I Confess I Have Mixed Feelings

I struggle to get my head around how I feel about this short story. The prose and some of the ideas are of a high quality, but I can't help feeling uncomfortable by the portrayal of mental health and the misogynistic tropes protagonist falls into. I struggle to really put my finger on it, but comparing this to gothic horror that uses many of the same conceits and imagery feels different. I think the explicit discussion of real mental health conditions and the melodramatic comparison of the 'hateful wife' and the 'innocent dying husband' just give me the ick. Like, I get that this is written to be titillating, in a similar vein to extreme horror and other potentially problematic media, and the doing it to do it and the enjoyment of it is not an issue, maybe this just isn't for me.

I did enjoy the writing style and performance, so I might give Birdbox a read at some point as I did enjoy the film. ( )