Advanced
Error loading page.
Try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, there may be a network issue, and you can use our self test page to see what's preventing the page from loading.
Learn more about possible network issues or contact support for more help.
Title details for Dead in Long Beach, California by Venita Blackburn - Wait list

Dead in Long Beach, California

by Venita Blackburn
ebook
Read a sample Read a sample

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2024. One of NPR's 2024 Books We Love. Longlisted for the 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.

"Told by machines from the future, Blackburn's idiosyncratic grief novel is as freshly devastating as they come." —The New York Times Book Review
"You can try bracing yourself for the ride this story takes you on, but it's best to just surrender. Your wig is going to fall off no matter what you do." —Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives
Coral is the first person to discover the body of her brother, Jay, in the wake of his suicide. There's no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother.
Over the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, Wildfire, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reck­less determination, she doubles—and triples—down on posing as her brother, risking not only her sanity but also her relationship with her precocious niece, Khadija. As Coral's swirl of lies closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of Wildfire becomes entangled with her own reality, in the pro­cess pushing long-buried memories, traumas, and secrets dangerously into the present.
A form-shifting and soul-crunching chronicle of grief and crisis, Venita Blackburn's debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California, is a fleet-footed marvel of self-discovery and storytelling that explores the depths of humankind's capacity for harm and healing. With the daring, often hilarious imagination that made her an acclaimed short-fiction innovator, Blackburn crafts a layered, page-turning reckoning with what it means to be alive, dead, and somewhere in between.

Expand title description text
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Kindle Book

  • Release date: January 23, 2024

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780374602833
  • Release date: January 23, 2024

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780374602833
  • File size: 2800 KB
  • Release date: January 23, 2024
Loading
Loading

Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

Fiction Literature LGBTQIA+ (Fiction)

Languages

English

A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2024. One of NPR's 2024 Books We Love. Longlisted for the 2024 Joyce Carol Oates Prize.

"Told by machines from the future, Blackburn's idiosyncratic grief novel is as freshly devastating as they come." —The New York Times Book Review
"You can try bracing yourself for the ride this story takes you on, but it's best to just surrender. Your wig is going to fall off no matter what you do." —Saeed Jones, author of How We Fight for Our Lives
Coral is the first person to discover the body of her brother, Jay, in the wake of his suicide. There's no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother.
Over the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, Wildfire, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reck­less determination, she doubles—and triples—down on posing as her brother, risking not only her sanity but also her relationship with her precocious niece, Khadija. As Coral's swirl of lies closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of Wildfire becomes entangled with her own reality, in the pro­cess pushing long-buried memories, traumas, and secrets dangerously into the present.
A form-shifting and soul-crunching chronicle of grief and crisis, Venita Blackburn's debut novel, Dead in Long Beach, California, is a fleet-footed marvel of self-discovery and storytelling that explores the depths of humankind's capacity for harm and healing. With the daring, often hilarious imagination that made her an acclaimed short-fiction innovator, Blackburn crafts a layered, page-turning reckoning with what it means to be alive, dead, and somewhere in between.

Expand title description text
Fiction Literature LGBTQIA+ (Fiction)