How It Works Out

LaCroix’s provocative first novel traces a lesbian couple’s disintegrating relationship across a series of alternate realities. Aspiring musician Allison works at a call center and deems herself the “breadwinner,” barely supporting artist Myriam in their run-down punk house in East Vancouver, British Columbia. Their lurid story plays out in a series of speculative chapters. In one, the couple finds a baby abandoned in an alley, names him Jonah, and raises him with the help of his birth mother. In another, it’s Allison who gives birth to Jonah. At age 17, he’s sent to prison for murdering and eating his high school boyfriend, in a gruesome variation on an earlier episode when Allison lost a finger in an ice-skating accident and Myriam kept it to eat. In each version of reality, Myriam’s depression and germophobia drive the primary wedge between the couple and prompt their separation (“I need to stop using relationships as a crutch for my mental illness,” Myriam tells her therapist). LaCroix’s experiments with a multiverse structure and body horror generate potent symbols for the struggles of queer relationships, as does her biting wit (here’s Myriam, describing the tension caused by Allison’s determination to launch her music career: “I could practically see the to-do list in her eyes, scrolling by like the opening of Star Wars”). Readers won’t soon forget LaCroix’s singular voice. Agent: Daniel Kirschen, CAA. (May)