Wretch
or, The Unbecoming of Porcelain Khaw
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3.0 • 2 Ratings
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER
From award-winning horror author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke comes a haunting and “utterly original” (Booklist, starred review) tech-Gothic thrill ride about sorrow, memory, and the unabashed complexity of love as a transgressive act.
After his husband dies, Simeon Link finds himself overcome by grief and seeking comfort in an unusual support group called The Wretches, who offer an addictive and dangerous source of relief. They introduce Simeon to a curious figure known as Porcelain Khaw—a man with the ability to let those who are grieving have one last intimate moment with their beloved...for a price.
“Immersive and compelling” (Library Journal, starred review), Wretch transports us to a world where not everything is as it seems, and those we love may be the ones who haunt us most.
Customer Reviews
Repetitive and Underwhelming
I am a long time la Rocca fan so was eagerly awaiting this release. Sadly, I feel that if you’ve read his other books, you’ve read this one, too. Slight spoilers ahead: The main character is a tortured soul consumed by his own grief, who goes to desperate measures to try to reconnect with his dead husband. The prose feels heavy, almost forced, and tropes from his other books come up multiple times. The idea of a “reverse haunting” is super interesting - but there’s little follow-through. 300 pages of the narrator’s thoughts/ideas, and 30 pages of action. I’m upset writing this because I love the author, but this one just did not land with me. While this book does have blog posts, newspaper articles, chat rooms, a play within the story, etc., I miss when la Rocca used these devices to immerse the reader into a world where these things could actually happen. The supernatural aspect makes it unbelievable.