Plastic, Prism, Void

Allen debuts with a raucous, dimension-spanning sci-fi romance, whose protagonist, Acrasia, is impossible not to root for as she travels through space and time with her sometime enemy, sometime lover Opus Zhao. Acrasia is many things: a moth goddess, a Black trans woman, and a writer fond of sprinkling her speech with French phrases. Opus, meanwhile, is a space pilot, a trans man, and a “fuckboi,” according to Acrasia’s cousin and fellow moth goddess Marina, who is trapped in a mirror world. The expansive, ever-fluctuating universe across which their love story plays out can be slippery to grasp, and Allen refuses to hold her readers’ hands. Dimensions change, names and aliases change, Acrasia and Opus’s relationship changes, all with no warning and little explanation. The prose itself, while always clever, is similarly careening, studded with footnotes, transcribed text exchanges, and even sheet music. Those invested enough in the dynamism of the central duo and their wildly inventive worlds to persevere will be rewarded with psychedelic imagery, tongue-in-cheek humor, and a relationship that proves genuinely moving. It’s an ambitious experiment, and Allen mostly pulls it off. (May)