The pages of these engrossing new novels are haunted by the ghosts we’ve long known, along with the ones born out of our current techno-capitalist age. The jump scares here come from isolation, guilt, technology, corporate bureaucracy, and the corpse of one reanimated executive director. In Kim Fu’s The Valley of Vengeful Ghosts, a woman is left unmoored by the passing of her cherished mother—and her final directive to purchase real estate. Weaving together the perspectives of multiple fascinating and endearing characters, Daniel Zomparelli’s Super Castle Fun Park explores our abiding need for connection, with both wit and melancholy. We Are Underlings by Doretta Lau is a wildly imaginative, absurdist dark comedy, set at the only theme park devoted to death, dying, and the afterlife. Moderated by Robert Wiersema.
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KIM FU is the author of the acclaimed, prize-winning novels For Today I Am a Boy and The Lost Girls of Camp Forevermore. Her most recent book, the story collection Lesser Known Monsters of the 21st Century, won the Washington State Book Award, the Pacific Northwest Book Award, and the Danuta Gleed Literary Award. Born in Calgary and raised in Vancouver, Fu now lives in Seattle, Washington.
DORETTA LAU started watching horror movies at age nine and sketch comedy at eleven. After that, there was nothing to do but become a writer. She is the author of the collection How Does a Single Blade of Grass Thank the Sun? and the novel We Are Underlings. Visit dorettalau.com.
The author of six books, including the novels Before I Wake, Bedtime Story, and Black Feathers, Robert J. Wiersema is also one of Canada's foremost literary reviewers, and teaches creative writing at Vancouver Island University. He lives in Victoria.
DANIEL ZOMPARELLI (he/him) is the author of the poetry books Jump Scare, Davie Street Translations, and Rom Com, co-written with Dina Del Bucchia (all published by Talonbooks). His story collection Everything Is Awful and You're a Terrible Person (Arsenal Pulp Press) was a finalist for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize and won the ReLit Short Fiction Award. He co-edited Queer Little Nightmares (Arsenal Pulp Press) with David Ly. Born and raised in Vancouver, he now lives in Glendale, CA.
