Description:
Set in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the 1990s and early 2000s, Neon Steel is acclaimed writer Jennifer Maritza McCauley's love letter to millennial nerd culture. Anime fans, vampires, indie rappers, robots, comic book fans, and thrill seekers find their way through the Steel City's neighborhoods and haunts. A young girl discovers an underground world of Afro Otaku who change the way she sees the city; a high school student discovers a kindred spirit in a Bomba girl; The Terminator (1984) is reimagined as a josei story featuring a purple loc'd robot; and a secret coven of vampires who hide out in Pittsburgh steel mills risk being discovered after they lose one of their own. Magical realist and neon-lit, Neon Steel faithfully follows a group of nerds and the magic that excites them, bringing to life a city and a state of being.
Brief description: Jennifer Maritza McCauley is the acclaimed author of When Trying to Return Home (2023), which was a New York Times Editors' Choice, Best Fiction Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews, and a Must-Read by Elle, Latinx in Publishing, Ms. Magazine, and Southern Review of Books. A former National Endowment for the Arts fellow, she is an assistant professor of English at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Review Quotes:
"These linked stories are valentines to Black culture, Blerds (Black nerds), and Pittsburgh. . . . McCauley is deeply interested in the intersections of Black and Asian culture, and it's delightful to see a collection explore this under-illuminated space. . . . A fun homage to anime."
-Kirkus Reviews
"McCauley offers an honest voice that moves the desires and challenges of Black, Puerto Rican, and Asian communities - along with Pittsburgh - into a promising future."
-Pittsburgh Review of Books
"Profound and entertaining."
-Largehearted Boy
"An energetic, genre-melding collection that feels at once like a teenager's mixtape, a manga, and a missive to Pittsburgh. Jennifer Maritza McCauley blends magical realism, pop culture, and sharp storytelling in a book that vibrates with life."
-Everybody's Reviewing
"So full of life and love. . . . Incredible, fun, heartbreaking, and hopeful work from one of the best writers working today."
-Chiwan Choi, author of Sky Songs
"A personal and insightful look at what it means to live and ultimately thrive in a space of 'in-betweeness.'"
-Monique L. Jones, author of The Book of Awesome Black Americans
"McCauley crafts a wondrous space to play and dream and catch you in her dreaming. But the true wonder of this collection is the humanistic depth of its heart."
-Jen Julian, author of Red Rabbit Ghost
"Vulnerable, relatable, heartfelt . . . the story of a Pittsburgh that's hardly ever mentioned, let alone celebrated."
-Rone Shavers, author of Silverfish