Luckmonkey

by Alysia Constantine

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.

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

Genres: LGBT, Contemporary, Queer, Adult

208 pages, Paperback

First published March 9, 2021

About the author

Alysia Constantine lives in the Lower Hudson Valley of New York with her wife, two dogs and a cat. She is the author of the novels SWEET and OLYMPIA KNIFE (coming November 2, 2017).

In another life, Alysia was a professor at an art college in NYC. In a life before that, she was a baker/cook for a baker/caterer. In a life even before that, she was a miserable gay teen studying to be a concert violinist, and before that, she was Joan of Arc (though there’s no evidence for that).

Reviews

[Althea]

DNF @ 20%

I always feel so bad DNFing books (particularly ARCs and those that are counting towards my Goodreads goal), but I particularly feel bad about DNFing this one, because it has some really important points to raise on cis-centred spaces, capitalism and homelessness. I've been looking forward to reading this book for a while because an anti-capitalist queer, trans band...yes please, and when I first started reading I was really enjoying Alysia Constantine's witty prose, however I did have some problems that I couldn't look past and ultimately had to put the book down. First off is the constant misgendering of one of the main characters by people who are supposed to be their found family. It wasn't even innocent mistakes, it was purposeful misgendering to hurt their feelings. I also felt that the representation of several different races and ethnicities was really quite heavy-handed at best, and I can only hope that this was changed in the final copy.

Thanks to Netgalley and Interlude Press for an eARC in return for an honest review!

[Alysia Constantine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Right up front let me say that I'm the author of LUCKMONKEY, and it is my favorite of the three books I've written. It reflects the experiences--both in young adulthood and now--of me (as a queer, first generation woman who lived for a decade in Pittsburgh); my partner (who is genderqueer/ gender nonconforming); and many of our friends and found family (who are, variously, trans, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, first generation and queer). I'd like to be clear that this is NOT a YA book, though younger readers can certainly read it and, I hope, connect with the story. It is literary fiction written by an adult with adult readers in mind. YA requires a special voice and, at an age well past my thirties, I'm just too far away from my youth to write it sensitively and feel confident I'm doing it justice. (For great queer YA, I can suggest, off the bat, Julian Winters... and many more authors, if you write to me to ask for suggestions!)

Thank you for reading this book, for supporting queer authors and for loving stories about and for queer folks!

--Alysia Constantine

[Gillian]

Hearing that this was a story about queer found family, with many characters of colour, had me super excited for this book. Unfortunately, I ended up DNF'ing this book at 41%. I loved the concept of this story and the synopsis sounded right up my alley, but it just wasn't my cup of tea.

Although the writing style was fine, I found myself confused most of the time. I didn't really know what was going on or what the "point" of what they were doing was. I think I would have enjoyed it much more if we had more background and a greater understanding of who each character was.

What was especially confusing to me was that it was never explained how a bunch of teenagers managed to break into all of these rich people's homes. Since this was a major part of the story, it seemed too convenient that we never saw any struggle or explanation surrounding this. Similarly with the monkey itself: it was supposed to be an important part of the story, but it kind of just appeared in a mundane way that-- had I not read the synopsis-- I wouldn't have really noticed.

I have to say my least favourite part of this book is how most of the characters were unlikeable. Many were annoying and rude, and the only character I really liked was T. The most disappointing part was how much misgendering and transphobia T endured from their "friends". For a book that I was expecting to be very queer, it felt like it was mostly just about trans suffering. The characters were not only cissexist in their attitudes, but outright and purposefully cruel. I know it was to make a point and to show cis people's ignorance, but it was awful to read over and over again. It was for this reason that I couldn't continue.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Lulu Loves · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful book with beautiful prose. This is not a book for younger readers or readers seeking a YA novel. As a genderqueer person, I am familiar with the fear and frustration of people who are anti-TGNC/NB (Trans, gender nonconforming/nonbinary) and/or those who say all of the wrong things when they try to be supportive, but fail. This book addresses the difficult issues the trans* population faces such as dysphoria and misgendering, which may be difficult for some younger audiences. Luckmonkey's characters who befriend each other, who are queer, POC, and first gen American, show how we find loving relationships and how chosen family is formed when biological family may not be able to love us for who we love and who we are.

[Nadia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a challenging little read for me, but well worth the effort for what I got out of it, and it checks so many of the boxes that I'm looking for when I'm looking to read and love something: queer characters, brown characters, life observations, a bit of existentialism, an ending that doesn't make me think the author was just done writing about these character and gave them what they needed to get out of her hair. The characters are complex, diverse, and so credibly crafted that I wonder at their inspirations.

Although I believe so few of the things these characters believe in terms of their worldview and philosophies, I empathized with their adherence to their credo, and found their points of view to be absolutely valid despite my differences in opinion. You should know that it is a slow burn to getting a sense of what their purpose really is, and what their philosophy entails, so if you have no idea what's going on in the beginning, I think that's intentional.

The dynamics of the initial group were both complicated and almost instantly readable, in a way that you can happen upon a bunch of people together and know which two people are tight, who might be a little in love with who, who the dominant personality is and what other people may think about that as they react to them. So too did you walk into where these characters were squatting and just understand the baseline dynamic, which made watching as those dynamics shifted very compelling.

This one will have to sit with me a while before I've sussed out exactly how I feel about it, but my initial reaction is that this book is going to be Loved, entirely, by some people, and not understood at all by others. I don't know that I loved it, but I will be thinking of T and Bert and Twee and Kohl for some time.

Formal Review at https://www.glbtrt.ala.org/reviews/bo...

[abi · Rating 1 out of 5]

it's one thing to have a book be really dry, it's another to have a character constantly misgendered by members of their found family

[Kori · Rating 4 out of 5]

As the number of books with trans/gender diverse protagonists of color remain few and far between, I was excited to come across Luckmonkey. Overall, I found this book to be moving and thought-provoking and its characters memorable and nuanced, particularly as the book progresses. The author doesn’t shy away from portraying different manifestations of transphobia as experienced by the protagonist, T, which made for a more realistic and meaningful (if at times painfully familiar) novel to me as a trans reader, though not one sharing all of T’s specific identities. I also appreciated the multifaceted portrayal of T’s experiences with chosen family as such relationships are often depicted in books and films as lacking dimension and unplagued by transphobia, racism, etc. In addition, Luckmonkey raises some interesting questions about ideology, activism, and group dynamics (which are vividly rendered).

[Maisie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you to Interlude Press for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of Luckmonkey through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

Luckmonkey is definitely best described as literary fiction - I would struggle to pin it down into a genre, and it's more driven by themes and characters than plot.

Although Luckmonkey is quite a challenging read in terms of themes and content, many of the themes and questions raised are important: do our political statements make a difference? At what point does theft become harmful? Where can homeless/vulnerably housed trans and nonbinary people sleep, when shelters are set up as "single-sex" spaces for cis people?

I have to admit, when I finished this book I really wasn't sure how I felt about it. There were parts which I enjoyed and I was motivated enough to read it in just a few sittings. There are some quite funny moments, some touching moments, some character development. The characters are flawed, but most of them have aspects which still make you hope for the best for them. At the same time, parts of this book felt disjointed, with things happening without much reason and then getting quickly forgotten about, and unclear pacing. I think part of that chaos was appropriate of the situation the characters were in, with them living in day-to-day survival mode, but it still felt quite unsatisfying to me. Some of the characters were set up to be important, but weren't developed much and then disappeared. I'm also unsire how I feel about the ending.

Overall, I wouldn't say that this book was a waste of time, but it was a little disappointing for me.

Content warnings: misgendering, homophobia, transphobia, racism, police, disordered eating, homelessness, drug use, injury, blood, guns

[Sophia · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you enjoy Alysia Constantine’s work, you’ve likely come to expect a unique, compelling plot wrapped in poetic and insightful prose; Luckmonkey doesn’t disappoint. The novel centers around a group of outsider, nonconforming friends who’ve joined forces in the common pursuits of comfort, meaning, and purpose. Often at odds with their conflicting definitions and notions about what these objectives might look like or how to go about securing them, relationships are tested and witty banter ensues. Throughout the course of the novel, Constantine also follows more serious threads, such as struggles around identity and who gets to be the definer and who is the one defined - which, despite (likely) being set in decades past, are still sadly relevant challenges today. For those who are always othered, it’s easy to put up walls and defenses; it’s easy and inevitable to end up lonely and alone; this novel offers a sympathetic and hopeful alternative to that.

[Charlotte · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this wasn't the book for me! I'm sure there's an audience for it though. I had some trouble connecting to the characters It's a big cast for a writer to manage... and the author does it relatively well, I found I just didn't connect with their stories.

I absolutely appreciate that the issues in this book need to be written about... and it left many questions in my mind. I think, in particular, I was touched by the fact that the characters are unhomed... and this raises a lot of questions about their safety, about cis-spaces being the predominant ones in our society, and about ownership of things and places - and at what point "stealing" or "liberating" is okay.

This is definitely an adult read... I'm sure there's a large audience for this book!

[TBW · Rating 5 out of 5]

Alysia Constantine shows the breadth and depth of her considerable writing ability in Luckmonkey, a novel of found and lost and found friendships which takes place in Pittsburgh in the early 2000s. Constantine captures the era beautifully and subtly (I'm old enough to remember). Diverse and interesting young people squat in an abandoned building, developing relationships and tensions, beliefs and practicalities. People come and go, their lives develop and their bonds solidify. Make sure to read the whole thing, as the novel is replete with appealing turns.

[ghost-hermione · Rating 3 out of 5]

I received a free advanced reader's copy in exchange for an honest review.

TWs for the book: transphobia, misgendering, arrest and police violence, disordered eating.

So I mostly got this book for the cover, without paying much attention to the summary. It's just so lush and I'm a sucker for anything Art Nouveau, so I had to know what this was all about... The cover's not really representative at all of the mood of the novel though.

I had a hard time getting into it, the first third to first half was just really dreary, and I had trouble sticking with the protagonists. T, the main character, was really enjoyable and relatable, but I just thought T's "friends" were all assholes and they weren't really well-rounded characters. Once two of them leave their little band, though, it became more interesting.

The politics were kind of annoying because these kids are homeless and living in a squat, some of them on principle, and I had trouble getting behind all their so called "changing the world" because it was clearly risky and useless, and I had trouble relating that to real-life homeless people I know, who'd not turn their nose up at a cup of coffee because "they don't deserve it". I did appreciate that the characters called themselves out on their hypocrisy, however.

I especially liked the last third or so of the book. I was afraid at times that the ending would be absolutely miserable, because it looked like it was going that way, but without spoiling too much, it wasn't. This lovely old lady character gets introduced and she's a little beam of sunlight that really made reading the book worth it. I'd read an entire novel about Bert.

The novel also ends on an uncertainty, which I did not really like. I wish the author had taken a few more pages, maybe an epilogue of some kind, to tell us more about what happens to the characters after. But it was still a nice read, even if it's not my usual kind of stuff.

[Laura Stone · Rating 5 out of 5]

Had the pleasure of watching this book develop into the challenging, beautiful, thoughtful read it has become. Luckmonkey Explores themes of being an outsider who wants not to fit in but to have their own space, a space inclusive of being brown, trans, queer, non-Christian, non-capitalist, non-conforming in all the ways. It explores the difficulty of just trying to exist when Other.

An unflinching look at what life is like when you don't tick all the boxes, written in Constantine's gorgeous, spare (and somehow still poetic and lush?) style, I could spend another 100 pages with T. (And o! Bert! Life goals, tbh.)

Not for casual readers or those who want things tied up in a neat bow, this is for those readers who want to sit with complex characters and the thoughts their difficult situations being up and do some self-reflection. (Or for those older Xennials/Gen Xers who will absolutely see themselves and their experiences on the page.)