INCEL: A Novel (reviews)
Podcast review: ‘The Sorrows of a Young Jerker’
"This is better than Bret Easton Ellis."
"Deeply uncomfortable at a lot of points to read it, but it was also very interesting... certainly the prose is very unique... it's dense but not in a bad way... it's got its own strange academic quality to it. It's certainly worth checking out."
Capitalisimo, speaking in the
literary podcast"Incel is a very deep novel, a very sincere novel. It's not a meme book, it's not 'memey' but it also isn't antagonistic to 4chan or any of our internet groups. It is a work of genuine sincerity of an aspy motherfucker, alright, who is the enlightened centrist in a lot of ways, but it’s a genuinely, objectively sweetly sincere novel that does not pull any punches and it's finely crafted to an insane degree. Very, very clean and very, well produced and I have immense respect for Mr. ARX-Han despite his [redacted] origins."
Gabe, speaking in the
literary podcast"The technical strength of the prose and the consistency is great... it's a really strong style... really well crafted."
"It's very beautifully written and it's very well thought out."
“We put our seal of approval.”
Dave, speaking in the
literary podcast
Click here to read my response to their review: The Incel as Literary Subject.
Online review: X.com
This book is phenomenal. Very nimble prose, philosophically rigorous without being obtuse, and beautiful. Extremely well crafted.
Scott Litts, writer, critic, and filmmaker on X.com
Print review: ‘Get Laid or Die Trying’
"Han does a fantastic job of taking his readers into the mind of an incel. The experience is disorienting. Anon analyzes and overanalyzes everything. All interactions become a science experiment, with outcomes already determined by anon's nihilistic, zero-sum philosophy."
"As a piece of art, Incel is exceptional. Han writing is intricate and thought-provoking and correct."
"Incel is complicated dynamite. It is powerful, but sometimes this power is directionless. Ultimately, Han's novel gets more right than wrong, and its tale has the makings of a classic. Anon is legion, and for that reason, Incel should be required reading for anyone earnestly trying to get a grip on the rise of atomized and loveless young men."
Click here to read my response to Arbogast’s review: ‘Literary fiction as racial power fantasy.’
Print review: ‘INCEL BY ARX-HAN’
A mad plunge into the fractured landscape of the male psyche, Incel by ARX-Han is a satirical and sinister look at a frightening modern development. A sexually frustrated American embarks on a dark journey to lose his virginity, as readers are given intimate access to his unfiltered thought processes as he becomes more radicalized, obsessive, bitter, and destructive. Brilliant in its technical detail, linguistic flexibility, and savage cultural commentary, this dense portrait of a solipsistic loner feels timely and insightful about a dangerously disaffected portion of contemporary society.
Print review: ‘Incel: A Novel (2023)’
What is interesting is that Anon makes proper citations throughout the text, that without a first-person Gonzo narrative, could instead be presented as actual academic research. Something similar was established with Nick Land and Sadie Plant’s “theory-fiction” of “Cybernetic Culture Research Unit.” It’s a funny device and reminds me of Jack Isidore in Confessions of a Crap Artist. The “novel” is about inward thinking and analytical operation. What I love is Anon’s sexual desires coming out, even though he tries to hide them with rational decision-making. The best thing an author can do is describe eroticism in personal detail, as it enlightens the soul of the reader with beauty and intimacy.
- , writing for his eponymous SubStack
Synopsis:
Savage, hilarious, and everything in between, INCEL is a pitch-dark comedy about one man's harrowing quest to ascend.
Suicidally depressed, twenty-two year old anon has settled on a deadline: if he can't find a way to lose his virginity by the date of his next birthday, he’s going to pick a fight with the biggest, baddest man he can find, and get himself killed.
For anon, social alienation is a simple matter of unvarnished perspective: America in the year 2012 is a brutal Darwinian hellscape where every man is engaged in a ruthless competition for access to attractive females—and losers like him are left to rot.
As he begins his first year of graduate studies in evolutionary psychology, the looming threat of his personal deadline mutates into a totalizing obsession to validate his theories and achieve sex for the first time. Convinced that he's discovered a special method for "hacking" the mating patterns in human behavior, he starts upon a path that only threatens to further destabilize his already fragile psyche, hurtling him toward a crucible of his own design.
★ ★ ★ From literary newcomer ARX-Han, INCEL represents the absolute frontier in transgressive psychological fiction. Fusing the correlated shards of masculinity, shame, and hatred, it casts a singular account of a young mind's unyielding descent into the memetic spiral of online radicalization. Alternating between waves of realism and satire, INCEL flows between the interwoven ideologies of pickup artists, The Red Pill, involuntary celibates, and the alt-right—tracing a bleakly comic portrait that echoes into the near past and our imminent future.