What a Fish Looks like, by Syr Hayati Beker

[mrissa]

 Review copy provided by the publisher.

 

One of my friends likes to say, "it's never too late to have a messy breakup," and that could be one of the thesis statements of this book. Jay and Seb are having an epically messy breakup...also the world is literally ending in environmental collapse and at least one of them will probably leave the planet for another planet whose traits are not well known.

 

Also it's a mosaic novel whose framing device is a book of fairytales.

 

Jazz hands.

So there's Red Riding Hood here, but also Antigone, there's the Snow Queen, but it's not snow, there's a kaleidoscope of animal ghosts and human passions, queer theater techs and cleverly named collectives. This book features a lot of fun elements wrapped in with deeply, horrifyingly unfun environmental consequences.