A review by psalva
OkPsyche by Anya Johanna DeNiro

4.0

A short novel with a lot of heart. This reminded me of Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five in which Billy Pilgrim was unstuck in time. Here, the unnamed protagonist, a trans woman, wants to feel connection- to time and space, to other people, and to her son through an ex-wife. Time and space blurs. Past traumas and future anxieties manifest in the present. Through these manifestations, the MC slowly becomes more connected to reality, whatever that is, however painful or challenging it is, and realizes that she doesn’t need others to protect her or save her. She can do that for herself. 
The speculative fiction elements here really worked for me. Even when I was questioning what was real, this feeling was balanced well with the character’s real-world interactions with her son and mother in some quite moving scenes. There was a point about 1/3 through where I was worried things wouldn’t be tied up in the end, but I was happy with the outcome. 
Finally, the tie-in with mythology was creative and, I felt, cleverly done. Overall, this was a solid read which I’ll be recommending.