Future Feeling
Books | Fiction / LGBTQ+ / Transgender
3.5
Joss Lake
Longlisted for the 2022 PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut NovelAn embittered dog walker obsessed with a social media influencer inadvertently puts a curse on a young man—and must adventure into mysterious dimension in order to save him—in this wildly inventive, delightfully subversive, genre-nonconforming debut novel about illusion, magic, technology, kinship, and the emergent future.The year is 20__, and Penfield R. Henderson is in a rut. When he's not walking dogs for cash or responding to booty calls from his B-list celebrity hookup, he's holed up in his dingy Bushwick apartment obsessing over holograms of Aiden Chase, a fellow trans man and influencer documenting his much smoother transition into picture-perfect masculinity on the Gram. After an IRL encounter with Aiden leaves Pen feeling especially resentful, Pen enlists his roommates, the Witch and the Stoner-Hacker, to put their respective talents to use in hexing Aiden. Together, they gain access to Aiden's social media account and post a picture of Pen's aloe plant, Alice, tied to a curse:Whosoever beholds the aloe will be pushed into the Shadowlands.When the hex accidentally bypasses Aiden, sending another young trans man named Blithe to the Shadowlands (the dreaded emotional landscape through which every trans person must journey to achieve true self-actualization), the Rhiz (the quasi-benevolent big brother agency overseeing all trans matters) orders Pen and Aiden to team up and retrieve him. The two trace Blithe to a dilapidated motel in California and bring him back to New York, where they try to coax Blithe to stop speaking only in code and awkwardly try to pass on what little trans wisdom they possess. As the trio makes its way in a world that includes pitless avocados and subway cars that change color based on occupants' collective moods but still casts judgment on anyone not perfectly straight, Pen starts to learn that sometimes a family isn't just the people who birthed you. Magnificently imagined, linguistically dazzling, and riotously fun, Future Feeling presents an alternate future in which advanced technology still can't replace human connection but may give the trans community new ways to care for its own.
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Author
Joss Lake
Pages
304
Publisher
Catapult
Published Date
2021-06-01
ISBN
1593766890 9781593766894
Community ReviewsSee all
"I hesitate a little in posting this in this group, as there seems a lot of YA and romance books being shared so I’m not sure how much of the group population would appreciate this book, but it is a seriously amazing award winning debut that it needs a share. This is an amazing speculative fiction piece celebrating queerness, the darkness and light of it, and the importance of embracing the interconnectedness of it all. Not a perfect book, but this book also stresses that imperfection isn’t a flaw, but a bright light to notice and embrace."
C
CaitVD
"It was strange. Not my usual pick. But it’s one of those books that I’m glad I experienced. "
Lynette Rand
"Future Feeling by Joss Lake was a middle-of-the-road read for me. I loved the premise, a world in which trans people are connected together and helped by the Rhiz. To quote the summary the Rhiz is a quasi-benevolent big brother agency overseeing all trans matters. When I hear big brother I think 1984 and "bad guy". However, the Rhiz isn't an evil organization hellbent on controlling everything. It is a super secretive collection of queer people who are recruited to work on mutual aid and connecting people with the help they need. As well as saving people from ****** situations and places. The idea of the organization piqued my interest. However, I didn't like the main character.<br/><br/>Penfield is the main character. The story is told through his eyes and I thought he was a dick throughout a majority of the book. This book is more about his growth as a person than the Rhiz or the shadowlands. Does he grow a lot as a person? Yes. But it takes him a long time to get there. His attitude made the book less enjoyable for me. However, I loved seeing the person Penfield became. His growth is inspiring. And I guess looking back without where he started at the beginning of the book I would have never gotten the person he became. <br/><br/>Overall, Future Feeling was a queer sci-fi story in which the world wasn't really that different. The technology was slightly more advanced but not too far fetched. However, what really made this book a good read was the focus on community. Much like Pen, Blithe, and even Aiden a lot of trans people (especially when they're young) are made to feel alone. Made to feel that their identities mean they are unlovable/unwanted and that they must face everything alone. Which is not true both in real life and in this book. In these pages Joss Lake breaks each of these untruths and reminds us (trans people) that we are loved and we never have to face things alone. Also I loved the ending. <br/><br/>I would also like to say. Could you imagine if something like the Rhiz actually existed. (Hopefully not as intensely as the Rhiz in this book though.) Imagine how many fewer queer people would die with such a strong support network/system like the Rhiz. How many people could be saved from unsafe spaces and be given a way to a new start. The mutual aid provided in this book is astounding but somehow still lacking. And somehow still feels so out of reach. Future Feeling by Joss Lake has given me a lot to think about."
Elleil Nook
