Review/Discussion: Number One Fan by Meg Elison

It is impossible to read Meg Elison's Number One Fan without comparing it to Stephen King's Misery. Both feature a famous novelist kidnapped by an unhinged fan who grows increasingly terrifying over the course of the novel. Both books speak to toxicity in fandom and the entitlement some fans develop towards creators. I cannot recommend Misery enough - it is a fantastic book - but I'm going to focus on Elison's book here. It is more than just a "gender-flipped" Misery.

Note: My discussion will include some spoilers, but I will do my best to avoid the major ones.

Eli Grey is on her way to a speaking engagement when she gets kidnapped by Leonard, a man who she thinks is a stranger, but knows her all too well. For years, Leonard has been circling at the edge of Eli's life, and he has finally decided to make his move. What follows was one of the most harrowing, uncomfortable reads of my life. The level of entitlement and intimacy that Leonard expects of Eli is beyond alarming. He may stop short of raping her, but what he does to her is on par, or perhaps even worse at times. Be warned going in.

Annie Wilkes (ok I can't resist some comparison) may have kept Paul Sheldon to force him to write the book that she wants, but Leonard wants more than that. He plans to steal Eli's full identity. He feels entitled to her work, her characters, and her entire self. His delusion and obsession is chilling, to say the least.

Leonard is a badguy with no redeeming qualities, something which I appreciated. I was not interested in giving him the benefit of any doubt, and the book does not ask you to. Not only is he a horrible person,
but Leonard is a complete fraud. He garnered some fame through a controversial fanfic and somehow managed to land himself a lucrative contract from there. The way this mediocre man keeps failing upward, despite enormous red flags, is a testament to the patriarchy and the ways society will forgive men at the expense of women. Even when he is exposed, there are still people who come out in support of him toward the end of the book.

This book deals with the unfair standards head-on, and pulls absolutely no punches. If you are a woman in any sort of professional field, you will relate on some level to all the bullshit. For example, after winning an award for a deeply misogynistic piece of writing, the women who stand up to him are silenced by other men in the name of "free speech" (the irony). And after he wins his controversial award, Eli wins her own award. Even though this is her moment, she gets pushback because she didn't use her moment to speak out against him. She was not allowed to just enjoy her own accomplishment on her own terms. It's frustrating because it's all so believable. The exact circumstances in my life are not the same, but the feeling is there. Too often, I have had to diminish myself or centre a man's precious feelings out of survival.

That's where the true horror of this book is. At times, it is a bit extreme, but it all feels like it could happen to someone. When King wrote Misery, toxic fans existed, but they didn't have the kind of intimate access that the internet offers these days. Creators are expected to perform and engage, and while that can be rewarding, it can be dangerous and terrifying, especially for female creators.

Now, I will put my reviewer hat back on for a bit:

I do have some quibbles: the book calls it a battle of wills, but Eli is very outmatched and squanders almost every advantage she might have with her impulsivity. Every idea she has, she MUST rush into, and even after multiple failures, she does not learn or grow more cautious. From a reader's perspective, it gets a bit predictable. Also, Leonard's motives are a bit strange, and I don't mean just because he's a psychopath. His motives take a hard turn near the end that didn't jibe with the rest of his delusions for me.

I also liked the use of the alternating viewpoints. It allowed Elison to show Leonard's motives in detail and the way he slipped through the cracks of notice over his "career". As well, we get insights into the investigation toward rescuing Eli, which keeps the book from feeling too insular.

Again, I urge readers not to dismiss this as some sort of Misery knock-off. The messages it has, and the light it shines on toxic fandom is important. As well, it's a good thriller in its own right. It'll have you triple locking your door, changing all your passwords, and avoiding all Ubers.

 

This post is part of my 101 Horror Books Reading Challenge.

 

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