STRANGE CREATURES

Annie turns to childhood make-believe to cope with devastating events.

When they were small, Annie and her older brother, Jamie, invented the fantastical world of Gumlea where Annie became the Emperata Annit and Jamie was first Prince Jamin and, later, the Nameless Boy, the one who was different—in this made-up world as well as in reality. Gumlea soon became an escape as Jamie struggled with parental gender expectations and Annie felt a void growing between them. Thirteen-year-old Jamie’s sudden disappearance leaves Gumlea as 12-year-old Annie’s only link to her brother—and it functions for her as a coping mechanism as she holds out hope over the years that she can find him. Gumlea’s role as a reflection of the main plot seems disjointed at times: The epilogue (which appears at the beginning of the book) and prologue (which comes at the end) are both set there, but they have no clear connection with the main plot, unlike other scenes which clearly serve as mirrors to events taking place in this world. Gumlea is fleshed out well enough that it could serve as the focus of a stand-alone story, but in this context, it never really gets its time to shine. The central storyline, meanwhile, stretches past its natural cathartic endpoint, feeling stretched thin by the finish. Annie and Jamie have a Jewish mother and Christian father; main characters default to White, and there is queer representation in the book.

An ambitious novel that doesn’t quite coalesce.