Finna

Ava and Jules have just broken up. Ava's been careful to rearrange her work schedule so they won't have to see one another while things are so fresh and awkward. But when she gets called in on her day off, those carefully arranged plans go out the window. Things go from bad to worse when a portal to another universe opens up and someone's granny wanders in. Tricia – who's about the Karen-est manager ever – assigns Ava and Jules to go after her.

This story confronts the realities of Capitalism Gone Wild and navigates the murky waters of life outside heteronormative Sameland.

It's a little bit Discworld meets Suburban Everytown, USA.

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 of absurdity.

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

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 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 show more on big box stores, corporate culture, and the evils of capitalism.

Highly recommended. show less

Weird and good. There's a lot about a broken relationship, and one character is...agender? They use they/them, anyway. Both of these are major points, but they're integrated into the story, not the distractions such things mostly are. The concept is really cool and interesting (especially the part about the wormholes popping up anywhere someone gets lost and disoriented!), and all together it makes a really good story. I'd love to see these characters again, maybe as secondaries in some else's story.

I got this book from the library because it was a) super thin and b) said "an anti-capitalist adventure" on the cover. It was such a blast! Imagine walking through Ikea and OOPSIE you accidentally walk into a wormhole where there is still furniture but it is alive and going to eat you. This is the start of what I hope is a long delicious LitenVarld series about the metaverse and all the different lives we could live. Super fun and definitely an adventure.

FINNA by Nino Cipri is an amusing novella set in a thinly veiled Ikea store in the US. It features wormholes to parallel universes, and two employees who recently broke up and have not yet worked through the awkward post-breakup period.

I really enjoyed FINNA. As is my habit, I had forgotten what it was about (aside from thinking that it was vaguely Scandinavian which it was, emphasis on the vaguely). The opening of the book sets the scene with a focus on the protagonist’s general misery from her retail job and more specific misery from her recent breakup. It gave me just enough time to wonder what the speculative fiction element was going to be before introducing the wormholes. Then it turned into a fun and slightly absurd adventure show more story as Ava and Jules are forced to go on a rescue mission.

Since this is a relatively short read, I'm not sure there's very much more I can say without skirting spoilers, so I will leave you with one final opinion. I really liked that this wasn't a romance story. Ava and Jules were a couple, now they're not and the story arc is absolutely not about them getting back together. I'm not sure I've come across this as a central focus of a spec fic book before. I highly approve of the depiction of healthy non-romantic relationships in books.

I highly recommend FINNA if you enjoy universe hopping and/or slightly absurd science fiction. Or if you hate Ikea (personally, I don't get the Ikea hate, but whatever). I will certainly be keeping an eye on other books and stories I come across by Cipri.

4.5 / 5 stars

You can read more of my reviews on my blog. show less

I hadn't realised (or at least hadn't remembered) from reviews that this was a novella so its brevity took me by surprise. It was a fun read while it lasted though! The point-of-view character and her enby ex work in Totally-Not-Ikea, a furniture store so labyrinthine that periodically wormholes form leading to its counterpart in other parallel universes. They get voluntold to rescue a lost customer from one of these universes, and between the carnivorous furniture, hivemind foodcourt, and their personal and relationship baggage, much drama ensues. While the angst is real and complex, the dangers they face are mostly on the level of the absurd, so ultimately it's a fun and easy read.