To the unnamed narrator of Herculine, seeing demons is a normal occurrence. She uses her childhood Christianity to ward off the demons even though she’s no longer a practicing Christian. We’re told demons lay claim to those who’ve been traumatized. A lot of the narrator’s complicated past is given rapid-fire in asides, giving the novel a fast-paced feel.

The book highlights the difficulty of being trans including dead-naming, going through conversion therapy, being closeted, bullies online and in-person, dealing with hormone fluctuations, coming up with the money for gender affirmation surgery, fear of being rejected by other trans girls, and people staring at you for looking different. The narrator bad mouths cis people a lot, which is understandable.

Presentation of the trans community in the book is very nuanced and diverse. Trans woman aren’t presented as a monolith, but argue amongst themselves and gatekeep each other over who’s more authentically trans. It’s interesting that trans woman refer to themselves as trans girls in this book. Reasons given for this include fear of growing up or it being easier to be a girl than a woman.

The novel takes its time introducing us to the narrator, her friends, and her life in New York, before the action kicks off. She eventually leaves New York to join a commune of trans women in the Midwest. Things at the commune are borderline cult-like, with the leader having a ceremony to hand out hormones. There are occult books in the library and the others seems to be hiding something from her. When the Wi-Fi goes out and her car won’t start, she realizes she’s stuck here and things start to escalate.

There’s some erotic scenes and a few funny lines. Unlike most horror novels, many (though not all) of the deaths occur off screen, just being mentioned in passing. I would have found the book more horrific if the deaths weren’t dismissed so quickly, but it does make sense that the narrator doesn’t want to look at the bodies or dwell on the deaths.