Homesick

July 8, 2019
PW reviewer Cipri’s patchwork debut SF collection brings together nine stories about people, most of whom fall somewhere under the LGBTQ umbrella, struggling to connect with one another in bizarre circumstances. Other than that theme, the works have little in common. Some play with form: “Which Super Little Dead Girl™ Are You?” is a creepy Buzzfeed-style quiz that snarkily reveals the details of four girls’ gruesome murders, and “Dead Air” is a terrifying found-footage thriller about a lesbian who audiotapes her relationships. Two character-driven epistolary stories, “Let Down, Set Free” and “The Shape of My Name,” respectively feature a divorcee riding a flying tree and a transmasculine time traveler who’s trying to better understand his estranged mother’s choices. In “Not an Ocean but the Sea,” a disgruntled housekeeper finds an ocean hidden under furniture. “Presque Vu” chronicles a lonely gay ride-share driver living through an apocalypse. Vibrant characters ground the well-written stories. The collection’s diversity is both a strength and a weakness; there’s something for everyone, but few people are likely to love it in its entirety. Agent: DongWon Song, Morhaim Literary.

September 1, 2019
Nine speculative stories capture the most universal parts of humanity through an organic and refreshing take on the paranormal, all while letting queer, neurodiverse, transgender, and nonbinary characters take the lead. Neuroatypical artist Jeremy is sure there's an art-appreciating ghost in his closet, but he's more interested in getting to know his bigender neighbor, Merion, in "A Silly Love Story." The ghost is the perfect excuse to explore art, love, and personhood as, together, Jeremy and Merion try to paint the ghost a perfect still-life. Ghosts also roam freely in "Presque Vu," though nobody knows why they suddenly arrived. Clay wakes every morning with a metal key lodged in his throat--his specific haunting--while also dealing with the day-to-day issues of depression and a new relationship with Joe, whose own haunting may know what the keys are for. In "She Hides Sometimes," Anjana's childhood home slowly, and literally, disappears when her mother develops dementia. Or is Anjana losing her memories too? Author Cipri, themself a queer, trans/nonbinary writer, uses the paranormal as the perfect lens for exploring everyday humanity. Interview transcripts between romantically entangled humans and monsters, zombie magazine quizzes, and archaeological mysteries wrap love and loss with a depth of character unusual in such short pieces. Some stories may have more paranormal elements than others, some may be sweeter or creepier, but they'll all haunt readers long after the book is closed. A beautiful, sometimes haunting, always inviting and inclusive collection about life, love, and the paranormal.

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