“You are one in a million.” Vera would say that would mean that there is, roughly speaking, a 0.0001% chance of being that one, meaning that unless you were one of roughly 8,000, chances are you weren’t all that special.
Vera is a statistician who is celebrating the publication of her book, when the unthinkable happens - an event where 8 million people suddenly die in horrible and less-than-likely ways (including a chimpanzee with a typewriter wearing a Shakespearean collar). Everything she has ever known with certainty suddenly evaporates. Her mother dies in front of her, and she assumes that her girlfriend is also dead (and in her grief and shock, she doesn’t even look for her). When an agent for the Low-Probability Event Commission shows up at her door offering her potential answers, she has to make a decision - is life worth living? Can she and Agent Layne find the true source of the Low-Probability Events before it is too late?
Good news, buckaroos. It’s your Lucky Day by Chuck Tingle.
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| Images courtesy of Reactor Magazine’s interview, located here. |
This book hit me like a sucker punch in the beginning, when Vera’s mother tells her that she can’t possibly be bisexual, since such a thing doesn’t exist. Bi-erasure has always been an issue in the queer community, and frankly, even more so outside of it (especially if you are monogamous). Relationship dynamics aside, it’s the existential crisis of epic proportions when everything that was considered immutable becomes chaos. We, as humans, are always looking for the why of the world, and Vera’s version of it is in numbers which have suddenly betrayed her in the worst way.
More than this, Vera’s reaction to her own grief makes sense. Her mother’s words before her trauma-inducing death ring even truer because they happen before she is gone. Vera shouldn’t exist, doesn’t exist, and so she shuts herself away, even from her partner, because she can’t handle the very real possibility that she is gone. Finding a new purpose, and maybe finishing up what she started when she started investigating a casino who might be tied to the LPE.
Another aspect of this is the overreach of the government commission represented by Agent Layne - he treats the position very seriously, but his methods are a severe overreach of a police state, even more so than what Homeland Security got us. It’s very reminiscent of the way government is starting to overreach, with little care to the lives or livelihoods of anyone who might get in the way. He acts impulsively in a lot of ways in his personal life, but in his professional one he is far more rigid in his thinking. It’s terrifying to see what one man with power can do - especially when he has access to military forces and government funding (this isn’t necessarily talking about Agent Layne, but you get the point.)
As with Chuck Tingle’s two other “mainstream” horror novels, I devoured this one quickly. The writing is ingenious, the sly tongue-in-cheek humor and references to his other books delightful, and the way he addresses issues like mental health in queer people is insightful. Because of a random reference, I purchased his first novella Straight to fill in the final gap in his non-erotica offerings.
Chuck Tingle is currently finishing up his book tour for the release of Lucky Day, which can be purchased at your local bookstore! Please support your smaller book sellers, especially those who continue to sell books that are LGBTQIA+.
Remember, buckaroos: love is real.
Also remember, when the chips are down and your hands are tied*, I shall be here with another suggestion, should you need it.
*Reference to the song “Dreaming of You” by The Coral.
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