"Being free is beautiful."
CW:
- graphic depictions of surgery
- graphic depictions of mutilation (imagined)
- sex (consensual)
- facial disfigurement (described)
- scoliosis (described)
- bullying


In Distortion by Sierra Ernesto Xavier (beautiful name, btw), we follow two unnamed characters in a relationship dealing with their physical disfigurement. The woman has scoliosis; the man is facially disfigured. The interesting thing about this short piece is it is only dialogue.

While the book uses sensate therapy for both of the characters to handle their trauma from other people's abuse (from shocked gazes to feeling doctors' hands in surgery despite anesthesia), the characters must describe everything to the audience. It is hard to suspend belief when it becomes verbose and long-winded as they each describe touching a forehead, running fingers down the eyes, pressing against the cheeks, and down to the lips.

The depictions of surgery that the characters recount from the past were downright horrifying. Those descriptions were too raw and I had to skip large sections.

I would have loved it if each chapter/section was unique. Have one with only the woman's dialogue, and we have to infer what the man says, then vice versa. Have a chapter of only description (In A Shared Space would've benefited from that immensely).

I also think having variability in speech would have done this piece wonders. At times, both characters sounded the same, and I had to pause multiple times to remember who spoke in italics and who in normal font.

I am not against erotica. In fact, I think it can be a lot of fun for different reasons! However, the overly scientific descriptions of body parts were not enjoyable, and at times, this book felt more like experimental erotica than literary fiction.

As the piece stands, it is experimental, and it is not for me.

Want to read about physical disfigurement (and so much more)? Read A Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Want to meditate and visualize? Try Headspace.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.