Gonna be straight-up right off the bat like an Ohtani shot to the centerfield bleachers\u2014I am only halfway through this book. Not the book\u2019s fault! It rips! It is dense yet thrilling, it has short chapters that somehow take a long time to read (in a way I like). It has lore the reader learns on the fly\u2014which made me realize I don\u2019t read a ton<\/em> of novels this speculative\u2014and it\u2019s an interesting world. There are literal gods\u2014as in, people believe the Holy Land is falling because the gods went away. But it\u2019s not like the Elves in LOTR<\/em> sailing to the Undying Lands. More like the gods got sick of one place and moved<\/em>. Like petty little bitches. Very cool stuff! Oh, and it\u2019s a coastal town and full of sea imagery, so you know yr man the shipwrecked sailor is into it. <\/p> I\u2019m talking, of course, about No Gods For Drowning<\/em> by Hailey Piper. <\/p> Blame my not finishing this novel in a week on the lousy school system for letting these layabout children get *checks calendar*<\/em> \u201ca coupla\u201d or even \u201ca few\u201d weeks off before summer programs start. Just don\u2019t blame my being a slow reader and prioritizing other, less important<\/em> things (like parenting). As I stand, I\u2019m about halfway through\/200ish pages in, and the narrative is ever-stacking. It sets up to be a braided detectives\/municipal services vs. serial killer narrative, but that semi-collides early and there\u2019s a shift into more religious entanglements\u2014then I still have half the book to go. So far, I recommend it! Whatever streaming service that doesn\u2019t totally suck right now should throw huge piles of cash at Hailey to adapt this into a mini-series (after the WGA gets a fair contract), it really is that visually original<\/em> of a world. It feels both 19th\/early 20th century and<\/em> late 20th century, it at turns reminds me of the UK, New Orleans, Baltimore, or San Fransisco, it\u2019s got people dressed in both robes and trench coats. If they can make Lovecraft Country<\/em>, they can make No Gods For Drowning<\/em>. <\/p> One last note: I very much love how in both this novel and I Keep My Exoskeletons To Myself<\/em> (which I also finished after writing it up<\/a>, and holy shit, does that book\u2019s last quarter dazzle<\/em>) is how casually and confidently queer everyone is. I mean, IKME<\/em> is a narrative about an oppressive police state, don\u2019t get me wrong. What I mean is that in both of these books, people are open and honest about who they are, and no one goes \u201chuh. Explain that to me.\u201d Queer people just get to be queer people! We love to see it!<\/p> LINKS!<\/strong><\/p> Pairing extremely well with No Gods For Drowning<\/em>, may I offer this short-but-not-quite-flash from Erin Brown in <\/a>The Deadlands<\/a><\/em>, \u201cJar.\u201d<\/a> I love the literalization of the randomness of death with \u201ca handful of people had died agonizing deaths, melting into puddles of screaming sludge where they stood. We remain helpless to prevent it,\u201d even as houses are built above sea level. <\/p><\/li> Typically brilliant from Sabrina Imbler at Defector\u2014<\/em>usually linked here for their \u201cCreaturefector\u201d series\u2014asking what extreme tourism is for in the wake of the <\/a>Titanic<\/a><\/em> disaster of the 21st century<\/a>. Since Defector<\/em> is subscription-based, I\u2019m going to try to remember to have a good pull quote when I link these. Subscribing to Defector<\/em> is worth it, but I won\u2019t presume to tell you what to subscribe to. Here\u2019s a pull quote: \u201cThe whole saga encapsulates an inevitable outcome of the industry of high-risk luxury tourism: Private companies will cut corners and dodge regulations only to eventually beg for government intervention<\/a> they once scorned, and that people, some rich and some not, will die. Extreme tourism is not just an unfathomable waste of resources on a faltering planet, though it is very much that: It is also a feedback loop of class, the elite’s attempt at becoming even more elite, without actually exerting any physical or mental effort.\u201d<\/strong><\/p><\/li> Very cool writeup of Transit Productions<\/a>, who produced Denali Foxx\u2019s Chicago Drag Excellence<\/a> video a few years back\u2014from Ariel Parrella-Aureli in Block Club<\/em>. *Touches ear*<\/em> hang on, I\u2019m hearing from the Chicago Over Everything gods that we should link the video, too:<\/p>![\"book:](\"https:\/\/substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com\/public\/images\/cce0a40c-32e9-44a8-9e86-a74ad0e1b4af_3024x4032.jpeg\")
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