Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
A weird, wild ride across non-narrative vignettes and dryly funny aphorisms exploring the shared intensity of violence and the erotic. As if hauled up squirming from deep within the bowels of the internet, Lauren Cook metabolizes sex writing, popular culture, autofiction, and scenes of childhood development to present the real and the imagined as equally surreal possibilities. At turns charming and bizarre, Sex Goblin channels sexual violence through the lens of the absurd to alchemize shame and abuse into something that registers differently than trauma. In the childlike voice of the narrator, all things become both mundane and deeply strange--the shared body of a child and their dog having been fused after a car accident, moments of tenderness within frat rush hazing, parents, witches, lovers, and hiking accidents. Sex Goblin is a barely factual but deeply felt field guide to relationships and relatability.