Readers' rating:
Publishes
May 21, 2024
144 pages
Genre: Literary Fiction
Paperback Original.
Publication Information
An erotic, surreal novella from the author of Organ Meats and Bestiary.
Seven, who works as a cleaner at a chiropractor's office, reencounters Cecilia, a woman who has obsessed her since their school days. As the two of them board the same bus—each dubiously claiming not to be following the other—their chance meeting spurs a series of intensely vivid and corporeal memories. As past and present bleed together, Seven can feel her desire begin to unmoor her from the flow of time.
Smart, subversive, and gripping, Cecilia is a winding, misty road trip through bodily transformation, the inextricable histories of violence and love, and the ghosts of girlhood friendship.
"Chang...explores the ways in which the body can elicit both desire and disgust, and offers an original look at the volatility of a teen friendship. It's another high-water mark from a prolific and provocative author." —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"The work of reading this book leaves the reader with the same feeling one has after eating a particularly indulgent meal—satiation, with the knowledge of more hunger to come." —Kirkus Reviews
"A surreal cascade of girlhood memories about desire, queerness, and obsession. Cecilia is at once erotic and repulsive, carnal and tasty. In a word: delicious." —Literary Hub
"Bound to be surreal and sexy like all of Chang's work." —Autostraddle
"Erotic and strange, captivating and twisted: This one's for the freaks (complimentary)." —Bustle
This information about Cecilia was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
K-Ming Chang is a Kundiman fellow, a Lambda Literary Award winner, a National Book Foundation 5 Under 35 honoree, and an O. Henry Prize winner. She is the author of Bestiary (One World/Random House, 2020), Bone House (Bull City Press, 2021), Gods of Want (One World, 2022), and Organ Meats (One World, 2023). Her books have been New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice selections, included on the New York Times Notable Books list, and considered for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize and the PEN/Faulkner Award. She can be found at kmingchang.com.
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The good writer, the great writer, has what I have called the three S's: The power to see, to sense, and to say. ...
Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!
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