2021 EDIT: Bloody, boldly brilliant. Feminist as fuck. Hysterically funny, clever and sad, all at once. I could've read it in a day, an afternoon (curse you work post-lockdown!). I still maintain my deeply held belief that 'The Refrigerator Monologues' needs to be made into an adult animated film. It was made for it. At the very least a comic book adaptation. Superhero fiction needs more stories like this.
What else can I say, I love it.
Final Score: 5/5
Original Review:
OMFG.
This needs to be made into a film. I'm dead serious. An animated film for adults that will win countless awards, mixing different styles into its anthology storytelling. No censorship, no limits.
'The Refrigerator Monologues' is art itself. Grim, gruesome, disturbing, truthful, and a hell of a thrill ride art. It can be sensationally devoured in one day. It's magic for the mature and righteous justice seeker at heart.
Catherynne M. Valente, who I've come to admire more and more as a fantasy trickster genius and subversion monarch that Neil Gaiman wishes he was, examines the ever-constant "Women in Refrigerators" trope in superhero media, first coined by Gail Simone, and gives it the beating it deserves. By telling six anthology tales from the points of view of the fridged women, who in the afterlife, known as Deadtown, come together for coffee at the Lethe Cafe to tell their stories; something they never got the chance to do when they were alive as superheroes or the girlfriends of superheroes. Their stories, to their dismay, were actually the stories centering on male characters.
These women were the backstories; their deaths or write-offs were for moving forward the plots of the male heroes. They existed as prototypes; cautionary tales to be tossed aside - killed horrifically - and then forgotten, whilst "good girls" or good girlfriends get to live longer, because they know their place: stay at home in the background and let the men handle things, like saving the world. Strong women can't handle power and responsibility, according to uneasy, scared, and fragile masculinity, and so death and obscurity are their punishments.
Well, the members of the Hell Hath Club at Lethe Cafe say fuck that shit. They are themselves, they are together, sharing tragedies, and booze and cigarettes. Dead and don't give a fuck, that's their motto. They were interesting when alive, but were ignored and unappreciated, stuck in the shadows of uncaring men. Now their stories - their lives, their feelings - can be listened to.
Girl power, unapologetic.
The women of 'The Refrigerator Monologues', whose stories they share with each other, are based on famous fridged women in existing comics: such as Paige Embry is Gwen Stacey, Julia Ash is Jean Grey, Pauline "Pretty Polly" Ketch is Harley Quinn, Bayou is Aquaman's wife Mera, Samantha Dane is the original woman in the refrigerator, Alexandra DeWitt, etc. Valente deconstructs their stories - revolving around the men in their lives - to reveal the double standards and unfairness in them.
A lot of superhero comics do treat their female characters appallingly; a sad truth in a medium catered to male power fantasies - an image people are still trying to shake off to this day. But 'The Refrigerator Monologues' ain't about that shit: the women in this book, who are famous for being dead or "crazy", they swear, love punk, have lots and lots of sex, do drugs, have prestigious careers (or they used to), were royalty, are smart and resourceful, and are well aware of toxic masculinity, double standards and the misogynistic Madonna/Whore dichotomy. They are never ashamed, as they shouldn't be.
Too bad Fate, cosmic interference, or just plain bad writing never give them the chance they so deserve. Make no mistake: these females from superhero universes - from any universe - were being abused by men. Used as commodities and objects to be beaten around, verbally and physically assaulted, killed, and stuffed away, no fucks given; all for the rage wars between insecure, too-powerful men. Now the fridged ladies are fighting back, by, again, just being their own individual selves. No violence is necessary.
The Hell Hath Club have each other in Deadtown, an eternity that tries to catch up and entertain the dead daily in the eternal night, where gargoyles occupy their time as bartenders, baristas, and band members. It's even mentioned that women from ancient times, like Medea and Helen of Troy, used to form the Club. Linking to how superheroes are the modern day mythology; important in popular culture, never mind that they are fictional.
Paige, Julia, Pauline, Bayou, Daisy Green (aka porn star Delilah Daredevil), and Samantha: totally different women in different yet narratively-similar circumstances, come to support one another. To pull each other free from the refrigerator. To make their own happy endings, together.
Aside from a few confusing moments in a nonlinear structure, and nothing being said about other women in the Hell Hath Club, and therefore more stories are in desperate need to be heard (sequel, please?), 'The Refrigerator Monologues' is a modern masterpiece, deserving universal attention. Anyone who loves superheroes and superhero properties and feminism must check it out. It is fantastically entertaining and creative as well as thought-provoking.
I haven't read 'The Vagina Monologues', and maybe I will, if it is as good as this work that it inspired.
All in all, all I've got left to say is:
Thank you, Catherynne M. Valente.
Thank you, Gail Simone.
Thank you, Eve Ensler.
Thank you, all the pop culture feminists, writers and activists of the world.
Final Score: 5/5
(Fuck it feels good to give a book five stars. It's been too long!)
EDIT: I have now read 'The Vagina Monologues' - no surprise that such an important feminist cultural milestone inspired this masterpiece, which can easily be viewed as its own independent thing regardless.
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