Trauma Plot is a fierce argument for the confessional and a kaleidoscopic self-interrogation after sexual violence ... When Hood writes with deep self-awareness, treating her life as a necessary subject for investigation, she venerates every survivor’s story. Trauma Plot is not only sharp but so readable, I devoured it whole ... A blueprint for gathering yourself together in the wake of sexual violence, including those parts pushed into the shadow.
Hood writes rising peril particularly well ... Hood’s writing is exceptional for its own sake; she’s a remarkable critic, illuminating what you know is there, turning your head towards it.
Hood’s writing is strong, elegant, and precise, which makes this haunting account profoundly powerful and compelling ... Hood is simultaneously a lyrical poet who uses language in unexpected ways and an unflinchingly honest, keen observer of base ugliness.
With bracing detail, a practiced poetic consciousness, and something like foreboding mysticism, she excavates the layers of both her personal experience and what it reflects about sexualized violence against women generally and transwomen in particular ... The artistic intentionality of Hood’s narration meets the genius of her project ... She deftly carves into the tensions between particularity and exceptionality, arc and causality, how we tell stories of suffering and whywe tell them to reimagine her personhood and reorient readers toward empathy ... A magnificent, norm-shattering work.
