Here in the (middle) of nowhere

Artist and poet Anastacia-Reneé envisions other dimensions with real-world essence in this latest collection of striking poems and flash fiction. A god named Lucile is omnipresent in the mythical iterations of the world, and the mythical blends with reality. The world building within stanzas and brief paragraphs is vivid and rife with environmental descriptions and glances of the characters who populate each dimension. Familiar aspects of language, religions, and culture are reimagined, as in "unknown saints," a running list of saints of ordinary, understandable situations, "saint marie regalia saint of bars go to her when you want to be drunk anoint your sacred skin with saliva then salt." Extraordinary turns of phrase are peppered throughout these pieces, such as, "can I put my second soul on layaway & get a neighborhood discount for the way this human body fades to a morphine drip." Anastacia-Reneé's extraordinary, intriguing, afrofuturistic, and mystical collection explores family, community, grief, and love.

An exploration of the mystic within community, told through poetry and flash fiction. This abstract collection, while centered on a compilation of images and themes, including vampires, shared and individual spaces, patron saints, and Black and queer femininity, functions best when approached sonically. As the words flow from one piece to the next in a manner mimicking spoken-word poetry, a world slowly begins to emerge. It could perhaps be our world, with quiet lunchroom dramas, apartments, and cheating men--or it could be another world entirely, the world of a goddess named "lucile" and of a great tree and of the patron saints of lipstick, bars, and more mundane--or divine--things. While not strictly science fiction or Afrofuturism, this work instead draws on concepts from fantasy and SF such as witches and vampires and on Afrofuturistic themes of optimistic futures and presents. More than anything, the fantastic is a metaphor for how our own reality could be. Throughout these lines, children grow, women explore their relationships and their identities, and we bear witness to a community that changes and flourishes through both the bad times and the good. Best when read aloud, this narrative can be taken in small quantities as individual narrators tell their stories or taken as one whole, greater than the many stories contained within. Loose poetry and fictions playing on sounds and images and multiple planes of resonance. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Artist and poet Anastacia-Reneé envisions other dimensions with real-world essence in this latest collection of striking poems and flash fiction. A god named Lucile is omnipresent in the mythical iterations of the world, and the mythical blends with reality. The world building within stanzas and brief paragraphs is vivid and rife with environmental descriptions and glances of the characters who populate each dimension. Familiar aspects of language, religions, and culture are reimagined, as in "unknown saints," a running list of saints of ordinary, understandable situations, "saint marie regalia saint of bars go to her when you want to be drunk anoint your sacred skin with saliva then salt." Extraordinary turns of phrase are peppered throughout these pieces, such as, "can I put my second soul on layaway & get a neighborhood discount for the way this human body fades to a morphine drip." Anastacia-Reneé's extraordinary, intriguing, afrofuturistic, and mystical collection explores family, community, grief, and love. Copyright 2024 Booklist Reviews.