The Refrigerator Monologues

By: Catherynne M. Valente

Narrated by: Karis A. Campbell

The lives of six female superheroes and the girlfriends of superheroes. A ferocious riff on women in superhero comics.

From the New York Times best-selling author Catherynne Valente comes a series of linked stories from the points of view of the wives and girlfriends of superheroes, female heroes, and anyone who's ever been "refrigerated": comic book women who are killed, raped, brainwashed, driven mad, disabled, or had their powers taken so that a male superhero's storyline will progress.

In an entirely new and original superhero universe, Valente subversively explores these ideas and themes in the superhero genre, treating them with the same love, gravity, and humor as her fairy tales. After all, superheroes are our new fairy tales and these six women have their own stories to share.

©2017 Catherynne M. Valente (P)2017 HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

excellent as usual

gut wrenching and humorous, I really felt for these characters, even with no previous knowledge of them. really enjoyed the performance and it made me laugh many times

Excellent! Wish there were more

Great storyline, love how it’s tied together(inventive!), and how it’s paced; some works don’t do as well being listened to, but this book was well suited to the approach. Top-notch narration, as well. I hate to gush like this but hey, there it is. My only complaint is that there were not 30 hours of it to listen to :).
On the + side of that, plenty of room for a sequel.

Not just hero motivation

This is a powerful story, even if you are unfamiliar with the characters' inspiration and only have a passing understanding of "fridging". Definitely worth a listen.

For The Furies

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Karis A. Campbell, and the book I think is better for a woman's voice to give the monologues their due weight.

In Deadtown's Hell Hath Club 'fridged' women meet up at the Lethe Café to tell their six stories.

The trope Gail Simone coined of "women in refrigerators" in 1999 paired with a Vagina Monologues twist of title. ( "Not every woman in comics has been killed, raped, depowered, crippled, turned evil, maimed, tortured, contracted a disease or had other life-derailing tragedies befall her, but given the following list (originally compiled by Gail, with later additions and changes), it's hard to think up exceptions" ... )

If you like Hench or Hadestown, or Hazbin Hotel/ Helluva Boss but where women fridged by comic superhero writers might get to tell their stories beyond their death scenes (there's always scenes in movies you can't get out of your head, Gwen Stacy's death in 2014's The Amazing Spider-Man 2 which inspired the author, or a scene with Medusa's head *in a fridge* in 2010's Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief) then you'll appreciate this.

Paige Embry is an alternate version of Gwen Stacy, who should have gotten the powers her boyfriend has. Julia a Jean Grey/Phoenix analogue, who's powers are beyond human reckoning and make men afraid. Pauline Ketch is a Harley Quinn-inspired villainess or a mad man's doll on puppet stings he cuts when he learns his nemesis identity.

Blue Bayou—the Trash Queen of Backwater Atlantis is reflection of Mera, alive, and a Queen, but put out of the way for missing her dead baby too much. Daisy Green's luck was stolen by a hero, a Sandman's girl like Dian Belmont.

Samantha Dane inspired by the original fridged girl, Alexandra DeWitt a girlfriend of Green Lantern Kyle Rayner.

I liked the implication that Daisy and Paige, Pauline and Bayou move on in finding new love with each other and that Hell Hath Club got started with the original wronged and tragic women - Helen, Medea, Iphigenia and Clytemnestra. That the dead are brought to a new life by our lost arts and stories and entertainment, feeding on it in a kind of eternal cycle.

Masterful and evocative narration, just incredibly well done.

From the first momemt I was invested in these women's stories. Catherynne M Valente has crafted a spotlight, one that illuminates the dark corners, the hidden underbelly of the superhero genre. Men with unrestrstrained power, and the women aroumd them who are sucked dry by it, even after death.