Subcutanean

I read Subcutanean by Aaron A. Reed with the HOWL Society book club, and I'm so glad I did. This is, perhaps, the ultimate book club book. This book is many things: queer, sci-fi, horror, and above all it is unique. You see, every version of Subcutanean is unique. Throughout the book there are numerous places where the text can read one of many ways, and every seed (version) of the book is different than every other seed. Variations ranged from very minor differences in syntax or word choice, to significant differences impacting character development, backstory and world building, and plot. So it was an amazing incredible delight to read this book with a large group of people online and compare notes. I listened to the seed on Spotify (Seed 01893) while following along in my print edition (Seed 42707). I noticed a lot of differences, many minor but some a bit more significant, between the two, but when discussing the book with others the variants really multiplied. It was a lot of fun to see how this story about love, college, and a weird house could differ from seed to seed. In every version the overall story was basically the same, but that didn't make comparing notes any less exciting. I've vaguely hinted at some of the details of the plot, and I don't want to spoil the book (in as much as that's possible) but I'll just say that the many unique versions of the book that exist reflect one of the key ideas of the plot. Beyond that I think readers who have enjoyed 14 and The Fold by Peter Clines, The Between by Ryan Leslie, and/or The Hike by Drew Magary will enjoy this book. Although I really loved the concept of the book and how it's uniquely created for each reader, I will say that there were some elements of the plot and characters that seemed a bit muddy to me. I don't know if that's because I was trying to follow two different seeds, or if it's because there are so many possible variants in the text that some details just didn't get too clearly nailed down. Narratively I might rate this book 3.5-4 stars, but factoring in the amazing uniqueness of this work, it's an easy ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 stars).There are some static seeds available. So if you listen to the version on Spotify or order from Amazon, for example, that will be the same seed as everyone else who gets it from that source. If you want your own unique seed you can order it from the publisher/author directly as an ebook or in print.

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