Don't Let Me Drown

war, guilt and hope collide in this magical realism novella

By: Andy Siege

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Traumatised by his experiences as a war photographer, Aaron is drowning in guilt and tranquilisers. On a new assignment to document the civil conflict in the African country of Miberia, he is paralysed by the belief that terrible things only happen so that he can capture them on camera.

When he meets Mary, a young woman in danger because she is intersex, he’s convinced that if he can just save her, it will redeem him for all the other deaths he’s witnessed.

So begins a race to the border, one step ahead of the rebel army. But as love grows between them and the country is submerged in innocent blood, Aaron comes to understand that he’s not saving Mary. She’s saving him.

Amidst the horrors of war, can Aaron rediscover hope?

Objectively the worst book I've ever read

If something could be wrong with a book, it is in this one. Constant racism, tokenism, exploitation and inaccurate portrayal of intersex people, magical negro and noble savage nonsense, scary angry black men, white saviorism, ugh the list is endless and it's on every page. The writing is terrible. There's even a (highly misogynistic) sex scene where the author demonstrates he clearly doesn't know where a g spot is. If you want an angry drinking game, use this book. Otherwise, I don't know what the goal of writing this was other than to see how much assholery you can fit into a book. I only finished it because it was short and I desperately wanted the MMC to die.

As a mixed race intersex person, I have never felt so abused by a book.