In chapters Zero to Five of Flex, our intrepid Read Along With Katy pioneers braved an octopoid monster made from insurance forms, donut psychology and a daughter on fire. Chapters Six to Ten, and the second week of #DirgeRAWK, have continued to be as weird, as wonderful, and as fast-paced. For me, the last week of Flex has offered an energising indulgence of my two greatest joys in fiction – character building and world building.
Paul, for example, is both comfortable and compelling as Flex’s main character. His dual-nature of seriousness and playfulness is a real draw for the reader as well as rocket fuel for the plot; his mingled curiosity and anxiety feels believable, authentic and fitting. I like that he meets someone he thinks might be a serial killer and feels bad for making them panic. I like that he charges his prosthetic leg in the USB port of the car he just created with his mind and feels smug about how cool that is. I like that he is, above all, a largely unashamed supergeek – not just about his own passions but about those of others, too. Paul is a warm and welcome antiseptic to your usual white, stubbly ‘shoot now, ask questions later’ fantasy protagonist, but he’s not some clueless weakling getting dragged kicking and screaming through the adventure, either. He manages to be a sympathetic everyman without being bland or inane, and his strength of character adds grease to the forward momentum of the story.
I also want to talk for a moment about Valentine, Paul’s current Undesirable Number One – and when I say ‘for a moment’, I think I mean ‘for the rest of my life’. She’s an avid gamer, the force of her obsession meaning she can fry technology, spring bathroom-based traps on unsuspecting lurkers and accidentally create a rain of frogs. She is a playful, caring, brave, nerdy, self-confident, neurodivergent woman of size. Valentine is everything I’ve been looking for in fiction for as long as I can remember. For the first time in my life this is a character that looks a lot like me and is not demoted to the side-lines of the secretly insecure comic relief, or the brash and gross romcom foil, or whatever other sickening stereotype society likes to throw around about fat women. Up to now she seems to be a developed character with an independent story arc ahead of her. So far I’d say if you were teetering on the brink of buying Flex, do it for Valentine’s Day.
In terms of world building, the last few chapters have been like watching the spotlight broaden and deepen on a rich and tangible world – while you were cheerfully plopped into the midst of things at the beginning of Flex, these chapters were like being handed a pack of supplies and being encouraged to explore. Perhaps most intriguing is the growing amount of information regarding the science and art of ‘mancy in these chapters, just enough that the magic starts to make more sense but little enough that it leaves you thirsty, to the point where I’ve found myself idly wondering about the length, breadth and depth of obsession and how this relates to magic while in the queue at the supermarket. In particular, the more we learn about SMASH, the more their Ministry of Love-style threats and machinations become a dark shadow on the horizon of the plot, at once creepily dangerous and desperately sad.
The next week, and the next chapters, are going to be so awesome. Read along and join in the conversation at #DirgeRAWK on Twitter!
