occurred once he married Jonathan. His internal monologue revealed a lot of insights into how he desperately wanted his queer identity to be perceived. But he lost me when his internal monologue became about how he wanted to be a better father to his son than his father was. But he never did. There were several times when all he had to do was be present but instead he walked away and continued to think about how he wanted to be better.
We only really experience Simeon and Jonathan’s relationship through small flashes of Simeon’s memory. But even then, there’s a lot to their story we don’t see and at points the memories are filled with doubts the more Simeon thinks about them. Like he only just begins to notice the cracks in their seemingly perfect and loving marriage at points dealing with big decisions.
I wish there was a little bit more inclusion with the “Wretches” photography group. I get that they were there as a vessel for Simeon to hear more about Porcelain Khaw and find the way to him through an actual human connection. But I do also think the same thing could’ve been achieved through the various internet forums Simeon frequented.
At the same time, I wonder if it was also to show how others were grieving their losses but Simeon thought he was better than all of them for not thinking a shadow was their loved one reaching out from the void.
I really liked the strange mysticism around Porcelain Khaw. While his powers(?) were never really fully explained but we got enough to understand he is also a tragic character in this bleak world.
I can honestly say, I didn’t see any of that happening at the end. Those last few pages were a total trip. One last thing, the book opens with a scene featuring Porcelain and an unnamed woman, and after the ending, I can’t help but wonder if that connects to create a full circle.