Tuesday 11 February 2020

FINNA by Nino Cipri

FINNA by Nino Cipri is an amusing novella set in a thinly veiled Ikea store in the US. It features wormholes to parallel universes, and two employees who recently broke up and have not yet worked through the awkward post-breakup period.

When an elderly customer at a big box furniture store slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but our two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.

Can friendship blossom from the ashes of a relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.

I really enjoyed FINNA. As is my habit, I had forgotten what it was about (aside from thinking that it was vaguely Scandinavian which it was, emphasis on the vaguely). The opening of the book sets the scene with a focus on the protagonist’s general misery from her retail job and more specific misery from her recent breakup. It gave me just enough time to wonder what the speculative fiction element was going to be before introducing the wormholes. Then it turned into a fun and slightly absurd adventure story as Ava and Jules are forced to go on a rescue mission.

Since this is a relatively short read, I'm not sure there's very much more I can say without skirting spoilers, so I will leave you with one final opinion. I really liked that this wasn't a romance story. Ava and Jules were a couple, now they're not and the story arc is absolutely not about them getting back together. I'm not sure I've come across this as a central focus of a spec fic book before. I highly approve of the depiction of healthy non-romantic relationships in books.

I highly recommend FINNA if you enjoy universe hopping and/or slightly absurd science fiction. Or if you hate Ikea (personally, I don't get the Ikea hate, but whatever). I will certainly be keeping an eye on other books and stories I come across by Cipri.

4.5 / 5 stars

First published: February 2020, Tor.com (coming 25/2)
Series: I don't think so
Format read: eARC
Source: Publisher via NetGalley

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