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APRICOT EYES - novella - ebook
Genres: LGBTQ+, Literary Fiction, Magical Realism
Age Groups: 18+
Formats: Ebook, Audio
https://www.rohanquine.com/apricot-eyes
In "Apricot Eyes" by Rohan Quine, a cat-and-mouse pursuit through the New York City night involves a preacher, a psychic and a dominatrix, broadcast live on air—until a horror is unearthed, bringing two of them together and the third to a sticky end. Beneath a waterfront waste ground in the Bronx, a monstrous population is being fattened up, by the preacher, for malign purposes. Jaymi and Scorpio are on his tracks, however, in a blast of fun that trumpets boldness, tolerance and voltage, celebrating the mystery and dangers furled just behind the surface of the everyday. A Distinguished Favorite in the NYC Big Book Award 2021.
Having partially regained a power of second sight that he'd once possessed but lost, Jaymi Peek uses this ability in a live weekly television show online, where he channels onto the screen those unexpected places, hidden colours and hatching plans that he can perceive throughout New York City. He applies this sight to the task of relocating his old friend Scorpio, who has gone missing, but succeeds in catching only a glimpse of him in some unidentified corner of the city's underbelly.
Across a subway station, Jaymi notices an unwelcome visitor from his and Scorpio's past—Kev Banton, who has now become a prominent evangelical preacher intent upon a moral cleansing of the population. Jaymi tails Kev discreetly through the subway, and is surprised when Kev's journey ends at a waterfront waste ground in an industrial corner of the Bronx, where Kev slips out of sight amid an odd hum of underground engines...
The monstrous population beneath this waste ground, and the malign purposes for which the preacher and his wife have been feeding it, are revealed in the course of a triangular cat-and-mouse pursuit involving Jaymi, Scorpio and the preacher. This unfolds in Scorpio's physical pursuit of Kev through the crackle and night-pulse of the streets, from Times Square to the marginalised fringes of the city; in Jaymi's psychic pursuit of Scorpio, whether streaking up high through the skyscrapers' shine or secreted on a tanker as it rattles through the Bronx; and on screen, in the colourised shimmer of what Jaymi broadcasts live.
In its rollicking journey through these hidden planes of New York, to the simplicity and sensuality of its ending, "Apricot Eyes" is a blast of fun that trumpets boldness, tolerance and voltage, celebrating the mystery and dangers furled just behind the surface of the everyday.
REVIEWS:
https://www.rohanquine.com/press-media/the-novellas-reviews-media
VIDEO-BOOK:
https://www.rohanquine.com/a-e-video-book
and
https://www.rohanquine.com/a-e-video-book/short-teasers-for-apricot-eyes-video-book
BUY:
https://www.rohanquine.com/buy/apricot-eyes-novella-ebook
and
https://www.rohanquine.com/buy/the-platinum-raven-and-other-novellas-paperback
and
https://www.rohanquine.com/buy/apricot-eyes-novella-audiobook
Rohan Quine, Apricot Eyes, literary fiction, litfic, magical realism, horror, dark fantasy, cyberpunk, contemporary, science fiction, gay, transgender, LGBT, New York, Bronx, Hunts Point, Meat Packing District, broadcast, worms, poison, city, evangelist
Reviews
Iris Murdoch
I have now been reading "Hallucinations" with great pleasure [...] you are indeed a star.
[This endorsement appears in a letter from Iris Murdoch to Rohan Quine, a scan of which appears at Quine's website at the link below. ("Hallucinations", published in print in the US only, was the previous title of this publication "The Platinum Raven and other novellas"; it contained somewhat earlier versions of "Apricot Eyes", "Hallucination in Hong Kong" and a few chapters of "The Platinum Raven".)]
Dan Holloway
Rohan Quine is one of the most brilliant and original writers around. His "The Imagination Thief" blended written and spoken word and visuals to create one of the most haunting and complex explorations of the dark corners of the soul you will ever read. Never one to do something simple when something more complex can build up the layers more beautifully, he is back with a collection of 4 seamlessly interwoven novellas. [...] suffice to say he is the consummate master of sentencecraft. His prose is a warming sea on which to float and luxuriate. But that is only half of the picture. He has a remarkable insight into the human psyche, and he demonstrates it by lacquering layer on layer of subtle observation and nuance. Allow yourself to slip from the slick surface of the water and you will soon find yourself tangled in a very deep and disturbing world, but the dangers that lurk beneath the surface are so enticing, so intoxicating it is impossible to resist their call.
Suzi Rapport, Amazon
Characters who prance their way into my New York dreamscape like mischievous guests.
Throughout a nocturnal New York City, unseen charges of emotion and ambition flicker. Quine’s verbal sensuality combines the disturbing and the alluring in equal measure. Drawn into the danger of it, I was seduced by the dark "elfishness" of this story and its characters, who pranced their way into my New York dreamscape like mischievous guests.
Awards
New York City Big Book Award -- Distinguished Favorite, Anthology category
Nov 30th, -0001