One of the protagonists of Needlemouth, by K-Ming Chang, reminds me a little of the French fairy tale, Diamonds and Toads, in which a girl is cursed so that foul creatures fall out of her mouth whenever she opens it to speak. But in Needlemouth, the objects that start appearing in Cindy’s mouth range from buttons to needles, and there is no sister who dribbles out diamonds or even flowers, because in this society, girls are worthless and produce nothing, not even children, because they are just viewed as hosts for the bloodlines of their husbands. Girls exist to pay off their debts of being born, and Cindy and her cousins Mandy and Yangyang are being raised to expect nothing better than wifely lives of suffering and endurance. Their futures look so bad that when the hungry ghost/demon Needlemouth appears, Cindy eventually yields to her demands. That decision pitchforks all of them into crisis.
This book has been a difficult read for me, steeped as it is in pessimism and resentment, but it’s increasingly interesting. Once resentment boils over into anger, rage, and fury, and the dreamy/nightmarish adventures start, it becomes much more engaging, even exciting, although far more horrific. There’s a lot of body horror and gore here, and internalized misogyny (internalized, because the three cousin-protagonists hardly ever see or hear directly from men, just their lecturing mothers/aunts), and misandry, and incitement to harming innocents and other forms of evil. There is also a lot of intriguing ideation here, for instance, the surprising relationships between the girls and certain kinds of birds. So, I certainly can’t recommend this book for all audiences, but it’s a fascinating work of art, and some people will find it heartening as the initially quarrelsome cousins band together and refuse to surrender each other to their apparent fates.
The girls all go to school, but nothing there is important to them; their oppressive home life dominates them. Mandy, the oldest cousin, has been seeking dubious outside connections at the library and online; Cindy can’t remember her own mother, and dreams about killing her aunts; Yangyang, the youngest, feels numbed by reality and escapes into fantasies. Mandy thinks Cindy is swallowing/spitting up these strange objects and tries to watch after her as well as Yangyang.
Cindy is approached by a hungry ghost called Needlemouth, who longs for attention, affection, and blood and begs to be adopted as one of Cindy’s ancestors (which actually makes her an ancestor of all the cousins). She tells the girls stories of undergoing rejection and oppression to try to gain their sympathy and nourishment for her endless hunger and to justify her endless rage against men and the women who support their tyranny, i.e. all of society. Then she tries to get the girls to carry out vengeance for her.
A major theme here is the self-perpetuating oppression of women throughout the generations. The girls are taught by their elder female relatives that life is just like this, and nobody can escape mistreatment, depression, and despair (except for one relative who defiantly committed suicide). The girls believe this is true, yet somehow they find the strength to resist the demon and try to save each other from the supernatural threat, even though society still seems immutable. I wouldn’t say this book has a really happy ending, but at least the cousins learn that they can rely upon each other. And watching them go through their adventures and realizations is fascinating, although harrowing.
MILD SPOILERS: When the girls can’t meet her demands for vengeance and won’t obey her demands to punish an innocent instead, she abducts one of them to the demon world. The remaining girls try to follow and get her back. They don’t give up, and they find some unexpected allies, along with more enemies. They are all changed by this adventure, but in the end, they know they are bonded together and no longer so alone. END SPOILERS.
Needlemouth is being published by Simon & Schuster on Oct. 20. (288 pages)
Content warnings: Body horror, demons, misogynistic society, domestic cruelty, learned hopelessness, suicidal ideation, incitement to violence and murder.
Disclaimer: The publisher offered me a free ARC with a request to review.
