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Description
From the New York Times bestselling author Catherynne Valente comes a ferocious riff on the women in superhero comics. The Refrigerator Monologues is a collection of linked stories from the points of view of the wives and girlfriends of superheroes, female heroes, and anyone who’s ever been “refrigerated”: comic book women who are killed, raped, brainwashed, driven mad, disabled, or had their powers taken so that a male superhero’s storyline will progress. In an entirely new and original superhero universe, Valente subversively explores these ideas and themes in the superhero genre, treating them with the same love, gravity, and humor as her fairy tales. After all, superheroes are our new fairy tales and these six women have their own stories to share. Read more Read less
Publisher : Gallery/Saga Press; Reprint edition (June 6, 2017)
Publication date : June 6, 2017
Language : English
File size : 10895 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
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Top Amazon Reviews
Catherynne M. Valente has been one of my favorite authors ever since I stumbled upon "The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making" (yes, that's the title). She has a delightful gift with words, description, and imaginative scenarios, and even in her early works I found she was intent on creating strong, out-of-the-ordinary characters -- monsters that weren't truly monstrous, heroes who occasionally bungled the job of being a hero and just wanted to be normal, princesses and other female characters who didn't just serve as love interests or sit around waiting to be rescued, etc. And though "The Refrigerator Monologues" is a fair-sized step away from her usual realm of fantasy and mythology -- it's set in a world of superheroes -- it still carries on her tradition of brilliant wordbuilding, gutsy women, and taking a wry, often cutting look at the well-worn universe of superheroes and comic book characters. In Deadtown, an underworld inhabited by gargoyles and the dead, a group of women calling themselves the Hell Hath Club gather on a regular basis, always wearing whatever clothes they were buried in and reminiscing about the events that led them here. All are connected by the fact that they were once superheroes, girlfriends/lovers/wives to superheroes, or some mixture of both -- and all recognize that their existences were cut tragically short in order to further the stories of male superheroes. There's Paige Embry, girlfriend/creator of Kid Mercury who died during Mercury's first battle with his arch-nemesis; Julia Ashe, a heroine of fantastic power who was edited out of existence because her mentor and her male teammates were afraid of her power; Bayou, queen of Atlantis who lost her son to a supervillain and loathes how her husband sees their child as nothing more than a reason for vengeance; Polly, a psychotic fangirl of the villain Mr. Punch who ultimately met her fate at his hands, and others. All of them tell their stories with varying degrees of fury, dark humor, and resignation... and all find common ground with one another. Valente has a knack for fantastic and quirky wordplay, and this book is no exception. And while some of the whimsy is toned down for this book, with Valente opting for a more realistic approach, it's still a joy to read. Her writing is vibrant and never boring, and she gives us plenty of her trademark imaginative imagery amidst the gloom and horror of these women's stories. And while quite a few of these women are thinly veiled copies of real characters from famous comic books (Polly and Mr. Punch are Harley Quinn and The Joker in all but name, Ashe's story is reminiscent of Jean Grey's "Dark Phoenix" saga from "X-Men," etc.), there's still plenty to make their stories unique and fascinating. This book, short though it is, is less a cohesive story and more vignettes laced together with the framework of the Hell Hath Club... but it's still a fascinating and often cutting read. As evidenced by both the title and the author's afterword, it's heavily inspired by Gail Simone's "Women In Refrigerators," a list of female comic characters who are injured, killed, or depowered as a plot device to further a male character's story. And boy howdy, these women are NOT happy being relegated to plot devices to push their boyfriends'/teammates' stories along. This book is often scathingly furious, but for good reason... and it's certainly an eye-opener when it comes to how women are treated in fiction in general, and comics in particular. The illustrations in this book, done by comics artist Annie Wu, are a nice accompaniment as well, giving us a look into the life of each girl and capturing the style of a comic quite well. It's telling that each illustration is focused solely on the women in question -- the men already have their stories, so it's high time the women got their share of the story, without having to compete with the men who have taken over their lives. A short but powerful and important read, especially for comics fans, this is high on my list of favorite books by Catherynne Valente, and high on my list of favorite books period. If you enjoy comics, you need to read this book. And if you're upset with how women are treated in fiction, this book will make you angry but, regardless, has some valuable things to say about women who are sick and tired of being relegated to side characters and plot devices in their own stories.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 19, 2018 by Kenya Starflight
From the moment I heard about this book, I knew I needed to buy it. I appreciated Valente's ability to spin a new universe where these women who had been shoved to the side to serve someone else's narrative finally have a chance to recenter themselves in their own stories. It was apparent that Valente loves comics and the lens she criticizes with isn't mean spirited. The monologues were entertaining and I found myself wickedly delighted by these six women and the ways they define themselves after death.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2017 by Rebecca A Tyrrell
A quick bit of comic book trivia for any non-comics fans: a few years back, a comics fan (and future comics writer) named Gail Simone set up a website dedicated to "Women in Refrigerators" -- women characters in comic books who got killed off, maimed, and abused solely as a method for giving male superheroes angst and drama. Gwen Stacy, Karen Page, Alex DeWitt -- all killed off so the lead character would get a chance to grit his teeth and swear vengeance. That brings us to this book, where Catherynne M. Valente introduces us to a group of women, some superheroes, some girlfriends, some a combination of the two, who all end up in Deadtown, filled with dead people and gargoyles, where all the food comes from extinct animals and you never get to change out of the clothes you were buried in. These members of the Hell Hath Club meet and tell the stories that never managed to make it into the comic books. So we meet Paige Embry, girlfriend of (and accidental creator of) Kid Mercury, who gets between her beau and an angry supervillain and gets thrown off a bridge. We meet Julia Ashe, massively powerful mutant who gets edited out of the universe because her power scared her teammates and mentor. We meet Pauline Ketch, high-spirited and psychotic girlfriend of the craziest supervillain on the planet. We meet Bayou, princess of Atlantis, shipped off to a mental hospital because she dared to mourn her child. We meet plenty more, all stuck in Deadtown for the rest of eternity, and all not very happy about that. The book is wonderfully written and grand fun. It's great to see these characters -- who are normally remembered almost entirely as "That One Superhero's Girlfriend Who Got Killed by that One Supervillain" -- given the opportunity to tell their own stories, explain their own viewpoints, and vent their own anger about being killed off and forgotten. And yes, with enough comics knowledge, you can recognize nearly all the characters in the book as the characters they're supposed to represent from the comics. But that isn't necessary to enjoy the book. In fact, there are plenty of fun changes made to the personalities. For example, in the Aquaman comics, Mera is an Atlantean of human appearance, fully comfortable with her roles as both a warrior and a queen; Bayou, her counterpart in this book, looks much less human and has a much more punk-rock attitude, preferring to escape from her palace so she can perform in her band. If you love superheroes -- and especially if you crave an antidote to the Women in Refrigerators phenomenon, you'll certainly want to read this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 15, 2017 by Scott Slemmons