A review by nicktionary19
The Bedwetter: Journal of a Budding Psychopath by Lee Allen Howard
3.0
I’ve struggled with what exactly to say about The Bedwetter. This wasn’t the book for me, so take the following with that grain of salt.
Frankly, I think it misses a lot of beats. But even so, it’s entertaining - even engrossing at times.
The Bedwetter is set up as a journal. It mostly works as such but frequently slips out of the epistolary accounting of events and into more of an on the spot narrative. I think this is fine, possibly necessary for flow. Just happened too much. As a journal it has the uncensored/unfiltered thoughts of Russel. There is some slang, mental shorthand, etc. that never settled in for me and so pulled me out every time.
I picked this up because it was advertised as extreme and I’m always curious what’s passing for extreme. There is sexual violence, animal violence, homophobic violence, domestic violence. All of it is repulsive. There is no excuse for any of the acts, but it all played more like symbols of extremes. There are plenty of gross and vile acts in The Bedwetter but many seem more exhibitionistic than organic to the narrative.
Russel’s a psychopath. The title says so. I just didn’t buy the switch flip. He had plenty of reasons to go off, mind you. So maybe I’m too picky.
The things that go undiscovered/uninvestigated in The Bedwetter are hard to ignore. The final battle consists largely of expository dialogue. The reveals are actually quite good, but too dense and clumsily handled - but they did a lot to elevate my opinion of The Bedwetter.
TLDR: A miss for me but not without its merits and intrigue.
Frankly, I think it misses a lot of beats. But even so, it’s entertaining - even engrossing at times.
The Bedwetter is set up as a journal. It mostly works as such but frequently slips out of the epistolary accounting of events and into more of an on the spot narrative. I think this is fine, possibly necessary for flow. Just happened too much. As a journal it has the uncensored/unfiltered thoughts of Russel. There is some slang, mental shorthand, etc. that never settled in for me and so pulled me out every time.
I picked this up because it was advertised as extreme and I’m always curious what’s passing for extreme. There is sexual violence, animal violence, homophobic violence, domestic violence. All of it is repulsive. There is no excuse for any of the acts, but it all played more like symbols of extremes. There are plenty of gross and vile acts in The Bedwetter but many seem more exhibitionistic than organic to the narrative.
Russel’s a psychopath. The title says so. I just didn’t buy the switch flip. He had plenty of reasons to go off, mind you. So maybe I’m too picky.
The things that go undiscovered/uninvestigated in The Bedwetter are hard to ignore. The final battle consists largely of expository dialogue. The reveals are actually quite good, but too dense and clumsily handled - but they did a lot to elevate my opinion of The Bedwetter.
TLDR: A miss for me but not without its merits and intrigue.