Batshit Seven by Sheung-King | The Miramichi Reader

Millennial fiction occupies a sad, weird, depressed niche now. The youngest millennials are on the doorstep of thirty, and in a world that is very different from the one promised to them (being a middle of the pack millennial myself, it’s a feeling I’m well acquainted with). This is the feeling Sheung-King (the pen name of Aaron Tang) captures in Batshit Seven: a weary, self-loathing, depressed story. Glue has returned home to Hong Kong after dropping out of his MFA and sort of breaking up with his girlfriend. His parents provided a downpayment for an apartment before they moved to Macau, and this is where he lingers: trying to figure out what he’s going to do; casually sleeping with May, a girl who steals from him (or so she says); and watching Hong Kong fall into unrest and protest against Chinese rule as he feels like he’s falling apart. In 2019, everything for Glue is devoid of joy or even interest.

I struggled while reading this for a couple of reasons: Sheung-King is skilled at setting the atmosphere, and Glue is trapped in a pit of depression. As I was reading, I felt repulsed by Glue’s deteriorating state of mind, recognizing the feeling of being trapped in a place you don’t want to be, feeling depressed and not having a way out, and trying to figure out some direction for your life. My reaction was based fully in thinking “this is too real.” The second reason is that because Glue is struggling, the pacing of the story is a struggle. Again, this is reflective of the work that went into carefully writing this novel, because the flow of narration is so stilted and frozen.

The other very neat thing about this novel, and certainly the first I’ve seen in fiction, is the use of QR codes throughout the novel to link the reader to websites that are referenced in the text: mostly YouTube videos, but there are other ones, like the Hong Kong McDonald’s menu. It adds a great layer to the text, and also now that I’ve seen it done, I’m surprised it hasn’t been used before.

Batshit Seven is a hard novel to read: unpleasant, a little bit gross, depressing because you know what era Glue is barrelling toward, and he repeatedly does nothing with his life. Sheung-King has created a character who reflects the complexities of the world he inhabits, and while it’s uncomfortable and frustrating to be in Glue’s mind, it’s also a bizarrely compelling place, for all of the depression, drinking, and aimlessness Glue feels. Sheung-King does a lot of interesting things in this novel, but it’s a very specific kind of reading experience that needs the right kind of reader, one who is willing to understand Glue, or at least not pass the book off as “kids these days.” Under the malaise with which Glue interacts with the world in Batshit Seven, there are very real anxieties and pain.

Batshit Seven is a hard novel to read: unpleasant, a little bit gross, depressing … Sheung-King has created a character who reflects the complexities of the world he inhabits, and while it’s uncomfortable and frustrating to be in Glue’s mind, it’s also a bizarrely compelling place …

SHEUNG-KING’s debut novel, You Are Eating an Orange. You Are Naked., was a finalist for the 2021 Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction and the 2021 Amazon Canada First Novel Award. It was longlisted for Canada Reads 2021 and named one of… More about Sheung-King

Publisher: Penguin Random House (Feb 20, 2024)
Language: English
Hardcover 5″ x 7.5″ | 336 Pages
ISBN: 978-0-7352-4530-3

Alison Manley

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Alison Manley has ricocheted between New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for most of her life. Now in Halifax, Nova Scotia, she is the Cataloguing and Metadata Librarian at Saint Mary's University. Her past life includes a long stint as a hospital librarian on the banks of the mighty Miramichi River. She has an honours BA in political science and English from St. Francis Xavier University, and a Master of Library and Information Studies from Dalhousie University. While she's adamant that her love of reading has nothing to do with her work, her ability to consume large amounts of information very quickly sure is helpful. She is often identified by her very red lipstick, and lives with her partner Brett and cat, Toasted Marshmallow.