Make Sure You Die Screaming

Carlstrom debuts with a disjointed blend of road-trip suspense novel and state-of-the-nation satire. A nameless narrator, inspired to drop their old name and gender after the sudden death of their best friend and decade-long advertising partner, steals their abusive ex-boyfriend’s BMW and flees Chicago for Arkansas to visit their mother. When the narrator arrives, their mother claims that their far-right conspiracy theorist father has disappeared. To help find him, the narrator brings along their new friend, Yivi, a young “garbage goth” convinced her prophetic dreams of a cowboy in a tan sedan relate to her drug dealer ex’s efforts to track her down. While throwing back a significant volume of booze, the pair awkwardly disclose some of their secrets to each other as they tear across the fraying nation. The novel is low on plot, with a few key details from the narrator’s biography needlessly positioned as big reveals, but Carlstrom effectively conjures a dystopian atmosphere and shrewdly mines themes about the draws and dangers of self-definition. It’s a wild ride with a few too many dead ends, but readers seeking something off the beaten path will enjoy themselves. Agent: Kent D. Wolf, Neon Literary. (Apr.)