Overview

Set in the margins of Pittsburgh in the early aughts, Luckmonkey barrels into the defiant lives of social outsiders working to change the world

By day, Luckmonkey is a struggling punk band playing in record stores and taco joints; by night, its members are anti-capitalist agitators, breaking into homes and businesses, each time stealing one possession and leaving something different in its place. Squatting in an abandoned building without electricity or heat, they scrounge a patched-together life as a raucous, mismatched family of queer, trans and first-gen social activists. But when one of them steals a wind-up monkey toy and brings it home, things begin to deteriorate into squabbles and bad decisions, until an arrest forces the group to weigh the hard work of political resistance against their individual needs for stability and safety.

Reviews

"[STARRED REVIEW] Aching beauty on page after page… nothing like any genre offering this season." —Publishers Weekly regarding SWEET (FIVE STARS)  "A fabulous, luscious story that invokes a magical, yesteryear world. Filled with larger-than-life characters, this mesmerizing novel is a must."—Foreword Reviews regarding OLYMPIA KNIFE Foreword INDIES Awards Honorable Mention: SWEET

"This book is a slow burn, and the ideas being explored are profound without a hint of pretention. It may be a challenging read for young adult readers, though they may relate deeply to some of these characters in a way that adult readers may not." —Nadia M Sahi, ALA Rainbow Roundtable

Author Biography

Alysia Constantine is a critically acclaimed author whose novels blur the line between reality and fantasy, feature luscious prose, and explore complex themes of otherness.