If this hadn't been a rec from an irl friend it probably would've been a DNF for me. Midway through the book I found I just really didn't care about the overarching plot/themes (as far as there is one) anymore. Some chapters held my attention really well and there were characters I was invested in, but others just kind of lost me. I couldn't help but compare this book to How High We Go in the Dark since they have similar story structures and I only them a few weeks apart. In my opinion, Nagamatsu does a much better job of the "every chapter is it's own vignette focusing on one character but they all intersect in different ways" thing than Egan does, but admittedly part of that might stem from my preference for Nagamatsu's writing style and subject matter. Also didn't help that the narrator's voice fit some characters in Goon Squad far better than others and How High We Go had a full cast recording. Idk. All comparisons aside, I just ultimately wanted to be more invested in this than I could convince myself to be.

I read this for two reasons:

1. I've been meaning to read something by Christopher Isherwood and this was available from my library when Goodbye to Berlin wasn't.
2. It was talked about in Camp! The Attitude that Conquered the World (a nonfiction book I read earlier this year) in a way that piqued my interest.

It is, in fact, camp, in my opinion. It also has moments I found genuinely heartwrenching. I think the emotional whiplash between those two aspects of this text is intentional and sort of captures the sort of absurdist reality of trying to live life (and do such seemingly frivolous things as make a film and manage eccentric artists) during a time of tragedy. As a big fan of Cabaret I could definitely see the throughline from Isherwood's writing to the musical even though this isn't the story Cabaret is based on. Given today's global political climate (writing this in 2026 from the usa) it felt like a relevant read on many fronts.

I wanted to like this so much more than I actually did. I thought parts of it were really interesting and well written and other parts just felt sort of sloppy and rushed to me. I liked the premise and I liked the sort of weird allegorical moments and I liked some of the ways it explored religious trauma and indoctrination. I was most moved by the stuff about her grandma, partially because it felt grounded in a way some other things didn't and partially because it reminded me a bit of my own grandma. I liked the protagonist and some of the other characters. The supernatural elements were not as well executed as I wanted them to be. Also the overall story stucture/arc just felt kind of off somehow. Idk it felt like this book started as queer lit fic meets horror then turned into like a 90s summer camp slasher/supernatural horror and then ended in some other third genre. I might have enjoyed it more if I hadn't gone in with high expectations and I would gladly read something else from this author but sadly I feel let down by Herculine.

This book absolutely deserves it's place in the "supporting women's wrongs" quest. Damn.

I flew through it because I just couldn't get enough of Juniper's weird entitled slippery-slope justifications for everything. I love an unlikable protagonist when it's done well and this one is.

Edit: I want to add that as a white person who knows next to nothing about the publishing industry I don't feel well equipped to judge this book's messaging around racism in the publishing world and the own voices movement so I've chosen not to factor that into my review in any major way.

I initially checked out this book as a way to learn more about degenerative vision diseases because a friend of mine was recently diagnosed with one. I do feel like I learned about the history, science, and lived experience of these conditions and, on top of that, it was just a genuinely interesting memoir. Hopefully, some of what I learned from this book can help me be more inclusive to the blind and low vision people in my life, and even if it doesn't end up being super applicable it was an enjoyable read.