Shae
A Novel
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected May 21, 2024
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- $14.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From “a highest-order storyteller of Southern noir” (Electric Literature), a queer coming-of-age novel about addiction, belonging, and loving a place that doesn't always love you back.
When sixteen-year-old Shae meets Cam, who is new to their small town in West Virginia, she thinks she has found someone who is everything she has ever wanted in a companion. The two become fast friends, and then more. And when Shae ends up pregnant, Cam begins a different transition—trying on clothes that Shae can no longer fit into and using female pronouns. Shae tries to be fully supportive as Cam becomes the person she wants and needs to be.
After a traumatic C-section and the birth of their daughter, Eva, Shae is given opioids to manage the intense pain. During the first year of Eva’s life, Shae’s dependence shifts from pain management to addiction, and her days begin to revolve around getting more pills. In the heart of West Virginia, opioids are dispensed as freely as candy, and Shae is just one of many to fall victim to addiction. Meanwhile, as Cam continues to transition, she embraces new relationships and faces the reality of being a trans woman in rural America.
Shae is as much about these two young women as it is about the home they both love despite its limitations. Following the acclaimed Sugar Run and Perpetual West, this is Mesha Maren’s most intense and intimate novel yet.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A West Virginia girl descends into opioid addiction after giving birth and breaking up with her trans girlfriend in Maren's emotionally taut if thematically uneven latest (after Perpetual West). Shae, an introverted 16-year-old, is captivated by the new-to-town Cam, a misfit with piercings and long blond hair who is defiant even while being bullied by classmates. The pair bond over their love of punk rock, and Cam moves in with Shae and her mother. The teens start having sex, and Shae gets pregnant. Shortly before their daughter, Eva, is born, Cam, now the lead singer of a band, appears onstage in Shae's clothes and comes out as trans. Shae, hearing the news for the first time, is fearful of what Cam's transition will mean for their relationship. Then, after a botched C-section, her doctor prescribes OxyContin for the pain. Unable to finish school and working as a stripper to score pills and heroin, Shae blames herself as Cam pulls away and thrives at college. Maren beautifully evokes both the natural beauty of Appalachia and Shae's plaintive longing for Cam, though the characterization of the saintly Cam, who returns to take custody of Eva while still an undergrad, feels a bit flat. Still, Maren continues to show a knack for portraying the complexities and contradictions of an often-misunderstood part of America.