Finna
Nino Cipri
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Finna
Nino Cipri
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
Rave
Positive
Mixed
Pan
There isn't a word wasted in Nino Cipri's Finna. For a book about travelling through nightmarish labyrinths that cut and twist between worlds, it's remarkably straightforward.
The most common relationship arc that one finds in fiction tends to be a fresh meeting that grows toward a romantic or, less often, platonic pairing-up. It’s exceedingly rare to read about the other kind of process, where a romantic relationship has already dissolved and the involved parties are trying to hash their way into a friendship—but that’s the thoroughly satisfying path Cipri has taken with Ava and Jules in Finna.
the tone shifts easily into horror-suspense mode, but in a winking manner that suggests R.L. Stine more than Stephen King. Throughout, though, the bantering relationship between the queer Ava ('her') and the nonbinary Jules ('them') gets tested in a way that seems to point to a facile reconciliation-under-stress ending, but Cipri is too clever to let us off that easily. While some of the secondary characters, like the officious, by-the-book manager Tricia, seem drawn from the standard bad-workplace playbook, both Ava and Jules are complex and edgy enough to lend Finna a rather touching human dimension beneath the well-targeted satire and the surreal adventures..
While the length of the novel means it can at times feel a little slight, the mixture of corporate drudgery and dimension-hopping adventure will hold the reader’s attention as well as Ava and Jules’ post-break-up foibles do. Recommended for those interested in sf that features queer relationships, minimum-wage labor, and many worlds theory..
...whimsical but underwhelming ...Cipri...employs this delightfully unusual setting to explore the soul-crushing nature of retail work and the pain of recent breakups.