She discovers an insect infestation has valuable uses. In “June Bugs” an online shopping clerk sublets a remote house to escape a controlling, violent boyfriend.
Often tormented, Fu characters are gifted with otherworldly solutions. “And then I never meant to use it again.” “I never meant to use it,” the narrator says. The story launches with, “After I killed my wife, I had twenty hours before her new body finished printing downstairs.” Fu speculates on the freedom and torment of being able to terminate an irksome partner, knowing a perfect copy would resume living a day later. They attract Alice, a “Depressive” in a world where past, present, and future are, well, depressing.įu utilizes technology again in “Twenty Hours,” a mordant examination of marriage. “Time Cubes” starts at a mall kiosk that sells time-compressing gadgets, ostensibly gimmicks. The peers bond over the “new hidden world” of Liddy’s bodily changes and eagerly await the completion of her strange evolution.
“Liddy, First to Fly” describes a teenage girl who develops “bulbous horrors” near her ankles, which her friends initially decide are ringworm marks. Exclusively dialogue, “Pre-Simulation Consultation XF007867” presents a negotiation between an operator of a holographic simulator and a client who wants to converse with a deceased parent. As they summon disturbing signs and wonders, the stories invite readers into out-of-left-field portraits - of marriage, childhood, grief, and our glum zeitgeist - that delight, provoke and entertain.Ĭonsider the eclectic opening trio. With a capable hand and wry voice, Fu, who was born in Calgary, has lived in Vancouver and Montreal, and currently lives in Seattle, chronicles bizarre events and dystopian realities. The dozen stories that make up Fu’s latest book, “Monsters,” showcase an affinity for different genres, namely horror, science fiction and fantasy. At a glance it evoked books by Margaret Laurence, Alice Munro and Madeleine Thien. “Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century” might surprise readers of Kim Fu’s debut novel, 2014’s “For Today I Am A Boy.” A poignant coming-of age story with a sharp focus on family dynamics and gender identity, that prize-winning novel fit comfortably within the Canadian literary canon.
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