The Refrigerator Monologues is available now.
When Kyle Rayner was Green Lantern in the DC Comics universe, his girlfriend infamously got dismembered and stuffed in a fridge. This alerted some people to a trend of female comic characters being abused and killed off to further plots. The Refrigerator Monologues, a new fiction novel by Catherynne M. Valente tells the tale of several female comic book characters (names changed to avoid copyright issues) discussing their demise and the way they were treated.
The book is under 150 pages, and a fun read for fans of the superhero genre. A lot of Marvel and DC storylines are parodied, and sometimes Valente relies too much on references. Those not well versed in comic lore will definitely be confused.
The chapters are each a different interconnecting story. Quite often, the narrating character is boring, leaving you yearning for the section’s conclusion. The saving grace is the illustrations by Annie Wu that accompany each monologue.
The Refrigerator Monologues seems almost exclusively aimed at comic nerds and feminists. Anyone else will have a hard time enjoying this book..
The Refrigerator Monologues gets a C+.
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