Pick the Lock

King (Attack of the Black Rectangles) delivers a searing, surreal novel about toxic relationships and systemic abuse. Since the Covid pandemic began, Jane Vandermaker-Cook has been homeschooled by her dictatorial father, Vernon. After banning electronics and music from their “pristine Victorian prison” home in West Philadelphia, Vernon purports that Jane’s mother, celebrated punk musician Mina Placenta, is a murderous, unloving “witch”; when she’s not touring, he isolates Mina using an elaborate system of pneumatic tubes within the house to restrict her physical and social interactions. Now 16, Jane covertly accesses decades of security camera footage that undermines Vernon’s accusations, compelling her to rally for both her mother’s freedom and her own. Metaphors for the entrapment of women in situations that foster abuse crystallize in an actual system of fabricated tubes, underground stations, and spider-webbing truths that Jane processes by composing a mobilizing, original punk opera. Helmed by Jane’s penetrating commentary, this unconventional narrative melds punk anthems and bewildering interludes from a shape-shifting rat with King’s quirky blend of present-day issues and mind-bending twists to unlock complex, thought-provoking insight. The Vandermaker-Cooks read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Michael Bourret, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret. (Sept.)