PATRICIA WANTS TO CUDDLE

Reality dating show contestants are pitted against each other and whatever lurks in the wilderness in this genre-defying fiction debut.

The Catch is down to its final four contestants, and the penultimate episode is taking place on Otters Island, a formerly famous “LGBTQ getaway” whose popularity declined after three hikers mysteriously disappeared in the 1990s. The women competing to marry smarmy tech company co-founder Jeremy Blackstone largely conform to stereotypes: Lilah-Mae is pro–prosperity gospel and anti–all things sexual; Amanda is an airhead obsessed with maintaining her social media presence; and Vanessa is the too-horny mean girl poised to be this season’s villain. Only Renee seems singular from the jump; she’s repulsed by Jeremy, coming to terms with her long-repressed attraction to women, and, as the only remaining Black contestant, keenly aware that she hasn’t been eliminated already because of optics. Allen pings among each contestant’s point of view (along with that of producer Casey) as they fight, film, and contemplate the possibility that there’s a dangerous cryptid in the surrounding woods, but most fun are the interspersed experiments in form, including posts from a Catch fan site and secret letters from a teen in 1972 to her girlfriend. The novel’s abbreviated length gets in the way of its impressive ambition; the transition from reality TV satire to gruesome horror is a little bumpy, and while Allen is clearly interested in letting her characters expand into complicated human beings, some readers may be left wanting more.

A one-of-a-kind queer horror comedy for people who watch The Bachelor and The X-Files back-to-back.