Review by Booklist Review
Pen is so obsessed with social media influencer Aiden that he creates a hex, which accidentally lands on Blithe, bonding these three trans men in Lake's inventive and mildly confusing debut. Operatrix work at the Rhiz, an organization that watches over the trans community, and they visit Pen, instructing him to bring Aiden to the Shadowlands, a place through which all trans people cross, and rescue Blithe. The creation of story is essential to this novel; embedded in it are multiple, additional manuscripts: transcripts of court proceedings, narratives of doctors' visits, and backstory for Pen's sexual relationship with a celebrity. In preparation to rescue Blithe, Pen must use files to write Blithe's narrative. Queers reconstructing and shaping their stories, including getting it wrong and needing some guidance, are at the core of this novel. The plot, the language, and the characters move perhaps a little too quickly at times, making rereading necessary. Even so, the futuristic New York and Los Angeles that form the backdrop for a modern and youthful queer culture make for stimulating immersion.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Set in the near future, Lake's quirky, chaotic debut follows trans man Penfield Henderson as he wrestles with his self-destructive impulses and stumbles his way toward finding a queer community. Penfield is obsessed with Aiden Chase, a trans social media influencer who glows with masculinity and woo-woo self-help wisdom. In a fit of pettiness, Penfield tries to hex Aiden into the Shadowlands of despair--but the hex instead accidentally catches Blithe, another trans man and a transracial adoptee. The Rhiz, a secret society of well-adjusted LGBTQ folks connected by a "subaltern, mycorrhizae-modeled network," steps in, assigning Penfield and Aiden to work together to rescue Blithe from the Shadowlands. Disappointingly, Blithe's time in the Shadowlands processing his gender and racial pain is largely glossed over, as Lake instead focuses on Penfield changing his middle name from Ruth to R., outgrowing his closeted celebrity hookup, and bonding with Aiden over iced coffee. While these slice-of-trans-life sequences are refreshing and honest, their myopic focus on Penfield undercuts the larger theme of queer interconnectedness. Nevertheless, Pen's fairy tale ending hits the spot. Despite some disjointed plotting and frequent clumsiness around race, this coming-of-age journey through the surreality of gender will please readers seeking speculative queer fiction. Agent: Chris Clemans, Janklow & Nesbit. (June)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A trans man armed with the power of self-reflection embarks on a hero's journey. This debut novel begins in a vaguely futuristic New York City with our hero, Penfield R. Henderson, scrolling through the Gram, a sort of evolved Instagram with holographic capabilities. The object of Pen's attention is Aiden Chase, a fellow trans man whom Pen both worships and despises. Aiden represents a "trans-father whose shadow [he] wanted to step out of even tho dude was younger." Unable to handle another perfect post from Aiden on the Gram, Pen decides to place a hex on him, asking his Bushwick roommates, the Witch and the Stoner-Hacker, to help him "curse someone, in both the old ways and the new." This plan goes awry when a trans man named Blithe Freeman encounters Pen's curse before Aiden does, and he's sent deep into the Shadowlands. Enter the Rhiz, an underground trans network, which enlists both Pen and Aiden to find the cursed man and bring him back. The two frenemies set out to rescue Blithe from the Shadowlands, which, despite functioning as a metaphor for deep depression, is physically located in Joshua Tree. The journey is akin to a queer millennial version of The Alchemist, complete with proverbs and personal growth. Pen's raw reflections on his insecurities as a trans man--"my feet were still sweating from my encounter with the airport scanners. I knew they saw I was missing a big dick"--provide a realness to this dreamlike, allegorical narrative. The attempts to orient the story in the future, from subway cars that glow with Bio-meter readings to vague mentions of climate-related natural disasters, only serve to distract from a more powerful reality: For underrepresented communities, the everyday experience can be alien enough. This is a modern allegory with a unique voice--searching, questioning, vulnerable, witty. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
