Pretend It's My Body

Born of the author's experience in and between genders, this debut collection blurs fantasy and reality, excavating new meanings from our varied dysphorias.

In the vein of Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, and Daniel Lavery, these ten short stories squirm between the lives we wish for and the ones we actually lead. A tornado survivor grapples with a new identity, a trans teen psychic can only read indecisive minds, and a woman informs her family of her plans to upload her consciousness and abandon her body. Ranging from con artists, runaways, and lost souls returning home, Luke Dani Blue's cast of characters insist upon forging their own realities.

Surreal, darkly humorous, and always tender, Pretend It's My Body is bound together by the act of searching—for a story of one's own, for a glimpse of certainty, and for a spark of recognition and human connection.