Persona

Clements’s harrowing and gorgeously written debut follows two transgender women, Amy and Annie, who are drawn together by impossible secrets that then threaten to tear them apart. Annie lives a life of isolation and despair, working a menial online survey-taking job from her fetid apartment while struggling with agoraphobia and the fallout from a bad breakup. Elsewhere, Amy is an online sex worker who struggles with alienation from both her professional and real-life relationships, unable to place what’s acutely missing from her everyday life. When Annie comes across what seems to be pornography of herself online, it leads her to Amy and the revelation that the two women are, somehow, mysteriously “the same.” Together they fall down a rabbit hole of secrets tied to their origins, arriving at a shocking revelation that threatens to upend everything they know about themselves. Clements’s prose is fearless and sharp, diving into gut-churning corners of the human experience and balancing brutal body horror with pitch-black social commentary. The result is an impressive thrill ride highly recommended for fans of Tell Me I’m Worthless by Alison Rumfitt. (Jan.)