Massacres committed by perpetrators with firearms are all too common in the United States, so much so that they have a hideous euphemism, the “active shooter” (in part one suspects that this is due to resistance to gun control, the term used to somehow distance thought from the real problem: widespread gun ownership). Unsurprisingly as most violent crime is committed by men, most such massacres are committed by men also. Project XX imagines a disturbed young woman plotting such a crime.
The protagonist of Project XX, Aimee Heller, is a nerdy 17-year-old girl who studies hard and is good at sport. But when she starts to resist her mother as to which colleges she should go to and fails to get into the ones her mum wants, things start to change. Aimee has always done what her mum wants and now the tension between the two, and between Aimee and the world around her, manifests in disturbing ways. She meets and becomes friends with a young woman who’s a social outcast, who calls herself H8ter, and who doesn’t appear to go to college or have a job. Slowly the two start to turn against the world and plot to do the unthinkable.
I don’t want to divulge any spoilers so I won’t say anymore, but Project XX has been compared to Chuck Palahniuk’s Fightclub, the film Heather’s, and Brett Easton Ellis’ work. I can certainly see the comparison to some of these. This is a disturbing read but certainly very compelling.
4 out 4 stars
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