Name: ravio's review of Girls Against God by Jenny Hval
Item: Girls Against God
Rating: 4
Author: ravio

Jenny Hval

A genre-warping, time-travelling horror novel-slash-feminist manifesto for fans of Clarice Lispector and Jeanette Winterson. Welcome to 1990s Norway. White picket fences run in neat rows and Christian conservatism runs deep. But as the Artist considers her work, things start stirring themselves up. In a corner of Oslo a coven of witches begin cooking up some curses. A time-travelling Edvard Munch arrives in town to join a death metal band, closely pursued by the teenaged subject of his painting Puberty, who has murder on her mind. Meanwhile, out deep in the forest, a group of school girls get very lost and things get very strange. And awful things happen in aspic. Jenny Hval's latest novel is a radical fusion of queer feminist theory and experimental horror, and a unique treatise on magic, writing and art. "Strange and lyrical. Hval’s writing is surreal and rich with the grotesque banalities of human existence." —Publishers Weekly "The themes of alienation, queerness, and the unsettling nature of desire align Hval with modern mainstays like Chris Kraus, Ottessa Moshfegh, and Maggie Nelson." —Pitchfork

A Novel

Girls Against God

misha.

“As I’ve come to understand it, God is a theoretical concept that only exists in books, while Gøud’s presence pulls southerners’ hair back into tight knots and twists their throats into nooses. It’s Gøud that records written warnings in my diary when I don’t memorise the third verse of our set psalm, ‘Moon and Sun’. ”

Drue Thomas

"Ellinor, a jaded PR consultant, is landed with an unusual brief when a colleague commits suicide. She finds herself working with the Norwegian Post and Communications Union, focused on a strange, inspiring story of one undelivered letter. What follows is a story of mundane lives raised to the pitch of heroism"--

ravio

upon reading and first finishing this book, i have to say that i did not love it. it was very hard for me to get through given the writing style and the lack of plot. but after sitting with it for a few days, i found myself thinking more about the different scenes presented and ideas the narrator had described. i came back to a lot of lines and there are a lot. although i did find myself cringing a bit at some of the ways the narrator portrayed things; after sitting with it for awhile, i started to become more sympathetic with the narrator's very brash and vulgar tone and truly started to feel what she was saying.
there are a lot of wonderful lines in here. and the last couple pages really got me. although at first i didn't really love her movie described at the end, its grown to be one of my favorite parts of this book.

the blurb did not really describe was this book is about and i don't blame it bc i still don't know how to exactly describe it either. i will say though, it is a stream of consciousness loosely following our narrator from her high school days to where she moves and starts a black metal band (even though it is buried so deep within the narrator's voice that i sometimes forgot where it started) the plot seems to move around her words and reads more like a recounting and contemplation of her life more than a regular plot. 
this book is very angry and i love it. things are said very unabashedly and it does not shy away from much. i didn't find it quite scary at all. it was thought-provoking and loud, in your face. the only horror really was some elements like, gore and witchcraft, but not presented in a scary way but in a metaphor way. 
will have to reread.

Welcome to 1990s Norway. White picket fences run in neat rows and Christian conservatism runs deep. But as the Artist considers her past, her practice and her hatred, things start stirring themselves up around her. In a corner of Oslo a coven of witches begin cooking up some curses. A time-travelling Edvard Munch arrives in town to join a death metal band, closely pursued by the teenaged subject of his painting Puberty, who has murder on her mind. Meanwhile, out deep in the forest, a group of school girls get very lost and things get very strange. And awful things happen in aspic. Jenny Hval’s latest novel is a radical fusion of feminist theory and experimental horror, and a unique treatise on magic, writing and art.

tina

DNF @ 70% 
im sorry but from what i read in the synopsis i thought i was gonna get a horror story about witches but this was just train of thought after train of thought after train of thought 😭. i admit there were some interesting themes that were explored but my god it was so boring to read. there were beautiful quotes here and there but generally the writing felt unstructured and messy which is what made it a slog for me to read thru. i didnt finish this book but im gonna count it as a read because i refuse to accept the fact that i wasted almost 2 days of my time for this.

Drue Thomas &
Girls Against God by Jenny Hval

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Girls Against God by Jenny Hval