DO NOT BELIEVE THE QUEER MOUNTAIN LION PREMISE

real rating 3.5

there’s a lot of things that we can hate about the book - like the fact that the lion understands english words but somehow doesn’t know what money is? they understand that a phone can be used to talk to people but not what a freeway is? but i digress.

i feel like the author might not mean it to be, but the story reads a lot as one about trying to find your community and being rejected whenever you think you found one. the subtext reads like it’s about immigration and being a person of color, so everything im about to write is from that point of view. idc if the author didn’t mean that to happen so whatever.

the fact that his name is “not made of noises a person can make” and the whole idea that mountain lion (now ML because im lazy) had to travel dangerous conditions to flee their abusive father?? yeah u cant tell me that isn’t a story of immigration. and just the whole idea that ML knows that it isn’t human (it’s a minority) but that it wants so bad to assimilate and BE a human. and the way that even though ML tries so hard to show others that they’re docile and won’t hurt anyone, a majority around him don’t trust him and want him gone and dead. it all just feels so reminiscent of a story about the persecution faced by those not in the majority.

and i think that’s what makes the storytelling so upsetting to me — i see the themes that the author wanted to showcase. i see it! right in front of me! but there’s just that lack of commitment to pinpointing things. all of those themes could’ve been explored more because it’s a story that we see so much in queer coming out stories. but maybe thats a good thing! we think that ML is getting persecuted because they’re … a lion. but maybe lion is an allegory to queerness. idk it just bugs me that ML being queer was on the synopsis when the book really isn’t about that.


me personally, i love a little stream of consciousness story, but let's stop trying to sell this book as something that it's not