“You’ll have plenty of Slurm at the end of the tour, where you will party with Slurms McKenzie.”

43. Thinner Than Thou – Kit Reed

The Afterfat. Seriously. Thinner Than Thou mixes a lot of what is constantly brewing in American culture in relation to religion, to ideals of beauty, and the process of ruining the self-esteem of young women in particular via, say, Instagram, but not admitting that’s one of the things Instagram does. US culture is still pretty focused on “thin is in” even if there have been some improvements in a few places. Even if it’s okay to not be okay, it’s still better if you’re perfect looking while not being okay in the USA. And control, the kind that comes with religious cults and diseases like anorexia, is also very much at play in Thinner Than Thou. It is a satire though, this is Kit Reed, and there are several characters to follow into the hellaciously awful world of the Dedicated Sisters and the Reverend Earl and his totally bullshit promises about making people perfect and his other, larger, slipperier secrets. It doesn’t have a satisfying ending, but, neither does an unattainable beauty standard/religious cult in real life.

 

Guinea pigs’ hierarchies are not based on beauty or religion, which is one of many reasons why they are such appealing companion creatures. Danger Crumples was perfect though, unattainably perfect. He knew it, too.