All Things Seen and Unseen
A Novel
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
An incisive reflection on identity and wealth, and a refreshing racial queer story of survival
All Things Seen and Unseen follows Alex Nguyen, an isolated, chronically ill university student in her early 20s. After a suicide attempt and subsequent lengthy hospitalization, she finds herself without a job, kicked out of campus housing, unable to afford school, and still struggling in the aftermath of a relationship’s dissolution. Hope comes in the form of a rich high school friend who offers Alex a job housesitting at her family’s empty summer mansion on a gulf island.
Surrounded by dense forest and ocean, in the increasingly oppressive heat of a 2010s summer, Alex must try to survive as an outsider in a remote, insular community; to navigate the awkward, unexpected beginnings of a possible new romance; and to live through the trauma she has repressed to survive, even as the memories — and a series of increasingly unnerving events — threaten to pull her back under the surface.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The evocative debut from McDaniel opens with 24-year-old queer university student Alex Nguyen getting out of the hospital after a two-month stint following a nasty breakup and suicide attempt. Upon her release, Alex discovers that, since she neglected to notify her school about the hospital stay, she's lost her housing and ability to apply for student loans. On the verge of losing all hope, Alex gets offered a summer job house-sitting for the parents of her childhood friend, Ella. Almost as soon as she arrives at the extravagant vacation home, which sits on an island an hour's boat ride from the British Columbian mainland, things take a turn for the gothic: Alex starts receiving strange phone calls from a robotic voice, warning her to stay inside. She embarks on a clumsy romance with a local but starts to distrust their budding bond. As she's left alone to ruminate on the life she's led and try to imagine what her future holds, paranoia begins to seep in. Will she survive her stay on this enigmatic and potentially deadly isle? McDaniel ably captures Alex's creeping dread, whipping the thin narrative into something like a fever dream. While the heavily ambiguous action may frustrate some mystery fans, the atmosphere is undeniably immersive. McDaniel makes a promising first impression.
