Today, we have a set of books that wonderfully take liberties with reality, utilizing Fiction to create brighter, more imaginative worlds that beguile us and fascinate. These novels are reminders of how reality-bending can entertain and ‘educate’ in equal measure—three are especially appropriate on this Women’s Month.

"Please Report Your Bug Here" by Josh Reidel

Big tech and a sinister dating/hookup app, DateDate, are what lie at the center of this imaginative, cautionary, coming of age debut novel from Reidel. His protagonist, Ethan Block, is one of the first employees at this start-up app, and it’s through his eyes that the action unfolds. Recovering from a break-up, Ethan bypasses some the app’s protocols and experiences a short, disturbing episode of existing in an alternative reality. The nagging question is whether what he experienced is real, and the disturbing news is that it’s a shared one that others have stumbled on. When the app gets bought by The Corporation, we’re given a glimpse of what life in Big Tech is like. Life in a Big Tech company takes up the middle portion of the story, while Ethan continues to investigate, on his own time, what is behind the bug/blip that he experienced. It soon becomes clear how one of the themes of the novel is how in gobbling up new tech, big corporations often get away with experimenting with this new tech on an unsuspecting public, without much regard for safety or user control. As long as it’s part and parcel of finding out whether the new tech is popular and can be monetized, other concerns fall by the wayside. A side trip to Tokyo to meet another early user who experienced the bug allows Reidel to riff on the film, Lost In Translation—an obvious favorite of his.

"Mr. Breakfast" by Jonathan Carroll

Carroll has long been regarded as one of the masters of modern magical realism. While magical realism at the outset was considered the domain of South American writers, it’s novelists from the West such as Carroll who assimilated the concept and firmly planted it in American and European settings. Here in this latest, our protagonist is failed East Coast stand-up comedian Graham Patterson. In a fit of despair after bombing yet again, he hangs up his comedian ambitions and goes on a road trip to reconnect with his brother in California, and possibly work for him. Along the way, he drops by a tattoo parlor in North Carolina and picks out a tattoo that has unique magical powers. Thanks to the tattoo, Patterson is able to ‘visit’ two other possible life versions of Graham; and given the chance to now choose which version of three will now be the life he’ll lead. In a parallel manner, there are characters that the other Graham encounters, who likewise availed of the tattoo and are now exploring these same options. It’s to Carroll’s credit that as he makes these multiple lives intersect, we do suspend disbelief and sign on for the illogical logic and consistency that Carroll’s plot line reveals. Ultimately, the novel is about identity, about choices, and about the consequences of those choices. They run the gamut from being happy with what you have, to finding that what seems a better life, actually has more dire circumstances waiting in the wings. Smart, ruminative novel.

"Drunk On All Your Strange New Words" by Eddie Robson

Our main character is Lydia, who hails from Halifax, England; but in this near-future setting, found she had the gifts to be a translator when extra-terrestrials arrive from a distant Logi planet. She’s assigned to translate for the Logi cultural attaché, Fitz. This means working in Manhattan and accompanying Fitz as his does his rounds of the ‘human’ cultural scene. As described by Robson, the translating is very much like reading minds, or even having your mind occupied by the extra terrestrial, and long periods of translating leave the translator feeling stoned or punch-drunk. It’s against this background that we’re treated to the SciFi adventure/crime story. The crime is the locked-room mysterious death of Fitz, and how even after his demise, it would seem that some residue of Fitz remains, exhorting Lydia to find out who murdered him, and bring them to justice. That the other Logi attached to the Embassy don’t trust Lydia, and may even suspect her of being complicit in the death of Fitz, only complicate matters. Plus it doesn’t help that all the surveillance footage of the fateful night has been erased, and Lydia herself was ‘stoned’ that night and doesn’t remember a thing. All she does know is that Fitz was kind to her, even once saved her life during a theater performance, and she can’t believe in her heart that she would have done anything to harm Fitz. Well written story that hooks you in, and has us investing in the characters.

"The Bandit Queens" by Parini Shroff

Set in rural India, this dark comedy of a novel knows how to be entertaining and humorous, while being deadly serious about major issues facing women in India today. The caste system, male dominance, a woman’s still inferior identity and role in the countryside, these all come under scrutiny in the course of the novel, but it’s done in an engaged manner via memorable characters and narrative development. Geeta is our main protagonist, and her husband walked out on her years ago. But as nothing at all has been heard from him in those years, the village fake news and gossip ring would have us believe that Geeta is a ‘self-made’ widow. As a result, she’s seen as someone formidable and even dangerous. This is, as Geeta discovers, a double-edged sword. Villagers may be fearful of refusing to buy her jewelry, men don’t come bothering her with dates or proposals; but she also has women seeking her advice, thinking they need to follow in her footsteps. Farah is one such girl, as she’s constantly being beaten by her drunk husband. What Greeta doesn’t realize is how Farah’s apparent simplicity masks a devious mind, and Greeta is soon regretting the association with, and assistance she offers, the woman. Then there’s Saloni, a childhood friend who deserted her when Geeta married Ramesh. There’s a soap opera element to this smartly plotted novel, and how Shroff keeps us invested in her colorful characters. Well  worth seeking out.

"The Book Eaters" by Sunyi Dean

Imagine a tribe of people living in the present-day Yorkshire moors, who for some reason, possess bookteeth (a cute play on buck teeth), and when eating books, absorb the contents as a manner of education and growing up. The men are fed a constant diet of adventure and travel books, while the women are relegated to fairy tales and romance novels. When punished, the children are fed pages of dictionaries. Devon is a book eater woman on the run with her son Cai, when we first meet the pair. Unlike the others in his tribe, Cai doesn’t eat books, but instead has an appetite for, and devours the minds of humans. It’s only a pill called Redemption that can placate Cai’s hunger, and the pill is produced by an outlaw line of the book eater Families, the Ravenscars. In a nutshell, that’s the set-up for this wonderful fantasy novel from Dean. Alternating chapters show us Devon on the run, and Devon as a child herself and as a young woman who’s told that procreation is their only purpose in life, as their numbers are dwindling. In Handmaid’s Tale-style, women are made to procreate with different men from different tribes, leaving the children to fend for themselves after a weaning period. The novel quickly becomes an adventure, great escape story, as mother and son try to escape the clutches of Devon’s brother, a "knight" who’s trying to keep the hierarchy order alive, if only for their benefit. There’s brother against sister, mother protecting her son at all costs, even if he is a "monster," and there’s survival in a fantasy world that’s strongly evoked.