We meet his mother, Lavender, a seventeen-year-old girl pushed to desperation. Through a kaleidoscope of women-a mother, a sister, a homicide detective-we learn the story of Ansel’s life. He hoped it wouldn’t end like this, not for him. But Ansel doesn’t want to die he wants to be celebrated, understood.

He knows what he’s done, and now awaits execution, the same chilling fate he forced on those girls, years ago. In the tradition of Long Bright River and The Mars Room, a gripping and atmospheric work of literary suspense that deconstructs the story of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life-from the bestselling author of Girl in Snow.Īnsel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours. Lucy Tan, author of What We Were PromisedĪbout Notes on an Execution: A Novel. This book is as moving as it is monumental.' The monsters here are not only fantastical figures brought to life in hyper-reality but also the strangest parts of the human heart. Each story is spectacularly smart, hybrid in genre, and bold with intention. ' Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century is for the adventurous reader-someone willing to walk into a story primed for cultural critique and suddenly come across a plot for murder, or to consider the dangers of sea monsters alongside those posed by 21st century ennui. Fu’s stories crackle with quirky plots, and her characters’ problems and hunger for new possibilities are palpable. Mesmerizing, electric, and wholly original, Kim Fu’s Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century blurs the boundaries of the real and fantastic, offering intricate and surprising insights into human nature. These visions of modern life wrestle with themes of death and technological consequence, guilt and sexuality, and unmask the contradictions that exist within all of us. Each story builds a new world all its own: a group of children steal a haunted doll a runaway bride encounters a sea monster a vendor sells toy boxes that seemingly control the passage of time an insomniac is seduced by the Sandman. In the twelve unforgettable tales of Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, the strange is made familiar and the familiar strange, such that a girl growing wings on her legs feels like an ordinary rite of passage, while a bug-infested house becomes an impossible, Kafkaesque nightmare. Ī dazzling and daring debut story collection by PEN/Hemingway finalist, Kim Fu. About Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century.

Book review notes danya