Hermit

I really enjoyed reading this book. The subject matter was tough but relevant to current times and a fascinating look into how young men could be recruited into incel groups. I liked that there was a split perspective between Jamie and his mother, showing not only the impact on the young men but also how their loved ones are affected. It was incredibly well written and I couldn’t put it down. I have followed the author on instagram as I’d love to read more from him.

Hermit is a novel about a guy who can barely leave the house, but whose attempts to get away from his mum's nagging might take him much further than he thought. Jamie is nineteen and since he dropped out of school three years ago, he just stays in his room playing games and watching YouTube videos with his online friend Lee, occasionally venturing downstairs for microwave burgers and fries, and chocolate spread. His mum Fiona despairs, but she also struggles to connect with other people, especially after kicking out her abusive husband. When Lee tells Jamie about a new friend, who says they are both incels and should come down to London to stay with him, it seems like an escape, but it isn't as simple as that.

Having enjoyed Chris McQueer's short stories, I would've wanted to read this one regardless of the content, but the blurb drew me in too, with the idea of exploring online and incel culture through the perspective of someone who might be targeted by incels online as a potential 'convert'. McQueer treats it all with nuance, through chapters that alternate between Jamie and Fiona's perspectives to compare how their similarities led them in different directions, and particularly how online incel and "manosphere" culture preys on people who don't even feel that connected to its key tenets and claims. Jamie doesn't care that much about girls until he is told he should be angry at all women for rejecting him, and you see how that makes him lash out at his mum and believe she doesn't care about him.

There's an underlying dread that particularly sets in halfway through, as Jamie and Lee go to London, and you know something isn't going to go well. It's darkly ridiculous, but also feels horrifyingly real, especially if you know anything about incels or other online communities (for example, the elements in which Jamie didn't understand the terminology or ideas of incels, but felt like he had to go along with it). Fiona's story is also moving, not just how she cannot help Jamie or even feel able to tell him that she loves him, but also how she basically had a similar trajectory that was different due to it being a earlier time and her being a woman (and the element where people on Facebook accused her of killing Jamie was darkly real too).

From McQueer's short stories, I was expecting something maybe surreal alongside the darkly funny elements, but Hermit is actually more of a deep look at feeling like an outsider and the impact these days of certain online communities finding prey in these people, with more dread and sadness than weird elements. It is refreshing to read a literary fiction novel that takes this kind of thing seriously, rather than just having some reclusive incel character as a joke. McQueer makes this a moving look at two people, mother and son, who could be described as hermits, with plenty of humour but not treating them as a joke.

'Hermit' is a book about a young male, Jamie, who is a recluse in his home frightened of leaving his bedroom and with a strained relationship from his mother. He finds solace in his PlayStation and having online conversation with Lee, a friend he has made online but who lives down the road. We also see the perspective of his mother, Fiona, as she struggles with her own identity, past abuse and ability to express love for her son. The book reveals the harmful side of the internet and how young men can be lay predatory to victims of harmful online culture. In particular, incels and misogynistic ‘red pill’ thinking.

The book creates a pit in your stomach that you cannot remove. I, throughout the novel, kept on expecting a good ending to the story, a good turn of events but the novel disregarded any fairytale plotlines. I grew in frustration at the characters as they are unable to change their situations, sometimes by choice but also found that what the book highlighted the most to me was our failing mental health systems. As many times I just dreamt that the characters would go to therapy to figure out their headspace, but it felt as though they couldn’t (something that is an adequate representation to our mental health services in Scotland at the moment).

All the issues exposed in the book felt real and are real. I am morbidly curious about incel culture but it is often hard to understand the male incels prerogative and how someone could think this way. This book acts as an emulation to how people can be entrapped by this hateful thinking. My one issue is that without critically thinking you could disregard the role, while the books events being horrific, that the two young men played within the incel community. Especially that of the friend Lee. I found that the relationship with both their mothers plays an important role in expressing how their attitudes towards women are changing, and without Fiona’s POV this would be less impactful and acts as the reminder of the abhorrent dialogue used by the incels in the novel. I thought this was an interesting way for the author to highlight to the reader to be critical.

This book was an engaging and enlightening novel that I would highly recommend to others to read.

Thank you to #netgalley for this pre-release edition of #hermit. All thoughts are my own.

4.5 ★

This was so much more moving & harrowing than I'd even anticipated. The bits of dark humour throughout gave off some light relief but to the point I almost felt guilty for laughing at certain parts because of the overarching story; this isn't a negative by any means though, it just added that extra layer to this book. The whole concept of incels is a personal morbid interest of mine which is another reason I was so drawn to this— I thought the writer was scarily brilliant at leading us into the mindset of incels and showing the reader how easy it is for young boys to be manipulated into that type of mentality. Even though this is a fiction, it felt very topical which just made the overall story more chilling for me.
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The only reason this isn't a complete 5 star read for me is because of the ending; I personally would have liked more to it, it sort of felt like it suddenly went a bit flat once the main plot had been resolved. I did particularly enjoy the scottish dialect all the way through, I thought this really made the characters jump out & it constantly felt like these were real people I was reading about. The general writing was exceptional but the dialogue especially is what makes me excited to see future novels from McQueer & I can 100% see why scottish lit is so popular.
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Overall, I have a strong feeling this will be a popular read when it's released next year as it deserves to be. It was disturbing, tense, sad & darkly funny all at once which is everything I love in a book of this genre.

Thank you Netgalley & Headline for the free eARC!

I’m absolutely loving Scottish fiction at the minute - having read Tommy the Bruce and now Hermit I feel I am fluent in the Scottish dialect (which this had a lot in and I loved it!!). Hermit is a dark, compelling novel that shows how easily online interactions can influence a persons thoughts and form groups of individuals who can do harm.

Jamie is a recluse, he hasn’t showered for days, his sleeping pattern is all over the place and the only joy he gets is speaking to Lee online. Fiona is Jamie’s Mam (or Maw should I say 🤭) who is a victim of domestic abuse by Jamie’s Dad and has very little confidence in herself. The book flicks between these two POVs and creates a brilliant story showing the struggles each are going through, and how not communicating is making the situation worse. It was interesting to see how Jamie changed through the book, becoming more aggressive and hateful towards his Mam since meeting Seb (Lees online friend from London). The story is quite obviously going down a dark path but I didn’t expect what happened which is always a win 👏🏼 Hermit feels very relevant and real. Online communities are bigger than ever and it’s scary what can be happening behind closed doors. The Facebook outlash Fiona received was so accurate and showing of the world we live in these day. I also really enjoyed learning about Incels and the descriptions of this within the book, something id never come across before.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one and found it hard to put down. Huge thanks to NetGalley and Headline for this ARC!

Jamie is a 16 year old boy who is experiencing depression and agoraphobia. He left school and doesn't do anything apart from sitting in his room playing video games. He doesn't shower and his mother is a single parent who isn't sure how to handle the situation. Chatting to a friend online, they get involved in the incel community and decide to travel down to London to live in a house with other involuntary celibates. This is a brilliant concept that is wonderfully executed. I suspect a young of young men will identify with the feelings of frustration and depression and it is handled so sensitively. I love Chris McQueer's short stories and his debut novel is as good as I expected.

Thanks to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for the ARC in return for my opinions.
I was immediately invested in this story. I was really interested in the premise because I find the whole incel subculture really fascinating to learn about. It was written really well and was quite funny and heartbreaking at times. The humour definitely added to the story and didn’t take anything away in my opinion. There were some dark themes mentioned but I think they were handled well. I just felt awful for all the characters, Jamie in particular I felt I could feel his depression through the page and it was uncomfortable to watch the descent into what happened later. It was one of those books where I HAD to keep reading to know what happened in the next chapter, so I got through it quickly. Really impressed with this, will be recommending to friends.

McQueer writes in a way that’s impossible to ignore. I felt physically sick reading this, especially Jamie’s thoughts and his interactions with Seb. Fiona was also difficult to read, her chapters were a lot more depressing than Jamie’s. The slow but steady progression from confusion to incel on Jamie’s behalf was so uncomfortable. I can easily see how real this is for some men and how easily they slip into this violence and anger. The last 30% of the book made me feel claustrophobic, I knew something terrible and irreversible was going to happen and I didn’t want it to. Truly, a dark and tragic story that is all too familiar to the real life news stories I see day in and day out. A very hard book to read but also written well.