The Rupture Files

by Nathan Alexander Moore

Supernatural stories of life in the fissures of disaster.

Across multiple worlds in upheaval, a curious cast of Black queer characters must choose between what they already know themselves to be and what they might yet become in the cataclysm. A shapeshifter learns to embrace their body as it changes through a lunar cycle. A stranger’s visit disturbs three sisters sheltering from monsters that stalk the land. An archivist hears an irresistible call to the rising ocean as she uncovers a surprising history. A mysterious fire sparks whispers of revolution in the mind of a vampire’s captive consort.

At once tender and audacious, Nathan Alexander Moore’s debut collection tells the stories of extraordinary creatures making impossible but human decisions. Traversing apocalypses both big and small, these captivating tales vibrate with the tensions between loss and growth; self and community; precarity and possibility.

Genres: Short Stories, Literature, Queer

152 pages, Paperback

First published April 4, 2024

Reviews

[Paul Fulcher · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took a deep inhale and closed myself up, and the darkness I found inside me twinned with the shadows swirling gently above: uncertainty, fear, desperation, terror, and yearning ... a bottomless, unmappable, unfathomable yearning.

The Rupture Files by Nathan Alexander Moore is published by Hajar Press.

This is the latest book from the brilliant Republic of Consciousness Book of the Month club, which raises funds that support the UKs most exciting annual book prize, as well as showcasing a collection of books from the vibrant small independent press scene.

This is a collection of 4 long-short-stories - 44, 33, 29 and 36 pages respectively.

It's hard to improve on the publisher's description of the book so I will repeat it:

Across multiple worlds in upheaval, a curious cast of Black queer characters must choose between what they already know themselves to be and what they might yet become in the cataclysm. A shapeshifter learns to embrace their body as it changes through a lunar cycle. A stranger’s visit disturbs three sisters sheltering from monsters that stalk the land. An archivist hears an irresistible call to the rising ocean as she uncovers a surprising history. A mysterious fire sparks whispers of revolution in the mind of a vampire’s captive consort.

Although if I had to provide my own, inadequate, summary I'd say these are apocalyptic stories, set in future altered worlds, following a distinct rupture, with characters who turn what seems to be form-dysphoria and horror into affirmation, embracing transformations of their own bodies and selves to do so.

The first story, Sequela, has an archivist, Shalomar, on board a Station set above the sea in a post catastrophic world, her job to catalogue the artefacts found in the ocean, evidence of the past civilisation to which they belonged. Her mother and then her sister both threw themselves into the sea, presumed drowned, and regarded as apostates. But then she is visited by her sister, who still lives and who has transformed her body and suggests Shalomar has the power within her to do the same herself:

Before Shalomar could say anything, before she could reach out and hug them like every molecule of her being wanted to do, her sibling's body was swirling into a mass of shining, silver liquid. Glistening like melted moonlight, the whirlpool spun in mid-air above her bed. Shalomar found herself mesmerised, looking into its very centre as though within those swirls was the sunken truth of it all. She bent forward just a little, ready to touch it, to reach down into those swirling depths.

But then, a long strand of water pulled back and away from the mass. It spilled in an arc through the air until it found the drain in the sink across the room. Shalomar listened to the gurgle of the liquid as it went deeper and deeper, farther and farther away from her.
Leaving her all alone once again.

The writing in the stories is beautiful and they cohere into a thematic whole, even if set in completely different realities. A number of reviews comment that the stories are terminated early, but while the reader is loathe to leave each richly sketched situation and one could imagine each being expanded into a novel, I'd rather have pieces that don't outstay their welcome and each ends neatly at a point of transformation.

Recommended.

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The author

Nathan (she/they) is a Black transfemme writer. She is an assistant professor at the University of Colorado Boulder whose research explores Black transfemininity, speculative fictions and temporality.

Hajar Press

Founded in 2020 by Brekhna Aftab and Farhaana Arefin, Hajar Press is an independent and proudly political publishing house run by and for people of colour.

Hajar was born out of our frustration with the publishing industry’s structural problems—institutional racism; commercial trend-following; Amazon’s domination; and the atomisation of readers and writers—as well as with the lack of internationalism and antiracist solidarity within many of our political movements.

We aim to build a community for people of colour, who are too often excluded from both these worlds: mainstream publishing and many conversations on the left. By writing on our own terms, we want to honour our histories, imagine new horizons and strengthen our collective power.

[jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ending my reading year with a short story about an eldest daughter with responsibility issues - you can't make that shit up.

[Adrian Alvarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fascinating collection of dark fantasy stories that work to weave metaphors out of folk body horrors, folding them creatively into themes of family, obligation, and identity. The prose is energetic and flows easily, Moore even varies her formats in some of the stories, which works wonderfully towards the overall texture of her vision. My only issue was with how slight this book is and how snipped each story felt: only 4 stories and each one of them was interesting enough to feel like it could have extended much further from its stopping point. In "Ashes for your Beauty" I thought the ending felt forced and I would have loved to read a lot more. Hajar Press gave us a stingy book with 6 blank pages in the back. While I am very keen to read more from Nathan Alexander Moore, The Rupture Files begs for follow through that just isn't here. So come on, Nathan, give us a novel, pretty please.

[Leah · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Rupture Files is a brilliant debut that offers a place of respite during dark times. Moore has the unique ability to build worlds with treacherous pasts and unknown futures across very few pages, all while centering characters who are far too often pushed to the margins. From supernatural top surgery to apocalyptic lesbian vampires, each story features a rich cast of Black, queer identities who demonstrate community, resilience and belonging in unstable circumstances. Moore plays with different literary forms and styles, creating worlds that offer space to heal in the most unlikely places. The Rupture Files is necessary in an increasingly uncertain world.

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Of the four stories, "Sequela" is closest to scifi, even this sharing the dark urban fantasy vibe of the others, folding in Yoruba folklore and mermaids 🧜🏿‍♀️

"A Crescent Cracking" is a contemporary tale of werewolves and witchcraft, marginalisation and belonging 🐺

"Ashes for Your Beauty" is a post-apocalyptic vampire dystopia, ruled by the powerful Sanguinista, facing an incipient challenge from the Skinless, mystically empowered humans 🧛🏿‍♀️

"The Rupture Files" has slight Cthulian vibes, another post-apocalypse, this one in the aftermath of what seems like an interdimensional incursion of amorphous monsters, focusing on the survivalist story of three psionically powered sisters. 🐙

All the stories feature a romance element, all feature Black queer characters, and Moore handles this lightly, unobtrusively letting the characters simply be.

There are linking themes of transformation, transition and becoming, which definitely reflect present social discourse, but again handled deftly and without polemicising.

While none of the stories feel unfinished, they all feel like "pilot episodes", each easily imaginable as bases for novels and Netflix adaptations.
Dark fun 4🖤

[Taina · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 ⭐ Transtaustaisen Nathan Alexander Mooren esikoiskirja The Rupture Files on neljän novellin kokoelma scifin ja fantasian rajamailta. Vaikka novellien maailmaan kuuluu vampyyreja ja ihmissusia, kaikkien pääteemana on kehollisuus ja hurja, villi, moninainen naiseus. Mitä tehdä, kun sisaret kutsuvat?

YA-fiilis oli hetkittäin läsnä (ei ollenkaan huono asia!), samoin tietynlainen traileritunnelma - novellit olivat vain alkuja jollekin isommalle. Kirjoitustyyli vaihteli yllättäen puhekielisen ja kirjakielisen välillä, se oli välillä hämmentävää. Mutta pidin novellien kehollisuudesta ja tihkuvista juonenkäänteistä. Mielelläni lukisin Moorelta seuraavaksi kokonaisen romaanin.

[G Batts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although not marketed as such, the vibe here was pretty YA. The prose had the informality and imprecision of spoken language and then it was also overly descriptive and full of redundancy. The actual dialogue in no way resembled human conversation and was more like characters trading exposition.

There were interesting ideas about the nature of transitions but the plots never developed and instead the stories were more a loose collection of metaphors. Because the prose was so visual, I saw a lot of things happening but I was never given the space to feel them.

[Avery Marley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I recently discovered your debut collection on Goodreads and was struck by its emotional precision and speculative boldness. Across shifting worlds and apocalyptic thresholds, your stories foreground Black queer and transfeminine lives with tenderness, urgency, and imaginative depth. Whether through shapeshifting bodies, haunted landscapes, archival memory, or revolutionary desire, these narratives illuminate the fragile but powerful space between who we are and who we might yet become.

[Sophia Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I adore speculative fiction but I also adore conclusions and resolutions!

[Charles H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Surreal Science Fiction Black Magical storytelling. 10/10 recommend.