The seep /
Material type: TextPublisher: New York, NY : Soho, [2020]Description: 203 pages ; 22 cmContent type:- text
- unmediated
- volume
- 9781641290869
- 1641290862
- 813/.6 23
- PS3616.O766 S44 2020
Item type | Current library | Home library | Collection | Call number | Copy number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Standard Loan | Coeur d'Alene Library Adult Fiction | Coeur d'Alene Library | Book | PORTER (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | 1 | Available | 50610021809061 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. If something can be imagined, it is possible. Trina and her wife Deeba live blissfully under The Seep's utopian influence - until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seeptech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated. Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina follows a lost boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest.
"Trina Goldberg-Oneka is a fifty-year-old trans woman whose life is irreversibly altered in the wake of a gentle-but nonetheless world-changing-invasion by an alien entity called The Seep. Through The Seep, everything is connected. Capitalism falls, hierarchies and barriers are broken down; if something can be imagined, it is possible. Trina and her wife, Deeba, live blissfully under The Seep's utopian influence-until Deeba begins to imagine what it might be like to be reborn as a baby, which will give her the chance at an even better life. Using Seeptech to make this dream a reality, Deeba moves on to a new existence, leaving Trina devastated. Heartbroken and deep into an alcoholic binge, Trina follows a lost boy she encounters, embarking on an unexpected quest. In her attempt to save him from The Seep, she will confront not only one of its most avid devotees, but the terrifying void that Deeba has left behind. A strange new elegy of love and loss, The Seep explores grief, alienation, and the ache of moving on"--
Excerpt provided by Syndetics
Reviews provided by Syndetics
Library Journal Review
Two decades ago, the Seep came to Earth. It is a microscopic alien lifeform that provides humans with increased empathy, long life, miraculous cures, and physical alterations. Human identity has become increasingly fluid, spanning beyond sexuality and gender to race and age. Trina Goldberg-Oneka, a 50-year-old trans woman, finds her world upended when her wife Deeba chooses to leave their shared life behind by exploring a new transformation. In the aftermath, Trina navigates the tensions between the new state of universal utopia and the very human and imperfect states of love, grief, and free will. It's dense, brisk, and thoughtful science fiction. Narrator Shakina Nayfack gives this short novel a warm, compassionate reading. VERDICT Readers who enjoyed Dune's themes of post-human evolution or the identity questions explored in N.K. Jemisin's How Long 'Til Black Future Month? may enjoy this title.--Jason Puckett, Georgia State Univ. Lib, AtlantaPublishers Weekly Review
In Porter's surreal, introspective debut, a benevolent alien invasion leads humanity into a utopia, exploring themes of grief and discontentment within a seemingly perfect world. The Seep, a well-meaning, symbiotic alien entity, causes hierarchies to breakdown, enhances technology beyond humankind's wildest dreams, and functions as a mind-expanding drug that eliminates human mortality and grants people the power to transform their appearance at will. When Trina Goldberg-Oneka's wife Deeba decides to reexperience her life from babyhood, Trina, a 50-year-old trans woman who remains suspicious of the changes wrought by the Seep, refuses to transition from the role of wife to mother, ending their relationship. Trina shakes her subsequent alcoholic depression just long enough to take on a "vengeful quest" to confront a former friend whom she fought with years before over identity politics, and to save a lost boy from the effects of the Seep. Porter employs profound compassion and gentle humor to convey Trina's fear of change and distrust of complacency. Readers will delight in the eerie disquietude and optimism of this well-calibrated what-if. Agent: Sarah Bolling, The Gernert Company. (Jan.)Booklist Review
Porter's first novel opens with a young couple hosting a lavish dinner party amidst an announced alien invasion. The alien entity and its connected cosmic network are collectively called the Seep. Unlike the terror one might imagine from an extraterrestrial encroachment, the Seep creates the opposite, Utopia. When humans come into contact with the Seep the effects of which mimic the sensation of being drugged they experience benevolence and serenity. Many decades of this feel-good sensibility create a perfect world devoid of war, famine, illness, and even fear of death. Humans, unencumbered by the drudgery of life, become free to explore any passion or idiosyncrasy. People have the power to modify themselves to truly reflect what they desire; they can sprout horns, grow wings, or even start over and literally become a baby. Trina, a transgender woman, seems to be the only exception to this unfettered freedom and contentment as she mourns the decision of her wife, Deeba, to regress back to infancy. When a fateful encounter with an old friend pushes Trina to her breaking point, she decides to escape the clutches of the Seep. Porter's gripping, subtly hopeful work of literary speculative fiction is shaped by remarkable world-building elements and acute observation of human frailties and impetus.--Andrienne Cruz Copyright 2019 BooklistAuthor notes provided by Syndetics
Chana Porter is a playwright, teacher, MacDowell Colony fellow, and co-founder of the Octavia Project, a STEM and fiction-writing program for girls and gender non-conforming youth from underserved communities. She lives in Brooklyn, New York, and is currently at work on her next novel.There are no comments on this title.