Staff Pick
Sodom Road Exit is a rollicking and genuinely spooky lesbian ghost story, helmed by a swaggering queer protagonist who would rather jump horror's bones than scream. Haunted roller coaster and floating care bears aside, this is a narrative that brims with existential dread for college debt and economic decline as much as for the things that go bump in the night. Recommended By Cosima C., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
The second novel by Lambda Literary Award winner Amber Dawn that is both a family melodrama and a lesbian supernatural thriller.
It's the summer of 1990 and Crystal Beach has lost its beloved, long-running amusement park, leaving the lakeside village a virtual ghost town. It is back to this fallen community that Starla Mia Martin must return to live with her overbearing mother after dropping out of university and racking up significant debt. But an economic downturn, mother-daughter drama, and Generation X disillusionment soon prove to be to be the least of Starla's troubles. A mysterious and salacious force begins to dog her; inexplicable sounds in the night and indescribable sights spotted in the periphery. Soon enough, Starla must confront the unresolved traumas that haunt Crystal Beach. Sodom Road Exit might read like a conventional paranormal thriller, except that Starla is far from a conventional protagonist. Where others might feel fear, Starla feels lust and queer desire. When others might run, Starla draws the horror nearer. And in turn, she draws a host of capricious characters toward her--all of them challenged to seek answers beyond their own temporal realities. Sodom Road Exit, the second novel by Lambda Literary Award winner Amber Dawn, is a book that's alive with both desire and dread.
Review
"With ferocious compassion and an unforgettable cast of characters, Amber Dawn has written an extraordinary novel of queer love and survival. Consent to be possessed by it." Megan Milks, author of Kill Marguerite and Other Stories
Review
"Sodom Road Exit is a haunting testament to the transformative power of community, especially when face to face with the inexorcisable ghosts of our pasts." Vivek Shraya, author of even this page is white
Review
"A fresh and unusual story that encompasses both the dark and the hilarious... If you’re jonesing for a dose of early 90s, Gen-X ennui, with a side of the supernatural, Sodom Road Exit is worth the price of admission." Lambda Literary
About the Author
Amber Dawn is the author of the Lambda Literary award-winning novel Sub Rosa, the Vancouver Book Award-winning memoir How Poetry Saved My Life, and the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize-nominated poetry collection Where the words end and my body begins. She teaches creative writing at Douglas College and the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, and also leads several low-barrier community writing classes. Currently she is co-artistic director of the Vancouver Queer Film Festival.