WE ALL FALL DOWN

Four queer people navigate a city that must learn to live without magic.

It’s been 20 years since River City’s King Nathan the Giant lost to the rebellion, and the magic that once fueled the city has now dried up. Now, science rules its streets, as the university and teaching hospital attract newcomers who study the city’s mysterious theta radiation. But there are vestiges of the old magic still. College lecturer David Blank stumbles upon a book of magic; Jesse Archer comes to the city looking for an old childhood friend; a nameless, tentacled girl with crimson skin witnesses the disposal of a body and helps Jack Marley, a curmudgeonly woman, investigate. David is Black; Jack and Jesse are White. The novel weaves in a storyline with an injustice related to race that has strong echoes in our world—the lack of consequences or reflection by the perpetrator, while realistic, may be frustrating to some. This first entry in a duology asks a lot of readers when it comes to immersion in the worldbuilding and lore—not much is spelled out at first, and it takes some time to be able to follow River City’s inner workings. Once readers do settle into the text, however, its embrace of the strange and the outcast is quite soothing.

Some readers will find comfort in this quirky novel.