Peanut

From the author of the instant cult classic Catherine House, a story of one woman’s search to find her place in a looming uncanny future

Crystal Washington—awkward, underpaid, chronically ignored Crystal—has never fit in at Acme, the glossy tech startup where she works as an administrative assistant. Until the day she meets Juliet. Juliet, a magnetic scientist in Acme’s mysterious Social Machines department, is looking for a roommate. And she sees something in Crystal that no one else ever has: a friend.

As Crystal and Juliet develop a haunted, obsessive intimacy, Crystal realizes she would do anything for Juliet, anything to keep her close. Nothing could possibly get between the two of them—until Juliet is chosen to beta-test Acme’s newest top-secret project, a plush robot “companion toy.” Juliet is instantly enamored. But Crystal senses something sinister about the adorable creature. Is Crystal going crazy? Or is there a menacing gleam in those plastic eyes?

Grounded in a character determined to find some truth in an increasingly artificial world, Peanut is a reckoning with what it means to be human.