Finalist for the Libby Book Awards The Boston Globe , A Best Book of the Summer The Millions , A Most Anticipated Book of the Year Kirkus Reviews , A Best Book Club Fiction Book of the Year " Liquid Snakes is a strange, disorienting puzzle; a mocking eulogy; a bitter, self-lacerating exercise in what one character calls ''vivid ideation''; a long look into a sinkhole of grief. It twists in your hands and in your heart before biting down." --Noah Berlatsky, Los Angeles Times "Tangled and disentangled at once, Stephen Kearse''s Liquid Snakes is both a diabolical thriller and wicked political satire set in, and unleashed upon, Atlanta. It''s a swinging beaker-bubbler, for sure, so far out-of-the-ordinary that it tests the limits of comprehension, moving at such speed there''s hardly time to consider the cosmic amorality of its main player, a ''former chemist'' named Kenny Bomar, the book''s tragic fiend . Liquid Snakes [.] is a stratospheric bolt shot in the general direction of the James Webb Telescope. As a joker, he''s deadly serious, acquiring more than adequate command over the formulas necessary for his narrative purpose." --Jeff Calder, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "The best sci-fi allows us to see our own world through new, more awake eyes; it''s safe to say that Stephen Kearse understood the assignment.
" --Charley Burlock, Oprah Daily "In his new novel Liquid Snakes , Stephen Kearse turns this concept on its head, offering a bold speculative vision of a world reckoning with crises both personal and societal." --Tobias Carroll, Vol 1. Brooklyn "An immensely engaging read--clever and nimble in its narration, pointed in its critiques--with a chorus of interesting voices and arresting images." --Jake Caselle Brookins, Chicago Review of Books "In Liquid Snakes, Octavia Butler and Toni Morrison meet Stephen King for a jarring story of agency and autonomy in a world hell-bent on snuffing out both . It''s certainly a read that will lurk in the corners of your mind long after the book closes." --Jennette Holzworth, Southern Review of Books " Liquid Snakes is a compelling dystopian novel that rewards careful reading and uses the structure of a criminal investigation to channel righteous anger and explore weighty questions." --Molly Odintz, CrimeReads "An espresso-dark saga of retribution, addiction, hard science, racial justice, toxic death--and black coffee--plays itself out quirkily in and around contemporary Atlanta . Kearse''s enigmatic narrative [.
] deadpan tone and sudden eruptions of bizarre violence often evoke the allusive, baleful essences of J.G. Ballard''s grimly visionary speculative fiction but with wittier dialogue and robustly seasoned with a rapier-keen perception of the collective psyche and complex aspirations of the Black intelligentsia. A dry, devilish amalgam of science fiction, whodunit, horror, social satire, and cautionary tale." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred review) "A dazzling pharmacological thriller that dances on the knife''s edge of satire . Written with incisive wit and studded with references to Black popular culture [.] and troubling incidents from recent history, this entertains even as it deeply disturbs." -- Publishers Weekly "Stephen Kearse is a fearless writer who has created an endlessly entertaining cast of characters.
Liquid Snakes sits at the timely and unsettling intersection between public health and crime, and I was furious that it had to come to an end." --Kashana Cauley, author of The Survivalists "What if the communities poisoned by Big Chem turned their enemy into a weapon, wielding molecular magic for revenge--and maybe also liberation? Kearse takes this clever premise and, with his distinctive style and low-key humor, crafts a story that will grab hold of your brain and blow it to bits. Like nothing else I''ve read, in the best possible way." --Nicola Twilley, Co-host, Gastropod; co-author, Until Proven Safe: The History & Future of Quarantine "Who poisons who in Stephen Kearse''s inspired Liquid Snakes ? A slippery, satirical, quick-witted trip through the lives of misfits forced to find the line between clarity and revenge, annihilation and release--frequently hilarious, unexpectedly tender, and resolutely of our time." --Geoff Manaugh, New York Times -bestselling author of A Burglar''s Guide to the City (and/or Executive Producer, We Have A Ghost ) "Restless, searching, and totally gripping. Kearse has written a brilliant novel that manages to be, among other things, a pharmacological thriller and an incisive meditation on the poison-pen letter." --Hannah Gold, critic and author.