Welcome to another installment of If My Book, the Monkeybicycle feature in which authors compare their recently released books to weird things. This week Jesi Bender writes about Child of Light, her new novel out from Whisk(e)y Tit Books.
If Child of Light were your mom, you’d study her face and silently pray for her to see you in turn.
If Child of Light were an electrical transformer, it would be new, emitting a horrible buzz.
If Child of Light were a séance, it’d be an andante ectoplasm.
If Child of Light were a current, it would circle endlessly.
If Child of Light were a ghost, it’d only manifest as an animal. It would run feral through the streets.
If Child of Light were the tragic daughter of a king, she’d lie oranta on her back as Ophelia among the reeds.
If Child of Light were a flower, it’d be made of words and evil.
If Child of Light were you as a child, you’d be small and grasping. You’d be singing a fairy tale.
If Child of Light were a home, it’d be an orphanage or a slick throat made of dark and ornate wood or an old book of Victorian sex magick.
If Child of Light were your first love, it’d be muffled by an impossible distance, charging unharnessed as a star across the sky.
Jesi Bender is the author of the chapbook Dangerous Women (dancing girl press 2022), the play Kinderkrankenhaus (Sagging Meniscus 2021), and the novel The Book of the Last Word (Whiskey Tit 2019). The Brooklyn production of Kinderkrankenhaus was a top-five finalist for the BroadwayWorld’s Best Off-Broadway Play 2023. Her shorter work has appeared in Vol. 1 Brooklyn, Denver Quarterly, FENCE, and Sleepingfish, among others. She also runs KERNPUNKT Press, a home for experimental work. www.jesibender.com
Buy Child of Light here.