Future Feeling

by Joss Lake

An embittered dog walker obsessed with a social media influencer inadvertently puts a curse a young man—and must adventure into mysterious dimension in order to save him—in this wildly inventive, delightfully subversive, genre-nonconforming debut novel about illusion, magic, technology, kinship, and the emergent future.

The year is 20__, and Penfield R. Henderson is in a rut. When he’s not walking dogs for cash or responding to booty calls from his B-list celebrity hookup, he’s holed up in his dingy Bushwick apartment obsessing over holograms of Aiden Chase, a fellow trans man and influencer documenting his much smoother transition into picture-perfect masculinity on the Gram. After an IRL encounter with Aiden leaves Pen feeling especially resentful, Pen enlists his roommates, the Witch and the Stoner-Hacker, to put their respective talents to use in hexing Aiden. Together, they gain access to Aiden’s social media account and post a picture of Pen’s aloe plant, Alice, tied to a curse:

Whosoever beholds the aloe will be pushed into the Shadowlands.

When the hex accidentally bypasses Aiden, sending another young trans man named Blithe to the Shadowlands (the dreaded emotional landscape through which every trans person must journey to achieve true self-actualization), the Rhiz (the quasi-benevolent big brother agency overseeing all trans matters) orders Pen and Aiden to team up and retrieve him. The two trace Blithe to a dilapidated motel in California and bring him back to New York, where they try to coax Blithe to stop speaking only in code and awkwardly try to pass on what little trans wisdom they possess. As the trio makes its way in a world that includes pitless avocados and subway cars that change color based on occupants’ collective moods but still casts judgment on anyone not perfectly straight, Pen starts to learn that sometimes a family isn’t just the people who birthed you.

Magnificently imagined, linguistically dazzling, and riotously fun, Future Feeling presents an alternate future in which advanced technology still can’t replace human connection but may give the trans community new ways to care for its own.

Genres: Queer, LGBT, Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, Transgender, Adult

304 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 8, 2021

About the author

Joss Lake is a trans writer and educator based in New York whose work has been supported by Queens Council of the Arts, Women and Performance Studies Collective, the Watermill Center, and Columbia University. He teaches critical and creative writing throughout the city, runs a literary sauna series called Trans at Rest, and has been a senior editor at Conjunctions. Future Feeling is his debut novel.

Reviews

[Morgan M. Page · Rating 5 out of 5]

Future Feeling is a viciously funny, and at times unbearably hot, futurist satire on queer trans life in America. Advanced technology and witchcraft lace their ways around the quotidienne bitterness between two trans men and a third caught in the crossfire. I literally couldn't stop laughing on each page.

[Bertie (LuminosityLibrary) · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't enjoy this book at all. Perhaps you should give it a go if you like satirical writing and the idea of a book that blends together literary, sci-fi, and fantasy traditions. I found it a little bit difficult to gauge how seriously I should be taking this book. I really enjoyed the more heartfelt scenes and the discussion of the messiness of trans men and queer lives. Other scenes really put me off - a character saying they got someone a wheelchair so people would know there's something wrong with them, two white characters discussing if they could take part in indigenous practices and deciding between themselves that yes they could, every gender non-conforming person was met with confusion... Despite some positives, I just didn't like this.

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[Maia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel is held together more by vibes than plot. The story centers around three trans men: Pen, a dogwalker living in New York, who is very jealous of Aiden, a Gram Influencer; he hatches a plot to hex Aiden back to into the Shadowlands (transition based depression land). But the hex accidentally falls on Blithe, an LA scriptwriter, instead. The omnipresent trans crisis solutions organization, The Rhiz, tells Pen and Aiden that they have to team up to go rescue Blithe and help him find his way out of the Shadowlands. It was a bit unclear to me why Aiden agrees to this plan, but they do pair up and end up living together for the majority of the rest of the book in a very loose, under-employed millennial way. I enjoyed many of the digressions- Pen recounting experiences of his legal name change, mystical therapist, and dating a straight-passing celebrity- but in the end the book didn't really come together for me.

[Sunny Lu · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to the audiobook in mostly one day. Enjoyed it somewhat despite being warned against it. Definitely weird speculative magical future things tied to auto fictional realities of white queerness, white trans masculinity. I thought it was interesting and at times fun, melancholy and cringe in the way white queers and new age lgbt bullshit is. Very much written by and for the nonbinaries named sock vibes. But an interesting exploration of the tangled and funny relationships queer people have with each other in a bizarre semi-unreal setting, with a special focus on the occult (the mysticism and anti indigeneity of which is discussed in a white queer way lol) and what happens when a toxic parasocial social media obsession becomes a real life forced proximity comrade. The loosely woven history that magical queer network is given is kind of silly though, as I think the whole book oscillates between silliness and reality.

[Erik · Rating 2 out of 5]

Joss Lake's debut novel, Future Feeling is a futural fantasy about being trans and finding home and self-love with other queer people.

Pen is a trans man living in Brooklyn who spends his days obsessing over the (insta)Gram of another social-media-famous trans man, Aiden, who loves to show his abs and post-op body alongside inspirational quotes. When Pen teams up with his witch roommate and hacker roommate to cast a spell on Aiden, things go awry and Pen is forced to work with Aiden to save another trans man: Blithe. All three trans men learn things about their own transness and find value and meaning - and what they were longing for - in queer family and togetherness.

The "bones" of Future Feeling are compelling. Lake does a nice job introducing characters with compelling arcs and a world that while based in the not-so-distant future has anchors to our world today that make it recognizable. But what starts as a compelling story falters with how much it tries to accomplish. Lake tries to jam in too many story lines and tries to develop all of his characters so none of them reach the complexity they could. Had Lake focused on Pen's development alone and made the other character ancillary to this development the book would have been so much stronger. And though I completely agree with the many digressions in the book that discuss Blackness, race, and indigenous people, the discussions felt out of place, forced, and therefore didn't add value to the book or the discussions about these topics.

A fine first novel, this book could have been so much better. While I wasn't a fan of this one, I do look forward to future books by Lake.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first three books I read this past week were rather disappointing, thus a series of carping three star reviews. Then I began Future Feeling after picking it up in the library on a whim and found it unexpectedly brilliant! It's set in a near-future New York where the trans community has a quasi-magical rhizomatic overseeing agency. Penfield, a trans guy who works as a dog walker, attempts to hex a trans Instagram celebrity named Aiden but the hex falls upon another random trans guy, Blithe. The rhizomatic agency orders Penfield and Aiden to rescue Blithe, who has been hexed into an emotional wasteland called the Shadowlands. All this is in the blurb, so constitutes the setup for subsequent events. The reader follows Penfield and pals' adventures in mutual support, living with difficult flatmates, romance, and self-actualisation. This tone of this journey is witty, insightful, and just the right amount of fantastical. I found Penfield's deadpan voice very funny:

I called an apartment meeting. This was highly unusual, and the roomies must have thought we were getting evicted.
We sat in our tiny living room, a few feet between the entrance to the Witch's room, my room, and the start of the kitchen. The S-H [Stoner-Hacker] was cross-legged on the floor, and the Witch and I sat too close together on the two sectional pieces that had once belonged to a longer, nicer couch.
"I need to curse someone, in both the old ways and the new."
The Witch gave me the same look she'd given when I suggested a chore wheel. "This is not child's play," she said.

I read the whole of Future Feeling in one sitting, as it has such a delightful setting, set of characters, and acute insight into gender dynamics. The tone manages to be both satirical and affectionate about postmodern attempts at seeking happiness:

We reached Mulberry Street and passed consumers who did not have the privilege of mind-cleaning, who only wanted to find the perfect acid-wash jeans to go with their despair. I saw our reflection in a storefront and wondered how anyone could ever want to hate-crime us.
We were looking so hot and unified!
Inside the over-lit store, techno throbbed and Blithe and I fished complimentary ear plugs out of a mesh basket. The overstimulation didn't seem to bother Aiden, who wandered off without us. The edgy retailer sold three items, all unisex: enormous t-shirts, long shorts, and a pair of sweatpants with legs four times the size of a usual leg, designed for a monster. The colours rotated every three weeks. This week's: Fragile Violet, Renaissance Gold, and Horchata.
"I miss those shiny Adidas track pants," I told Blithe.
"I'm nostalgic for every single part of my life that didn't feel like a pit of despair," he responded, and walked away.
I started spiralling, thinking about how feminist cis-dudes out there would be scoring major points for wearing genderless ift sweatpants in their dating profiles while all of us trans who wanted actual fitting M or F clothing were told: Just wait a little longer for the next stage of capitalism to bring strange new forms to the marketplace.

There are so many excellent details, some mundane and others appealingly strange. Future Feeling strikes a great balance of entertainingly deadpan wit and sharp psychological insight: 'Well, isn't queer adulthood, if one is lucky, having the impossible childhood of your desires?' The combination of fantastical and sci-fi elements is distinctive and great fun, yet works really well with the search for meaning and identity propelling the plot. What a great novel - the ambiguous title is by far the least interesting thing about it.

[Marc · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's hard for me to rate this book because I thought the voice was quite comical and the social commentary was interesting (a lot of biting commentary on our mediated culture, self-actualization through various forms of consumerism, etc.), but the storyline felt underdeveloped and lagged for quite a stretch. What it did tackle, and is a topic I find endlessly fascinating, is the way trans identities both reinforce and question traditional notions of gender. On the one hand, they bring into question what it means to be masculine or feminine, or they blur the boundaries drawn in the sand; on the other hand, much like our main character, Penfield, full transformation often seems to require witness/approval of the larger culture, which means embracing/seeking status quo ideas of gender in terms of dress, physical appearance, gender roles, etc. In this sense, Lake's novel feels like a sort of projection towards not just future feelings, but a future life where the self is accepted internally and externally, and a secret network of quasi-magical queerness looks out for all its lost sheep (literally and figuratively) as we all try to sort ourselves among the laboring classes and a real world that's neither as glossy or exciting as the mediated one. I guess, really, it's not hard for me to rate this book: I liked its concept and humor, but found the execution just so-so.

[Frankie · Rating 3 out of 5]

To start: I am glad I got this from the library instead of buying it.

Cannot decide if I liked this book or not. It didn’t really have a plot. It was incredibly white. I don’t feel like I could really tell you anything about the characters. Persoanlly, I didn’t get much out of the futurism. I couldn’t tell what was magical realism, what was metaphor, or what was tech. I was excited about the start, because I love a dog walker character, but it just failed to ever really progress. This thing really ran on vibes, and the word quirky comes to mind. I don’t want to be solely negative. I really loved the way Pen’s therapist was depicted, and how Pen genuinely seemed to care about her and respects her thoughts and opinions. It kept Pen from seeming too jaded and out of touch.

I wouldn’t call this a waste of time, but I also am not gonna read it again. Xoxo!

[Maurice · Rating 1 out of 5]

I don’t even know what this book was. Definitely not the trans found family, weird SciFi story I had expected from the synopsis. For most of this book I had literally no clue what it was trying to say. I know it was partly about social media fame, and also about trans people being jealous of each other, but that’s all I can tell you. It mentioned tons of other themes too, but the thing is, it never really went into any of them at any depth. It just jumped around from topic to topic, without ever coming to any conclusions, and it was so confusing. There’s probably supposed to be a message here (or several), but I could not figure out what it was.

Let’s talk about the writing, because I couldn’t stand it. It felt so distant and unemotional, which I don’t think is what this story needed at all. I partly blame the writing style for how disconnected I felt from all the characters and everything that was happening in here. This book also made me notice that I hate it when abbreviations like TBH are used in a novel (unless there’s text messages or sth included and they are used in those), and also that I can’t stand the word “bod”. Also, why are we spelling str8 like this now? Did I miss something? Does it have a different meaning from when it’s spelled straight, because in case it doesn’t, it’s annoying as hell. Same with using initials instead of names for no reason at all.

Then there’s the way this jumps around from one thought to the next. Nothing was ever completed, for 90% of the content in here I had no clue what the point of it even was, there’s all those random discussions, that I hesitate to even call discussions because they had no clear point of conclusion, that didn’t really have anything to do with the actual story, and I was just so confused. I think maybe this just tried to pack way too many things into one book, and in the end most of them felt like they didn’t fit into the story at all.

The world was so boring, which I am mad about, because it sounded like a really weird and unique SciFi world from the synopsis, but honestly there aren’t a lot of SciFi aspects, and the ones that are there were pretty underwhelming, and the worldbuilding felt super incomplete. Especially the Shadowlands were not explained at all. I really though this would create some kind of amazing metaphor there, but it did nothing.

The characters were all super flat as well, I can’t tell you anything about anyone’s personality, and, worst of all, this did not feel like a found family story to me. I didn’t even think any of those characters liked each other at all? Which then lead to a lot of things (especially that one wedding!) feeling super cringe-y. And is that relationship between Stone and Pen supposed to be romantic, because I can’t really picture anything that would deserve that word less?

Then there is a scene where Pen’s therapists responds to Pen saying all he wants to do is have sex with: “Thank god, you’re finally turning into a person.” Seriously, books need to stop that narrative that not wanting to have sex is unhealthy/unnatural. Talking about sex, I was cringing so hard at the sex scenes. I know I keep asking for kinky content in books that aren’t smutty romances, but this is not what I wanted. I think the writing style definitely played a huge role in why the sex scenes were quite so uncomfortable, although my personal limits around vaginal sex and sexual DDLG (as well as spanking only being a sadomasochism thing and not a sex thing in my mind) definitely made things even worse.

Also, despite this being own-voices, I noticed a few issues with the trans rep I've seen trans people call out in other stories a lot, and even things I know to be factually wrong. Like, an own-voices story, and a newly published one at that, using the word “transgendered”? How even?? It also keeps saying “a trans” and I really don’t know any trans people who would talk like that. Also the way we got told both Aiden’s and Blithe’s deadname felt super weird to me, there was really no good reason or context for why we would get told those, they were just dropped so randomly. And then there’s a line where Pen thinks a guy is definitely not trans because his chest doesn’t have any scars, which just doesn’t make sense, because sometimes top surgery scars heal completely, and some types of surgeries leave fewer scars than others to start with.

There’s also several mentions of how trans guys were “as girls”. It would be one thing if only Pen didn’t feel like he had always been a guy, but he applied those same ideas to other trans men, for example there’s a point where he thinks about which kind of girl Blithe would have been, and if it would have been difficult for him to give that up. I always thought that kind of thing was one of the textbook ignorant cis person quotes, so I was shocked to find it in an own-voices book. We really don’t need more things feeding into the idea that trans guys were once girls, and I really hate it when books take the experience of the main character and try to apply it to all people who are part of the same minority. And this also pretends that in order for women to be attracted to trans guys they need to be queer, which isn't only false, there's definitely straight women who are into trans guys, but it also implies that having sex with trans guys is different from how it is with cis men, specifically in a way that it's a little more like having sex with woman. At this point I am seriously begging authors to write some books about trans men who aren't into vaginal sex, because I know they exist, so where the fuck is their rep? Also, by saying women are queer when they like trans men, it's kind of also saying I'm not gay for having been attracted to trans men before, which honestly, fuck you for implying that.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks Soft Skull Press for sending this finished copy! Rounding up to 4 stars. I enjoyed this book but also found its frenetic energy overwhelming at times. This futuristic social thriller reminded me at times of Labyrinth Lost, Black Buck, Juliet Takes a Breath, and Ready Player One. I loved the unapologetically trans cast of characters!

[James DiGiovanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some hilarious prose and a zillion great ideas (“storyboard homo whaling expedition,” says one character, making a note into his phone) but it really goes overboard on the woke jokes, with all the characters trying to outwoke each other. It’s almost a little mean? Or lazy? I dunno. But it’s an amazing representation of trans-man experiences told with way more humor and imagination than you’d expect from someone writing on this topic and with biographical knowledge of it. I expect Joss Lake will only get better as this is his first book, and it’s pretty close to 4 stars, if it hadn’t fizzled a bit in the final act.

[R.J. Sorrento · Rating 4 out of 5]

Future Feeling is part satire and part SFF and different from any book I’ve read about the trans guy experience. There are some great moments and lines that really stand out, but at times I wanted to know the characters better, especially Penfield, as I followed him through his misadventures.

Thank you to Soft Skull Press for the finished copy.

[Benji · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn’t enjoy this book. It’s hard to tell where the satire ends and any sincerity begins. The world-building was so sloppy and inadequately explained that I hardly knew what was happening at times, was an event or action happening metaphorically or actually? Pacing was very odd, frenetically jumping between topics or lingering to the point of boredom.

[Beauregard Francis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Extremely funny and reflective story about transness, the internet, and queer community. I spent the book laughing at Pen's exploits and being gut-punched by lines about being trans that resonated very deeply.

At points it dragged and meandered in ways I felt kind of delayed the story, but the experience of reading about adult trans men who transitioned as adults was a first for me and in that way it's a story I really value. Pen's experience at the court getting his name changed was honestly incredible.

I wasn't sure about the casual tone at first, but at parts it reminded me of The Faggots & Their Friends Between Revolutions, a conversational fairy tale vibe.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the free eARC in exchange for my honest review (but honestly this book came out last year and I only just got to it, whoopsies).

[Ayre · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a personalized book subscription box and it was basically exactly what I asked for. I wanted an unlikable character, I wanted weird, and I wanted queer. This book is so weird its going to be very hard to explain. It takes place in the not too distant future where a billionaires son has funded a queer support group called the Rhiz, that provides emotional and medical support for trans persons. There is also an aspect of magical realism involving witchcraft, curses, and a mental universe called the Shadowlands that every trans person must travel through.

This book is weird and spiritual (I'm not much of a spiritual person) but I enjoyed the weirdness of it. I also very much enjoyed reading about a trans man written by a trans man.

[Akiva ꙮ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow, fascinating. I've highlighted so many passages, lmao. "Trans masc camp" is right.

This is a feelings novel, but at least in the first two thirds it's all about how feelings are fucking baffling and surreal and uncontrollable and illogical and nothing will work out as you expect so trying to puzzle out the "right" thing to do can only hurt and hobble you. The little arbitrary moral/community rules that everyone tries to impose on the chaos (no plastic bags; no b***hes) are pathetic in both senses. What a mood!!!!

The last third, on the west coast, was an odd disconnect from the first sections. It did turn out to have been leading towards something, as aimless (though engaging) as it felt at the time.

There's so much going on. This is such a messy, surreal book. And I totally loved it. I liked the book as a whole more than I liked any of the characters, which isn't typical for me.

[Maria · Rating 5 out of 5]

struggling trans guys in a near future. they go to the shadowlands, there are really beautiful ways of safety and care. after someone was accidentally hexed. some internet famous, some rich, some dog walking.
Someone didn't like the book because she found it to confusing and the characters too grumpy and sad but I love it so much. To me it is very funny and heartwarming.


“A question I used to ask myself: What sort of pleasure could a trans experience using a silicone cock?
What cis people don’t know is that trans people often have the same ludicrous questions about ourselves as you do, but are simply more motivated to deep inquiry. As I fucked her ass with a cock, our pleasures mingled. We were porous, and she was held and filled, and I was holding and filling, all against the thrill of play, not pornographic because we were in motion.
In R’s apartment, I shuttered my doubts and textiles spooled from our bodies.”

“No need for politeness here. Politeness only constipates the air. You can start following the schedule tomorrow. Do you want me to come tuck you in?”

“Okay, time for your intake. I need to get a sense of the shape of your transition. How did it begin? This could be a vague glimmer, an ominous portent, a forbidden crack, a slimy loathing, a cold withdrawal, a green bowl—whatever form fits your experience.”

“For the last few years, Sophie and I had been holding an Unfuneral for my parents. We went to the park at night with trowels, buried a handful of the stones they left me, lit a ritual candle, circled the burial ground twice, and then dug them back up. Their dewy, nerdy, quiet-but-full-of-love presence came back to me; I swore; we opened a door with a gesture.”

“After I got off the phone with the landlord, I went into the kitchen and threw one of the Witch’s potion jars against the wall. I was terrified of leaving the den I had dug myself into. Once I’d calmed down, I prayed that the Witch would not use her power against me.”

Blithe and I completed our regional exit interviews with the well-bearded Operatrix, who interpreted my light purple Bio-meter reading as “geographical optimism.”

"Every time we fought, I learned that we could survive it.
During a session when I was feeling particularly buoyant, I confided in Sophie that often my insecurities emerged after a blissful day, as a way to bring reality back into a closed and chaotic familiarity.”

"“Now we inscribe that you are here to help, to grow, to fight, to plant, to agitate, to assemble in the spirit of queer abundance now and forever,” they all chanted.
The words curled around me in the timeless present of the Rhiz, where we were always stretching toward our ancestors and the old ways, and toward our future beings and the ways to come. This was the place that I had longed for, before I knew it could be real.”

[Mariah Wamby · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Well, isn’t queer adulthood, if one is lucky, having the impossible childhood of your desires?”


I received an eARC of Future Feeling by Joss Lake from Netgalley and Soft Skull Press — here is my personal review.

Future Feeling was a book that I wanted to love. A story of three trans men bonding together due to a revenge curse gone awry sounded absolutely amazing. Unfortunately, I was not a fan of this book at all. The writing and pacing was choppy and all over the place. As this is an ARC I get that there is still editing to happen, but it was impossible for me to tell what was in need of editing and what was a stylistic writing choice.

Honestly, after finishing this book I’m hard pressed to actually describe any characters, settings, or scenes with any confidence. This felt like more of a descriptive outline than a complete story. The bones are there, but only the creator can see what they’ll make.

The book is queer positive and sex positive, so that was nice. But I just...couldn’t follow its story in anyway.

This one was not for me — one star.

[MiniMicroPup (X Liscombe) · Rating 2 out of 5]

This sucked me in, then died in a slow-moving existential fog where I kept waiting for something to happen. Still, there were some good explorations for part of the story and I can see this being a cathartic read.
 
Energy: Spiralling. Visceral. Overthinking.
 
🐺 Growls: The endless spirals of introspection, the soliloquies, the slightly varied but repetitive self-reflection. So many layers of emotional processing and metaphysical angst that it stopped feeling impactful.

🐕 Howls: Everyone had main character syndrome. The privileged wallowing and existential musings overshadowed the plot and got exhausting to listen to. The audiobook narration had long, awkwardly placed pauses that kept knocking me out of the story.

🐩 Tail Wags: The clever, observant, immersive prose and worldbuilding. The sci-fi elements being presented as a normal part of life. It made the setting feel lived-in and believable.

Scene: 🇺🇸 NYC, New York, and Joshua Tree National Park, California, USA
Perspective: After a disillusionted meet-up of our MC with an influencer they admire, they seek the assistance of a friend to hex their former idol. Feeling guilty for the accidental hexing of a complete stranger, our MC goes on a mission to recover him.
Timeline: Linear. Not too distant future (post-2020s).
Narrative: Characters speaking to us, eavesdropping on thoughts and feelings (first person and epistolary).
Fuel: Quests. Getting to know the characters and the world. Character reflections and frustrations. Catharsis (for some).
Cred: Speculative
 
Mood Reading Match-Up:
Bag of dicks. Holograms. Biometers. Cathartic yell. Optional tuck-in. Aloe. Doomscrolling.
• Casual, intimate, reflective writing style
• Chaotic, flawed, self-absorbed, unlikeable and sympathetic characters
• Hexing (and unhexing) quests
• Angst, anxiety, overthinking, self-imposed misery
• Not-too-distant future tech and social media
• Messy found family of misfits
• Character-driven spiral through identity, trauma, and dysfunction
• Secondhand cringe and self deception
• Existential ennui
• Examining support and toxicity within queer spaces
• Wokeness futures, imperfection, categorization, and comparisons
• No plot, just vibes (and dread)
 
Content Heads-Up: Adoption (into different race family). Anxiety. Avalanche (recall). Body fluids. Dissociation. Loss of parents (as child). Mental health crises. Sexual content (graphic, on page; kinks, rough, role-playing). Suicidal ideation (mentions). Transphobia (recall, anxiety about transitioning).

Rep: American. Jewish American. Chinese American. Trans. Queer. Light, white, and black skin tones.
 
📚 Format: Amazon Music/Audible
 
My musings 💖 powered by puppy snuggles 🐶

[Hunter Burke · Rating 4 out of 5]

What a weird, wacky, wonderful book this is. Future Feeling by Joss Lake is really unlike anything I’ve read before. It’s set in a near future world with a trans masc protagonist and a whole host of trans and queer characters along the way.

What really worked for me in this novel was the writing itself. Joss Lake has a really clear voice, this being his debut novel. There’s wit, humor, and a lot of heart to be found within these pages. Lake does an excellent job crafting Penfield, our narrator, fleshing out all the unseemly, unfinished parts of him and setting him off on a journey towards healing.

There are obviously lots of interesting things being explored here in terms of gender: transness itself, queerness, gender presentation, the grueling journey towards self actualization. By setting this story in a near future, sci-fi world, Lake is able to explore these topics with a bit of the surreal that wouldn’t have come through in a more realistic setting.

There’s a lot to love here, but this definitely does feel like a first novel at times. The biggest thing for me is that we don’t get a ton of context about this near future world and the ways that it differs from ours. We’re very much dropped in media res, and given nuggets of information along the way, but the world itself doesn’t feel whole enough on its own for us to be able to keep up as we’re given details but by bit. In the third act we do get a lot of context, specifically about the far-reaching queer organization the Rhiz, but it happens so late in the novel that it feels a little like an afterthought.

What we do learn about the Rhiz, however, is really thrilling. It made me want more: more history, more time exploring the Rhiz-Port, more info on the Operatrixes. I also wanted more from Aiden Chase as a character. Similarly, we don’t really get to know much about him until the third act, and he feels a little flat throughout the beginning of the novel (which feels purposeful considering Penfield is our POV character, and that’s how he views Aiden). Most of these issues come back to pacing and plotting, but for a debut novel there could be much bigger issues.

What I loved most is the scope of this novel. Future Feeling is ambitious in what it undertakes. Although at times I didn’t know where the journey was leading me, Joss Lake definitely stuck the landing. This was a really satisfying celebration of queerness itself, and I can’t wait to see what Joss Lake does next.

[MJ James · Rating 5 out of 5]

Released June 1, 2021

Future Feeling
By. Josh Lake
Soft Skull Press
P. 294
Format: eArc
Rating: ****
**********************
I received an e-arc from @Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
**********************

Future Feeling is a mystical trans fantasy novel. If that does not hook you instantly, then this may not be the novel for you.

Penfield R. Henderson is a dog walker in New York. He is haunted by the R in his name which stands for Ruth, the last remnant of his gender assigned at birth. He is also haunted by Aiden, a trans super influencer on the gram. Aiden shows a life that is a little too perfect. It is too much for Penfield to take. So, he does what any logical trans man would do. He uses his hacker roommate to hack into Aiden’s social media account. Then, he has his witch roommate send out a hex. Except, the hex does not hit Aiden. Instead it attaches itself Blithe, a trans man adopted from China. The hex sends Blithe to the Shadowlands. The Rhiz, a mythical organization for all trans beings, charge Penfield and Aiden to work together to bring him back.

This book is written whimsically, but covers very deep topics. The book itself is amazing. I wish there was a Rhiz organization to initiate and connect all trans beings. The relationships that are formed are messy, but they are all the better for it. This novel is a validation to all trans beings that you are not alone. For all non trans beings, then it allows you a glimpse into the mystical tribe.

For the most part, this book is set in a very familiar everyday setting. However, the technology is just slightly advanced. I think this was done, mostly, to highlight the more fantastical elements of the novel. It really makes more of a fusion novel than one set in any specific genre. Which, especially considering the subject matter, really works well.

[L. Skyford · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was lucky to have an ARC loaned to me based on my love of scifi, romance, and LGBTQI+ stories. Preorder your copy from your local indie bookstore day!

Wow. This book is: wow. I have a very similar feeling to when I finished Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, like I am also the one on drugs; what I assume it’s like to be on psilocybin shrooms. This book has one of the most unique voices I think I’ve ever read; an un-annoying millennial-like trans guy who finds himself on a journey from self-degradation to self-acceptance.

Penfield is navigating all the trials of early trans-hood: acceptance in traditionally masc spheres, internal growth, relationship navigation, along with all the normal tribulations of a 20-something getting their shit together: meaningless job, annoying roommates, family. When Pen gets rebuffed by a trans influencer, Aiden, with who he is low-key obsessed, he has his roommates, The Witch, and The Stoner-Hacker, hex Aiden. The hex goes wrong and lands on another young trans guy, Blithe. The Rhiz, the secret queer org, employ Pen and Aiden to save Blithe. But that’s only the first half of the story of Pen, Aiden, and Blithe finding their paths.

When you begin, you also think you are reading a traditionally structured story but rather than being broken into chapters, it’s broken into what is, essentially, acts or phases. Also, though the narrative is linear, the reveal of information is occasionally delivered in the form of documents, written by the characters, which is just delightful and clever. There is also new tech that mixes with current tech, think holograms in phones activated in Instagram, which enhances the quasi-sci-fi element of it.

As someone who looks at their gender from the corner of their eye, as if to say, “what am I supposed to do with this,” it was wonderful to submerge myself in entirely trans voices, to travel on Pen’s journey, and to be reassured of my happiness right where I’m at. I’m also honored to have gleamed into the world, perspective, and views of a trans person; the world needs more trans stories and I’ll be recommending this book to all my queer and cis friends. -Ford

[Charlie Herndon]

tw: use of "bodies" , "spaces" because I am a hack

A millennial-pink dystopia embellished with Brooklyn bodegas, cookie-cutter apartments, succulents, and toxic Instagram posts. Indicts wellness culture and late-stage capitalism's focus on maintaining; maintaining serotonin levels, exercising to exorcise demons, talk therapy and dopamine hits from social media likes. Trans bodies cloaked in guilt, shame that they can't emulate gay cis bodies, dysphoric dissociative episodes during sex. A pacified paradise that explores new ideas like private-funded trans healthcare agencies, while it also escapes older ideas, updating the limits of Atwood's second-wave feminism. Identity politics promoted by corporations is as exhausting as the onslaught of products that tell us how to live, teach us how to breathe. What's refreshing is that the queer "found family" is imperfect, the main characters self-loathe, bond through their self-loathing. Together they undergo hardships, ask the question of what does it mean to survive, thrive nowadays beyond the pitifully low bar of "self-care", day-to-day survival. Remember to update your software, take your antidepressants, inject your T.

This is great work.

[Trent · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a unique and quirky book. I have to say, I've never read anything quite like it and it took me a little bit to get used to the writing style. That said, it was completely worth it and just showed really how well-written and thought-out this book was. A combination of so many different genres and unlike any book about queer / trans folks that's out there, it really challenges so many narratives and ideas of how to write about trans people and what is 'okay.' A great book for so many people -- those interested in magical realism, queer theory, fiction in general or...!

[Ellie · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was such a weird, funny, tender queer story!! it’s a fun and absurd book about serious things that only a queer could have thought of and written. for me, the plot kind of started to get kind of messy in the last third-ish of the book but honestly, what a joy to read!

[JR · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5
“‘Now we inscribe that you are here to help, to grow, to fight, to plant, to agitate, to assemble in the spirit of queer abundance now and forever,’ they all chanted…How improbable, how strong, these pathways towards collective good, I thought”

[Starr ❇✌❇]

Abandoned @ 18%

I was excited about this book for a long time because the concept seemed so good, but honestly the weird sexual content has made this experience less and less enjoyable. Also, I can't lie, the main character constantly using trans as a noun (like "as a trans") rubs me the wrong way and it's hard to get past.

[Lynette · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fun, riveting book that I couldn’t put down. At times it had me near tears, at others laughing out loud. The sci-fi elements were a delight. It was a pleasure to read about trans men navigating a near-future that was part dystopia, part utopia, and a believable extension of life today. Also, idk if this is tacky to mention in a review, but the sex scenes?? *chef’s kiss* Magnificent.

[Ray Lister · Rating 5 out of 5]

A delightfully queer and quirky futuristic novel that deals with themes of jealousy, social media, magic, and growth. I needed a light and funny read, and here it was.

[Felix · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5!! a positive 3.5. this did not speak entirely to my feelings about being trans but i think i would have to be american; into bdsm; take shrooms. i don’t really want to. i do agree that helping others is a good way to help yourself. i kind of think trans people should only date other trans people. fun silly surreal tone that complimented my night on a bus and day in the airport