Nino Cipri

This manages to be both a romp from start to finish, and sad and tragic at various times. Starting in a knock-off IKEA, the story forces exes Ava and Jules together -- there is a lot of unfinished business that starts getting sorted out in this slight book, and yet that is somehow the B plot.

The world building is exquisite - from the very start, with Ava getting off the bus, then through the various alternate worlds that our protagonists get thrown through. The characters are equally well show more written, being unhappy and broken but entirely sympathetically written. Unlike other very depressed and anxious characters, Ava does not seem over wrought, nor unbelievable. And on top of all this, the author has managed to fit in a biting commentary on big box stores, corporate culture, and the evils of capitalism.

Highly recommended. show less

I was not expecting another book in the Finna universe, but I was certainly delighted to discover that there was one! I loved Finna SO MUCH that I really didn't see how this book was going to compare, but I loved this one as well!

Finna basically starts with "Fucking Derek," and here in Defekt, we get to finally meet Derek, the model employee to Ava's walking disaster. Derek seems to have almost no needs, and seems to exist entirely to please, but it seems that he is somehow skating on thin show more ice with management as well?

But of course, this is Finna-verse, so the inhumanity of our capitalist employment landscape turns out to be literally inhumane. Or at least, very very weird. Furniture starts coming to life, there are clones and parallel universes... wait. That is also all to be expected with a Finna-verse! I guess the close are new.

I loved Derek SO HARD. The weirdness of it all, the politics and the heart of it all? Were so up my alley. Cipri is a gift. show less

Listen. I have convinced more people to go out and buy a copy of this book, read it and LOVE it than any other book, excepting the two I have published myself. This is a fun, weird, messy multi-verse portal fantasy (sort of) with a queer relationship falling apart and made up of critiquing the inhuman economics of corporate big-box chain stores. It's got spectacularly weird world-building and the way our bullshit capitalist systems exacerbate mental illness, and finding yourself in the face show more of absurdity.

I loved this book fiercely and I have spent a lot of time screaming at people about how much. show less

So, a friend reminded me that Dzanc Books existed on a day when I was feeling pandemic stir-crazy, so of course I immediately headed over to their website to pick out a few books. This one I chose despite my resistance to short stories because I had been following Nino Cipri on twitter, the description sounded amazing, and when I checked the Goodreads reviews I saw that a few of my bookstagram friends had already read it and loved it.

I ENDED UP A LITTLE BIT FERAL ABOUT THIS BOOK AND I HAVE show more BEEN SCREAMING AT EVERYONE I KNOW TO BUY/READ CIPRI'S BOOKS EVER SINCE. While of course some stories worked better for me that others, there was no filler. I fell in love/smit/maternal-caregiving-mode with so many characters, was pleasantly surprised where some of these stories went, and would like to camp out on the author's lawn to demand more of the world of "Before We Disperse Like Star Stuff."

This was such a random purchase but I am SO GLAD I made it! show less