The Mars Room
by Rachel Kushner
The Mars Room is a voyeuristic embarrassment of a book that stumbles so aggressively through its sensationalism of sex workers, trans and queer people, and incarcerated people that there isn’t actually room left for a plot. I called it quits 50 pages in because I just couldn’t take it. It was like listening to my 70-year old aunt from Danvers, MA explain how dangerous New York City is. I tried to give this away at a white elephant and no one wanted it. Brutal.