The remaining four contestants on a Bachelor-esque reality TV show are shuttled to Otters Island off the coast of Washington. Remote and rich with queer history, the island promises quaint B&Bs, glamping getaways … and a looming, furry local who has a funny way of showing she wants to be friends. 

 

PATRICIA WANTS TO CUDDLE was a weird, gay romp of a book. It’s part thriller, part comedy, part purely absurd, featuring a hate-to-love-them cast of characters, a cardboard cutout of an eligible bachelor and a murderous sasquatch who’s revered by a Lesbian Bigfoot Cult. Sound intriguing? I can’t describe it any better than that. 

 

Allen built a fantastic voice for each of the characters, whose POV we bounce between throughout the book (until they meet their untimely demise, of course). For such a short book with short chapters, I was really impressed by the character work done here. 

 

Other elements of the book were less engaging. I liked the different formats between chapters—including a speculative chat forum for the TV show, blog entries from a former island visitor and past love letters written to an island local. The last of these worked the least for me, though; I found myself wanting more of Kathy’s story and how it fit into the larger book. The end also leaves things a little too open-ended. I wished a few of my questions would have been at least partially answered so that I could better understand the “point” of the story, if there really was one. Or maybe it was just a queer horror novel featuring a lesbian bigfoot, who knows.