Book Review — "Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters" by Ennis Rook Bashe
The subtitle of this novella is “a dark MMF fantasy romance,” and I’ll admit that I had to look up what MMF meant. It basically equates to male-male-female, which is cool because when it comes to most mainstream romance stories involving three people, the looming question tends to be “who will lose?” Heteronormative culture usually only allows two people—a man and a woman—to live happily ever after together. But that’s an antiquated concept. And just way too straight. One of the things I really admire about Ennis Rook Bashe’s Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters is its unrepentant queerness and its embrace of polygamous relationships.
Our central character is a creature named Vessel, only “Vessel” is not so much a proper name as it is his station in life. He is a member of the lowest-ranking class in the caste system of the underground realm he was born into. To the powers that be, Vessel is essentially nothing more than a useful body, a sentient cog in a figurative machine. They don’t see his beauty, or care even about it. They don’t know that Vessel is a bright and talented magician, with a penchant for human culture, who yearns to escape the repressive society that doesn’t recognize his desires and passions. Vessel is a lovely protagonist, and an easy one for queer readers to relate to.
Vessel knows he’s different, knows he doesn’t quite belong. Wherever the human people are, that’s where he knows he ought to be. I felt this, as someone who grew up closeted in a rural, conservative area of the country. I so badly wanted to move to New York or Los Angeles, to be with people like me. (I would ultimately settle in Cleveland, which was a close enough comprise considering my resources at the time.) Aware that it’s unlikely that he’ll ever mingle with humankind, Vessel collects the trinkets and garments of the humans who are captured and killed down below. It’s his duty to keep them alive and healing in between torture sessions, in order to prolong their torment and the gestation period of the parasitic eggs that have been laid inside them.
The latest human he’s tasked with getting back up to torturing snuff is a man named Clarien, a hunter of monsters. The captive Clarien teaches Vessel all kinds of stuff about human culture, and they form an intimate bond. I, too, after a while had a bit of a connection to Clarien. I dunno, he seems like a swell chap. (I also get the impression that’s very hot. More on that later.) Unable to let his kind bring anymore pain unto his friend—let alone impregnate him with eggs—Vessel mercy-kills Clarien, which leads those in authority to shape-shift Vessel into a double of Clarien. They see this as the ultimate punishment and humiliation, but it’s in a lot of ways really the greatest gift of all—first and foremost because it’s in this form that he’s rescued by a pair of monster hunters who mistake him for Clarien.
Rhys and Sera are excellent co-leads. I was oftentimes just as interested by what was going on with them as I was with what was going on with Vessel. It’s through this duo that Bashe makes it clear that this novella is a sex-positive work of fiction. I would not describe Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters as erotica, but Bashe definitely does not shy away from their characters’ carnal desires. Not only are the sex scenes hot as hell, but Bashe also sagely uses the moments of intercourse as a means for character development. That applies to Rhys and Sera, yes, but especially for Vessel, for whom the beauty of sexual intimacy is a very new and exciting concept.
Bashe demonstrates a profound understanding of physical presence and the significance of bodies. From the moment Vessel was born, he lacked autonomy. As the lowest of the low, his body was only ever going to be a useful tool for those in charge. But then when he’s morphed into human form, he comes into his own in a way that was not possible before; he discovers fleshly possibilities that had been previously unattainable. Bashe is very careful when it comes to how they depict a character’s physical challenges and how to give those same characters newfound strengths wothout “correcting” their impairments.
The author exemplifies this through Rhys and Sera’s Cairn, their community for disabled children. In the Cairn, they treat the young with a type of magic that offers them special abilities needed for monster-hunting. The magic they provide does not erase their condition, though. The children are trained to live with their disabilities and to use their new skills in conjunction with them, basically. This is such a welcome detail because so often we (meaning generally as a society) have a tendency to want to “fix” a disabled person’s ailment, or force them to assimilate to an able-bodied way of doing things—both of which are, of course, ableist and wrong. The Cairn, instead, honors the uniqueness of each character and helps them to harness their distinct powers, and that’s just awesome.
When I saw Ennis Rook Bashe describe their self as a “disabled queer badass” on their blog, I knew this book would be good. And I’m pleased to report that Rescued by the Married Monster Hunters is just as entertaining as it is enlightening. Also, refreshing! Bashe has a cogent, confident voice. The prose possesses a liveliness that repeatedly nudged me to keep reading—particularly during the, ahem, adult stuff. But it’s not overdone, either. Sometimes, in my opinion, an authorial presence can be too felt, like when a writer really wants to make sure you know they’re clever. I don’t get that here. Ennis Rook Bashe, to put it simply, does what’s needed to keep the fire alive so as to energize the plot and to illuminate each character’s inner light.
