Hermit was a vastly more shocking and disturbing story than I expected.

Delivering the title as a two hander between Jamie (Hermit) and his mother Fiona was a stroke of genius though, it gives the reader the insight into the lonely wee boy, scared of stepping out of his filthy pit of a bedroom, let alone out of doors. Through Fiona we discover that Jamie has always lived just on the outskirts of life, from age 11 he wanted to detach from the world. A solitary soul. He loves his Ma, and his granny, and he hates himself for snapping at them when they encourage hygiene and life outside of that room.

From Jamie’s pov we learn that the world is terrifying, he doesn’t care that he stinks, there’s nobody to smell him anyway, he sleeps his worries away, emerges for microwave food and hides on his PlayStation. When he meets Lee online it seems like there’s hope, the pair strike a close bond, Jamie is delighted to have found a friend, a reason, but Lee is an incel, he soon convinces Jamie that he must be an incel. As they delve deeper, it’s striking how easy it is to disappear down the rabbit hole, swallow the pill, however you want to determine it, there’s a place for everyone online, a place where predators lurk ready to catch their prey.

From the moment Lee “converts” Jamie the language and the story become distressing, repulsive and malignant, yet the author has managed to lighten the load a bit with a lot of the dark humour that I only know Glasgow to hold.

I predict awards!

4.5 🌟
The audio narration by Chris McQueer and Scarlett Mack were perfect. They brought to life the spirit and vernacular of east end of Glasgow 🎧

Huge thanks to Headline Audio via NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ELC 🎧

Thank you to Headline Audio + Wildfire for approving my NetGalley ALC! As soon as I read the synopsis for Hermit, I knew I wanted to read it. The topic of - incels - is not something I know much about so I was morbidly fascinated to see a novel written from that POV. What I thought was clever was how the chapters were from Jamie's POV and his Mum—Fiona's. Fiona gave context to how Jamie got to where he is, the situation he grew up in and how the distance between them kept growing despite living in the same house.

Author Chris McQueer voices Jamie, the main character, and Scarlett Mack voices Fiona, Jamie's Mum. Both narrations made for a truly immersive listen. The book is set in Scotland with Jamie and his mum living in Glasgow, so having Scottish narrators with easy-to-listen-to voices kept me in the story the entire time I was listening.

I would have loved an epilogue catching up with the characters after the fact, I'm hoping that they were able to work through it together and independently and that they're in a happier place, thriving. Fiona deserved better from everyone in her life!

Check the trigger warnings before you pick this one up because it gets quite dark. TW for suicide, rape, sexual assault, murder, incel violence and misogyny from the start and throughout.

Hermit is out on 27th February 2025!!!