Stay Crazy

This is the story of Emmaline, a twenty-something woman who's in the process of being discharged from a mental hospital following a diagnosis of paranoid schizophrenia. Em's doing better. She's taking her meds every day, and even gets a job at the local discount big-box retailer. Then Em starts hearing a voice that claims it's a being from another dimension, and it needs Em's help.

What makes Stay Crazy such an interesting read is the ambiguity about the “hallucinations” that Em experiences. As readers, we know that they are real, but only because we know this is a sci-fi story and in sci-fi stories the person's visions or hallucinations are always true. But within the narrative itself, Em doesn't have any proof of that. All she has is her faith in herself and her ability to tell reality from fiction. Seeing Em struggle with that, and watching her trying to determine where exactly the line between sanity and responding to unusual circumstances lies, makes for a really interesting read.

Em is a fun character to follow over the course of the story, as well. She's smart, sardonic, and . All this makes Stay Crazy a dark, fun, thoughtful piece of sci-fi that could form the centre of a Venn diagram that contained Chuck Palahniuk, Phillip K Dick, and Kevin Smith. It deals with harsh issues surrounding mental illness, and does so in a way that's both empathetic and exciting at the same time.

Erica Satifka, a British Fantasy Award nominee, has produced a laugh-out-loud romp through the life of a schizophrenic who is battling unseen evil from her Walmart-like workplace. This is entertainment at its best with a touch of social commentary that fills out its five stars. I highly recommend it.