What if you had the chance to rewrite the course of your relationship, again and again, in the hopes that it would work out?
What if you had the chance to rewrite the course of your relationship, again and again, in the hopes that it would work out?
‘A cause for celebration’ GEORGE SAUNDERS
‘Delightfully bizarre… We loved it’ TEGAN AND SARA
‘Utterly brilliant’ DAISY JOHNSON
‘Madcap, delirious, exhilaratingly good’ KELLY LINK
When Myriam and Allison fall in love at a show in a run-down punk house, their relationship begins to unfold through a series of hypotheticals. What if they became mothers by finding a baby in an alley? What if the only cure for Myriam’s depression was Allison’s flesh? What if they were B-list celebrities, famous for writing a book about building healthy lesbian relationships? How much darker – or sexier – would their dynamic be if one were a power-hungry CEO, and the other her lowly employee? From the fantasies of early romance to the slow encroaching of violence that unravels the fantasy, each reality builds to complete a brilliant, painfully funny portrait of love’s many promises and perils.
Equal parts sexy and profane, unsentimental and gut-wrenching, How It Works Out is a genre-bending, arresting, uncanny exploration of queerness, love, and our drive for connection, in any and all possible worlds.
Format: Paperback
Pages: 224
Imprint: Jonathan Cape UK
Publication date: 04/06/2024
How It Works Out
by Myriam Lacroix
Review by Rosa
How It Works Out is a bizarre, sparkly, gory, funny fever dream! Masquerading as a novel, it is made up of a series of short stories set in a ‘relationship multiverse’, linked by only three things- there will always be a Myriam, there will always be an Allison, and they will always (maybe! and messily!) love each other. From anthropomorphising into a dog and a praying mantis, to a cannibalistic allegory for codependent, all-consuming sapphic love- Myriam Lacroix honestly includes a little bit of everything as she tests the boundaries of this relationship and takes you along for the ride.
Intimate and sophisticated at times, surreal and just straight up weird in others, it gives the vibe of being written in a mix of blood and glitter gel pen. You cannot predict what Myriam and Allison will get up to in their next life so you might as well lean into the chaos. While I was slightly disturbed in some parts, I enjoyed every moment.
For those that enjoyed Someone Who Will Love You in All Your Damaged Glory by Raphael Bob-Waksberg and Big Swiss by Jen Beagin.
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