Many thanks to Angry Robot Books for providing an ARC for review!
Different doesn’t mean worse.
– excerpt from Al Hess’ Key Lime Sky
Denver PIES. A lot. Xe loves pie. Xe knows pie. Xe reviews pie. It’s an everyday part of xir life: eating pie, critiquing pie, talking about pie, and offering unabashed and unasked for opinions of pie. Xir safe space is xir blog, where, you guessed it, xe writes about pie. And also, maybe talks about aliens, a long-lost childhood fascination of xir, when a UFO explodes over town as xe’s heading back home from a particularly bad pie tasting.
The weird thing? No one in town seems to remember the explosion of neon green and magenta light. They don’t notice the static of the radio, an all-encompassing buzz. They don’t notice that the internet has gone out, or that the TVs have lost their signal, words ping-ponging across screens in blank despair. It’s eerie and deeply unsettling, Denver a phantom ghost floating through an unaware town, xir questions dismissed, unheard, and only reaffirming xir sense of loneliness and isolation. They all write the event – and Denver’s questions – off as another one of Professor Pie’s strange quirks. The continued dismissal is grating on xir already frayed, overstimulated nerves, and Denver turns to the only real safe space xe has to document the strange event: xir blog. Just an addendum to a blunt review of an unsatisfactory cherry pie to vent and document the strange experience.
Anything that came out of my mouth was discarded or played down. I was just Professor Pie, and everyone in town would prefer that I kept my opinions to myself and went back to my apartment where no one could see me.
– excerpt from Al Hess’ Key Lime Sky
Instead of falling into obscurity, mention of the UFO encounter rockets xir ailing blog back into viral territory, generating much needed revenue. It’s reinvigorating and overwhelming to be seen, to be accepted, to be heard, and that sense of belonging urges Denver into an all-out investigation. What starts as an impromptu Q&A as Denver wanders around town, thrown off by the presence of strange hail-pebbles that xe was convinced xe dreamed overnight, turns into the start of a romantic relationship when Ezra Gómez Miramontes, a new-to-town bartender, invites Denver over to look at the alien hailstones under a microscope while they eat xir favorite pie and talk about aliens and conspiracy theories.
What unfolds thereafter is wholesome and charged with tension – surreal, sexual, and suspenseful – as the duo navigate highs and lows, with incredible attention to detail. Charming, witty banter goes hand-in-hand with acceptance, with Hess highlighting the reality of neurodivergence for many. Denver experiences intense sensory overload and on-the-page autistic meltdowns but is written with an incredible sense of compassion and care. As a fellow neurodivergent, it was so nice to feel seen on the page – in the harsh clatter of dishes in a diner; in the never-ending, incessant thoughts that just won’t stop; in feeling too much, thinking too much, hearing too much – aided by the fact Hess writes with incredible attention to detail, bringing the visual and sensory to life. Sights, sounds, smells, textures – all are laid bare on the page with open honesty and impeccable detail, and the result is an amalgamation of Denver’s life. From delicious, unheard of pies that made me question if, perhaps, I dislike pie not because of textual issues, but simply because I haven’t found the right one yet, to viscous body horror, there’s never any doubt about what Denver is experiencing as reality slowly falls apart in the wake of the UFO sighting.
Denver is observant, blunt, opinionated, and incredibly determined, which makes xem the perfect candidate for a surreal exploration of the unknown, but xe’s also deeply insecure and lonely and sincere. Xe wants, desperately, to belong, but is often plagued by feelings of frustration and self-doubt, filled with the need to explain, to apologize, to reign in xir questions and answers and everything that makes xem unique. Slowly but surely, Ezra’s patience and acceptance help Denver to realize that xe does belong. As the two joke over government coverups and space hermit crabs over bourbon pecan pie topped with whipped cream, a sense of calm temporarily blots out the anxious unease and fear building just below the surface, ebbing and flowing as the novel progresses into a surreal landscape of looping highway markers, orange sandstorms, distorted photographs, and buildings turned inside out as the quest to discover what is happening in Muddy Gap, Wyoming unfolds.
White shells littered the ground, and I imagined them as my contacts saw them, as empty, undefined holes swallowing the driveway and sidewalk. Dark matter. Negative energy. Someone existing partially in another dimension. What if an instant photo could see through the hole to the other side, at something so unfathomable you’d lose your mind simply by looking at it.
– excerpt from Al Hess’ Key Lime Sky
Through it all, Ezra, gentle, patient, and understanding, becomes a safe space. His charming gestures and hopelessly romantic tendencies add an element of sweet acceptance to the narrative, which is littered with small love letters to Denver: in hand-picked flowers and tentative apologies, sharpied tattoos and rumpled sheets, comfort movies and colorful cat bandaids. As the world falls apart around them, Ezra and Denver embark on a passionate journey of comfort and acceptance. It’s subtle, tender, and impossibly wholesome, with Ezra being the first of many to outwardly express support in Denver’s ability to solve the puzzle that is the invasion of Muddy Gap.
We were kissing like the world was ending. Because it was.
– excerpt from Al Hess’ Key Lime Sky
What unfolds is a cozy sci-fi adventure, wherein a band of unlikely misfits conquer the alien apocalypse, all while finding acceptance and embracing their own identity amidst a backdrop of speculation that builds until it bursts in an eerie, unsettling wave of vibrant color, bringing with it a new beginning. Unabashed in its exploration of neurodiversity and tender in its exploration of romance and found family, Key Lime Sky is nothing short of delightful, combining surrealism with wit, and adding in a dash of eldritch horror in an unforgettable adventure fueled by tangerine nightmares, key lime skies, and hazy, iridescent photographs.
I stared at the unsettling sky, the two of us still tiny neon tetras in a huge tank.
– excerpt from Al Hess’ Key Lime Sky
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