Make sure you die screaming A novel

Like a burst of adrenaline, Carlstrom's rollicking debut novel will leave your heart racing. The nameless narrator sets out on a wild, alcohol-fueled quest with their "garbage goth" friend Yivi, driving south from Chicago in a stolen car to find their missing conspiracy-theorist father in rural Arkansas. "I am in the mood for drama," the narrator declares, and drama they get, finding themselves in increasingly bizarre and comical situations. Fleeing from cops and cowboys, getting drunk in themed motel rooms and Uncle Slaton's Christmas Club, the narrator can't outrun their grief for their dead best friend, the guilt for the role they played in her death, and the series of self-destructive acts that followed. Just when you think things can't get any more absurd, the men in white robes show up. Exhausted yet? Underneath all the mayhem is the story of a nonbinary person reckoning with their past and the complicated relationships that have shaped them. Come for the chaos, and stay for some unexpectedly tender moments; this novel will surprise you at every turn.

Carlstrom debuts with a disjointed blend of road-trip suspense novel and state-of-the-nation satire. A nameless narrator, inspired to drop their old name and gender after the sudden death of their best friend and decade-long advertising partner, steals their abusive ex-boyfriend's BMW and flees Chicago for Arkansas to visit their mother. When the narrator arrives, their mother claims that their far-right conspiracy theorist father has disappeared. To help find him, the narrator brings along their new friend, Yivi, a young "garbage goth" convinced her prophetic dreams of a cowboy in a tan sedan relate to her drug dealer ex's efforts to track her down. While throwing back a significant volume of booze, the pair awkwardly disclose some of their secrets to each other as they tear across the fraying nation. The novel is low on plot, with a few key details from the narrator's biography needlessly positioned as big reveals, but Carlstrom effectively conjures a dystopian atmosphere and shrewdly mines themes about the draws and dangers of self-definition. It's a wild ride with a few too many dead ends, but readers seeking something off the beaten path will enjoy themselves. Agent: Kent D. Wolf, Neon Literary. (Apr.)