Awards
Lambda Literary Award nominee
Synopses & Reviews
Sparrow L. Patterson's debut novel follows a nineteen-year-old bisexual girl on her whirlwind journey of sexual escapades, drug-induced hallucinations, shoplifting sprees, and other criminal behavior. Searching for identity and meaning, Orleigh runs wild through a landscape of lost children the mall rats, grunge kids, Deadheads, freaks, and slackers of the early '90s first in Chicago then on to L.A. Though she might feel lost herself at times, the undaunted, wisecracking Orleigh never shies away from an extreme experience of any kind, or from expressing her opinions. Sexy and romantic, a fast-paced story of lust, deception, and heartache, Synthetic Bi Products is a compelling and original novel narrated in a bold, fresh, funny voice.
Review
"Patterson's sharp-eyed, disaffected but hopeful teenaged heroine Orleigh wends her way through a Midwestern suburban wasteland of Gen-Y anomie, dead-end jobs, petty crime, sex, and drugs, until she is saved by the transformative power of love. An affecting, fresh first novel." Kate Christensen, author of In the Drink
Review
"Blow-by-blow descriptions of the sexual adventures and drug-fueled escapades of suburban teens drive [the narrative]....Orleigh's on-the-fringe living is convincingly bleak and grungy, but unsteady prose makes Patterson's tale a taxing read." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Set in the middle of America in the early nineties, this sexed-up picaresque combines the drugged-out zaniness of a Grateful Dead concert with the obsessive, depressive romance of an old Cure song. Read it and weep." Lauren Sanders, author of Kamikaze Lust
Review
"To call Sparrow L. Patterson's Synthetic Bi Products a coming-of-age novel is like referring to Bright Lights, Big City as a book about fact checking. Patterson has taken a perhaps familiar story one of confused kids on the verge of adulthood, wandering aimlessly through shopping malls and on the streets of Chicago and L.A. and made it her own, revitalizing her themes with her vibrant voice and prose. Her book makes the reader rethink a world they might have thought they had known by revealing the complex layers of humanity that exist beneath the commonplace. This feat is complemented by Patterson's engaging central character, a tough, bisexual young woman as uncompromising as the novel itself. This is a masterful debut." Henry Flesh, author of Massage
Synopsis
--Nominated for a Lambda Literary Award (2001)
"Patterson's sharp-eyed, disaffected but hopeful teenaged heroine Orleigh wends her way through a Midwestern suburban wasteland of Gen-Y anomie, dead-end jobs, petty crime, sex, and drugs, until she is saved by the transformative power of love. An affecting, fresh first novel." --Kate Christensen, author of In the Drink
"To call Sparrow L. Patterson's Synthetic Bi Products a coming-of-age novel is like referring to Bright Lights, Big City as a book about fact checking. Patterson has taken a perhaps familiar story--one of confused kids on the verge of adulthood, wandering aimlessly through shopping malls and on the streets of Chicago and LA--and made it her own, revitalizing her themes with her vibrant voice and prose. Her book makes the reader rethink a world they might have thought they had known by revealing the complex layers of humanity that exist beneath the commonplace. This feat is complemented by Patterson's engaging central character, a tough, bisexual young woman as uncompromising as the novel itself. This is a masterful debut." --Henry Flesh, author of Massage
Sparrow L. Patterson's debut novel follows a nineteen-year-old bisexual girl on her whirlwind journey of sexual escapades, drug-induced hallucinations, shoplifting sprees, and other criminal behavior. Searching for identity and meaning, Orleigh runs wild through a landscape of lost children--the mall rats, grunge kids, Deadheads, freaks, and slackers of the early '90s--first in Chicago then on to LA. Though she might feel lost herself at times, the undaunted, wisecracking Orleigh never shies away from an extreme experience of any kind, or from expressing her opinions. Sexy and romantic, a fast-paced story of lust, deception, and heartache, Synthetic Bi Products is a compelling and original novel narrated in a bold, fresh, funny voice.
Synopsis
Synthetic Bi Products follows a 19-year-old girl on her whirlwind journey of bisexual escapades, hallucinations, and criminal behavior, runnning wild from Chicago to L.A. through a landscape of lost children. Sexy and romantic, a fast-paced story of lust, deception, and heartache, Synthetic Bi Products is a compelling and original debut narrated in a bold, fresh, funny voice.
Synopsis
A powerful literary voice of a young woman's bi-sexuality and self-discovery in dystopian suburban America.
Synopsis
Synthetic Bi Products follows a 19-year-old bisexual girl on her whirlwind journey of sexual escapades, drug-induced hallucinations, shoplifting sprees, and other criminal behavior. Searching for identity and meaning, Orleigh runs wild through a landscape of lost children--the mall rats, grunge kids, Deadheads, freaks, and slackers of the early '90s--first in Chicago, then on to L.A. Sexy and romantic, a fast-paced story of lust, deception and heartache, Synthetic Bi Products is a compelling and original novel narrated in a bold, fresh, funny voice.
Sparrow L. Patterson is a 28-year-old novelist and poet living in Chicago. She is a member of the Hodge Podge Art Movement to which she donates her paintings (the proceeds go to shelters for abused women).
About the Author
Sparrow L. Patterson is a twenty-eight-year-old novelist and poet living in Chicago. She is a member of the Hodge Podge Art Movement to which she donates her paintings (the proceeds go to abused-women shelters). Synthetic Bi Products is Patterson's first novel; she is at work on her second, Diary of a Suicide Queen.