Book Review: Self-Portrait with Nothing

Self-Portrait with Nothing
By Aimee Pokwatka
Review by Renata

In this original and genre-bending debut, Pokwatka avoids the cliches of the now Marvel-ously well-worn multiverse in favour of a richer, stranger, and more emotionally compelling search for origin and identity. Her writing is fresh, clever and controlled, and her central character’s journey – which includes a mystery, an art heist, sinister doppelgangers and more – never ceases to surprise. Where lesser speculative novels try to disguise a lack of substance by foregrounding the mechanics of plot, Pokwatka chooses to explore the inner worlds that multiple realities can mine.

The cover features an enthusiastic blurb by George Saunders, another master of speculative fiction, and Pokwatka definitely makes good on that top-shelf praise.

You can listen to Renata’s review from RDU below: