"A gripping, lyrical, and ambitious dystopian novel." Kirkus Reviews "dePackh's Troubleshooting is harrowing, yet beautiful, a science-fiction dystopia that articulates the often tragic conditions of our present. Her character 'Scope' Archer is complex and endlessly intriguing. "A stunning literary debut." -Tom Sweterlitsch, author of The Gone World and Tomorrow and Tomorrow The authoritarian dregs of collapsing society require absolute compliance. Noncompliance to the corporations is deadly.One neuroqueer teenager, betrayed by the juvenile justice system, fights a desperate struggle to survive. Against all odds, the rebellious sex worker retains her humanity with the support of another prisoner.Unsure whom to trust, she discovers her lawless, firearms-loving friend is part of a criminal enterprise that holds the key to her escape.On the run, with nowhere to hide, she's hunted into a life of secrets and conspiracies concealing a shattering human experiment. "a rare work of beauty, originality, and celebration of non-compliance" David T. Mitchell, The Biopolitics of Disability These visionary characters fight to survive in a world where genetic engineering steals people's freedoms.This powerful cyberpunk dystopian thriller shows how the indomitable human spirit can rise in resistance to oppressive regimes. See Selene dePackh's searing cyberpunk novel through the eyes of her fiercely female genderqueer narrator, and learn what it is to be autistic in the new world order."...a character of immense depth and originality. The explorations of ableism and sexuality in a claustrophobic cyberpunk setting make this unlike anything most readers will have encountered before." Kirkus Reviews "dePackh's neuroqueer narrator, Scope Archer, joins Mishell Baker's Millie Roper ( Borderline ) and Erica Satifka's Em Kalberg ( Still Crazy ) in the new generation of disabled heroines-neither supercrips nor villains nor objects of charity-who take on the system with snark, resourcefulness, and anomalous minds."- Josh Lukin, author of "Science Fiction, Affect, and Crip Self-Invention-Or, How Philip K. Dick Made Me Disabled." "navigates the terrain of a near-future America, ravaged by civil war and environmental devastation... the novel delivers a satisfying emotional and intellectual heft-just when this country most needs a wake-up call. - Paula Martinac, Lambda Literary Award-winning author of Out of Time and The Ada Decades
About the Author: Selene dePackh is a multiply-disabled graphic designer, diagnosed as autistic late in life. She's recently turned to writing to help navigate an increasingly treacherous social undertow bending toward eugenics. Kirkus says of her first novel and its narrator: "...a character of immense depth and originality. There are few protagonists in sci-fi-or literature in general-that present an autistic perspective with such specificity and pathos. The explorations of ableism and sexuality in a claustrophobic cyberpunk setting make this unlike anything most readers will have encountered before." She says of her writing, "It's ironic that I've spent most of my life working in images. Words aren't considered the tools of autistics; we are assumed to "think in pictures." I bring a lifetime of crafting visual design to the challenge of creating narrative, and I do so driven by the urgency of my own waning days and the existential threats to the world I'll be leaving."