Finna

In this whimsical but underwhelming interdimensional adventure through an endless furniture store, two retail workers face myriad otherworldly obstacles as well as the specter of their own recently ended relationship. Cipri (Homesick: Stories), a Publishers Weekly reviewer, employs this delightfully unusual setting to explore the soul-crushing nature of retail work and the pain of recent breakups. When Ava is unexpectedly called in for a shift at the big-box furniture store Litenvärld, she and her former partner Jules are tasked with delving into an endless series of wormholes into display rooms in alternate versions of the store to find a customer who was sucked through a wormhole. Each alternate dimension contains its own unpredictable monsters and amazements, in an episodic structure that will leave some readers longing for more connective tissue. While confronting the mysteries each world offers, Jules and Ava negotiate their relationship dynamic, rehashing their breakup and lingering feelings. Their emotional arcs resonate but are frequently overpowered by the introduction of new, seemingly random sets of problems to face. Cipri delivers on a fun premise, but readers will wish for greater depths of feeling. Agent: DongWon Song, Howard Morhaim Agency. (Feb.)