OKPsyche by Anya Johanna DeNiro is difficult to describe in the best possible way. If you want to be reductive, it's an evocative character study of an unnamed trans woman told in the second person, and she navigates the complexities of adulthood in the style of lyrical magical realism. The plot consists of the narrator moving into a new apartment after her ex-wife and son have moved away, navigating loneliness and self-doubt, new friendships and romantic relationships by seeking help from mysterious benefactors much like the Psyche of greek myth.

However, what I found the most meaningful about the story is how it made me feel, so I want to focus in that rather than narrative details. DeNiro captures the way people experience the world, drifting between what is physically happening and the memories, feelings and emotions this raises in her narrator. She seamlessly transitions between speaking with a delivery person and the ghost of her father, metaphor and literal, mythology and reality. It's bold, overwhelming, and extremely effective in invoking a feeling of precarity. I would recommend it. ( )

Every time I thought I was starting to get a handle on what was going on, OKPsyche insisted on getting a little stranger, which made it both a fascinating and frustrating reading experience. If you're looking for introspective queer/trans spec fic of a literary bent, I'd definitely recommend it.

A lovely and singular reading experience. The unnamed narrator, a trans woman recently separated from her family, navigates a dreamscape of near-future America. This is a time and place of juxtaposition: personal and political, intimate and broad-scale, magical and mundanely dystopian. The "outsourcing" of natural disasters to poor communities is one of the most creative indictments of the late capitalist gig economy I've seen. While the storytelling was a bit uneven in places, it's to DeNiro's credit as a writer that she brings together such disparate strands into a largely cohesive and satisfying novel. ( )

A dream-like and disjointed story that at times left me wondering what parts were real and what was only in the main character's mind, never the less, very emotionally grounded and poignant.
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A short novel with a lot of heart. This reminded me of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five in which Billy Pilgrim was unstuck in time. Here, the unnamed protagonist, a trans woman, wants to feel connection- to time and space, to other people, and to her son through an ex-wife. Time and space blurs. Past traumas and future anxieties manifest in the present. Through these manifestations, the MC slowly becomes more connected to reality, whatever that is, however painful or challenging it is, and realizes that she doesn’t need others to protect her or save her. She can do that for herself.
The speculative fiction elements here really worked for me. Even when I was questioning what was real, this feeling was balanced well with the character’s real-world interactions with her son and mother in some quite moving scenes. There was a point about 1/3 through where I was worried things wouldn’t be tied up in the end, but I was happy with the outcome.
Finally, the tie-in with mythology was creative and, I felt, cleverly done. Overall, this was a solid read which I’ll be recommending. ( )