Penfield R. Henderson, dog-walker with a trust fund and closeted-celebrity-fucker, has problems: a bitter parasocial obsession with transmasculine influencer Aiden Chase, a cramped dirty apartment in Bushwick he shares with the Witch and the Stoner-Hacker, and a deep-seated sense of inadequacy about his own awkward transition to manhood. After a bad run-in with Aiden, Penfield decides to cast a hex on him to send him back to the Shadowlands (the desaturated and miserable portion of transition where it all sucks endlessly) as punishment for his perceived perfection. But, unfortunately, the hex hits an unintended target: Blithe, a total stranger. The Rhiz, a benevolent web of queer elders, pairs Aiden and Penfield to caretake Blithe and pass on their trans wisdom to him in his time of need.
This week, the staff of ‘The Paris Review’ revels in the chaos of Joss Lake’s ‘Future Feeling,’ praises Akwaeke Emezi’s latest, and considers the amateur.
Zakiya Dalila Harris makes a thrilling debut with The Other Black Girl, journalist Mike Rothschild takes on QAnon, New Yorker writer Sheldon Pearce assembles a Tupac oral history, and more books to read in June.