A review by queerreadss
Extra Salty: Jennifer's Body by Frederick Blichert

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

“Extra Salty” does a great job of explaining the symbolism of many of the iconic moments of Jennifer’s Body. There was a lot of summary, a bit more than I think people who have seen the movie need but within that are a lot of good specific examples of whatever point the author was making. 

The author excelled at providing background information on each of the top people that eventually ended up mattered to why Jennifer’s Body wasn’t a box office success. Blichert also adds some information about other pop culture information during the time of release which adds some needed context to paint a better picture of the time. 

Blichert spent a good portion of the book focusing on the queer romance, subtext and outright queer moments of the movie which is refreshing as it is an often ignored part of the movie by mainstream reviewers. Blichert also did a great job of portraying the two main characters as fully formed complex women who subvert a lot of stereotypes. It was refreshing to see the woman writer and director, one of whom was queer, highlighted. Blichert excelled in this section as well by really breaking down the commonly accepted stereotypes of women in horror and how having women behind the scenes making their own movies provides more accurate and genuine horror/emotions in horror movies. 

With all that said, I have to mark off a star for how disorganized this book is. I think it needed a lot more structuring and focus. At times it felt like topic was jumping to a few different topics within a short few sentences.

This read was a bit odd in other ways as well. The authors writing and claims made in the book, multiple times, was immediately followed up by a quote saying exactly what he said right above but in the sources’ words. I think this book either needed to be less opinion and focus solely on being a book of research, providing even more on the background of the movie and the top people involved with it or provide more complex points of why Jennifer’s Body deserves a better rep.  There was a lot of repetition.