Read & reviewed by Rowena (Team member); I enjoyed Kirsten's new novel, set in Wellington with main character Alice and her imaginary friend, Simp - nagivating the climate crisis, in a mainly avoidance, somewhat curious mind set until she is dragged into the fight by a high spirited, dangerous teenager - an excellant mix of human relationships & emotions.
The world's climate is in crisis and New Zealand is being divided and reshaped by privileged immigrant wealthugees.
Thirty-something Alice has a near-genius IQ and lives at home with her mother with whom she communicates by Morse code. Alice's imaginary friend, Simp, has shown up, with a running commentary on her failings. 'I mean, can you even calculate the square root of 762 anymore?' The last time Simp was here was when Alice was seven, on the night a fire burned down the family home. Now Simp seems to be plotting something.
When Alice meets a wealthugee named Pablo, she thinks she's found a way out of her dull existence. But then she meets Pablo's teenage daughter, Erika an actual genius full of terrifying ambition. She's a Killer is the story of a brilliant and stubborn slacker who is drawn into radical action. It's about what happens when we refuse to face our most demanding problems, told by a woman who is a strange and calculating force of chaos.
Kirsten McDougall's previous novels are Tess (2017), longlisted for the Ockham NZ Book Awards, and shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award, and The Invisible Rider (2012). Her stories and nonfiction have appeared in Landfall, Sport and Tell You What: Great New Zealand Non-fiction 2016, and her story 'Walking Day' won the 2021 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition.
She was the recipient of the 2013 Creative New Zealand Louis Johnson New Writer's Bursary, and a Michael King Writers Centre residency in 2019. She lives in Wellington.
Fiction: general and literary
Paperback
Kirsten McDougall