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Nausea
Nausea is a surreal, darkly funny novella that follows the inner life of Michael, a four-year-old boy whose imagination and psychological sensitivity begin to blur the line between play and reality. Each chapter is framed around Michael adopting the persona of an animal—bird, spider, squirrel, fish, bat, polar bear—and exploring the world through that creature’s instincts and fears.
At first whimsical, his animal identities begin to take on deeper psychological meaning as Michael’s anxieties manifest in fantastical episodes. He experiences vertigo as a bird afraid of heights, a crisis of identity as a spider afraid of its own reflection, and starvation as a squirrel allergic to nuts. As his parents try to manage his behaviour with growing concern, Michael becomes increasingly haunted by a recurring a disembodied voice that moos and pleads with him to find a missing baby.
The story reaches its surreal climax when, as a polar bear, Michael skips school and ventures into a forbidden farmyard to confront the source of the mooing—a grotesque, undead cow inhabited by a parasitic, fungal being named Ispep. Coerced into helping Ispep escape confinement, Michael confronts the uncanny blend of guilt, grief, and helpless compassion that has been building throughout the story.
Ultimately, Nausea is a haunting, hallucinatory allegory about childhood trauma, loss, change and the ways children mythologize their experiences to survive them. Told entirely in Michael’s voice, it is both absurdly funny and quietly devastating—a tale where innocence collides with something ancient, strange, and powerful.
At first whimsical, his animal identities begin to take on deeper psychological meaning as Michael’s anxieties manifest in fantastical episodes. He experiences vertigo as a bird afraid of heights, a crisis of identity as a spider afraid of its own reflection, and starvation as a squirrel allergic to nuts. As his parents try to manage his behaviour with growing concern, Michael becomes increasingly haunted by a recurring a disembodied voice that moos and pleads with him to find a missing baby.
The story reaches its surreal climax when, as a polar bear, Michael skips school and ventures into a forbidden farmyard to confront the source of the mooing—a grotesque, undead cow inhabited by a parasitic, fungal being named Ispep. Coerced into helping Ispep escape confinement, Michael confronts the uncanny blend of guilt, grief, and helpless compassion that has been building throughout the story.
Ultimately, Nausea is a haunting, hallucinatory allegory about childhood trauma, loss, change and the ways children mythologize their experiences to survive them. Told entirely in Michael’s voice, it is both absurdly funny and quietly devastating—a tale where innocence collides with something ancient, strange, and powerful.
36 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 24, 2025
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