Review: User Not Found
How do they keep getting away with this?! As with Fly by Night, User Not Found is the story of a useless lesbian in a hopeless world carving out a little bit of hope, not just for themselves, but for all ‘transgressives’ by Dani Finn.
I wanted to publish this review second because I feel it’s more directly dealing with the world trans folks are increasingly subjected to.
The main character, Jack, works as an agent of The Incorporated States’s censorship department, though I fear that descriptor might leave you with the false impression. Jack does not decide what gets censored, not technically. Their job is to hunt down clues to the identities and locations of queer writers posting on one of the last semi-free platforms, OnlyJoy.
I tend to avoid describing the plot details of books I review outright, prefering to discuss the plot in the broad strokes. However with this one, I think it’s important for an audience to understand what this story is about. Jack has done significant harm.
They are personally responsible for some people's suffering and disappearances. Even during the denouement Jack’s past actions are still brought up, and while they are uncomfortable with that, they set that discomfort aside and own their past and more importantly, focus on how they can undo it and prevent future harm.
User Not Found is an egg fic, though I’d say it’s more comparable to a coming of age story using the framing of an egg fic rather than focally about transitioning like Vyria Durav’s The Dragon and Her Princess or Catnip.
Jack’s transition is used as synecdoche for their growing understanding of the queer community, as well as the harm they have done to it.
If I have to have a complaint, it’s that I truly do not know how legible it is outside of a certain circle of trans writers and shitposters. I have a lot of that shared context. I know many of the books the story references, even incompletely. I can recognize the authors who inspired several of the characters, though I suppose one is so on the nose as to be funnier if one didn’t see who inspired her.
I suspect those aren’t terribly load-bearing elements, but I can still admit when my context makes something difficult for me to judge.
The long and short of it is this. User Not Found is another story by Dani Finn that finds hope in a world strangled. It draws that hope from the stories we tell. From the connections we make. From the ways a shared experience can bring us to a common ground from which to build something better.
Reminder that this and many other recently reviewed books are available as part of the Queer Lights in the Darkness Bundle on Itch.io!
