Life is competitive; all the best babies are designed now...
We’re thrilled to share the cover for Face, Joma West’s stunning full-length debut—arriving May 17, 2022 with Tordotcom Publishing.
Margaret Atwood meets Kazuo Ishiguro in this story about designer babies, social media fame, and race.
Life is competitive; all the best babies are designed now.
Schuyler and Madeline Burrows have the perfect Face—rich and powerful enough to make or break a young couple’s rise in society.
But not all is as it seems in SchAddie’s home. Schuyler is bored and taking risks. Maddie is becoming brittle, her happiness ever more fleeting. And their menial is fighting the most bizarre compulsions.
In a society where consent is a pre-checked box on the path to social acceptance, and where skin color is an aesthetic choice designed by professionals, your online profile isn’t just the most important thing—it’s the only thing.
Face is a novel about the lies we allow ourselves to believe in order to make us feel whole.
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Face
Joma West is a third culture writer whose work straddles both fantasy and science fiction. Growing up bouncing between countries has given her work a certain displaced flavour and you can see many African and Asian influences in her writing. Joma’s novella, Wild, won the 2016 MMU novella award. She has had short stories published in various anthologies. You can find her on Twitter @JomaWest. She lives in Glasgow.
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“Face is a searing, patient and unforgiving examination of status, class and the foundations of humanity. With admirable precision and empathy, Joma West unravels the lies we tell society, our families and ourselves. A fascinating debut.” —Samit Basu
“Joma West burns through cherished illusions and offers a thoroughly entertaining take down of our toxic technology and lethal fixation on status and celebrity. Wicked, witty, and wise, Face illuminates the nightmare at the heart of our dream widgets. This is not a dystopic scold we can ignore, but an elegant wake up call, a marvelous SF delight that breaks our minds wide open.” —Andrea Hairston
“A fantastic, futuristic reimagining of the comedy of manners novel, written for our time. West’s novel shocks and intrigues in equal measure.” —Tendai Huchu
“FACE is a compelling dystopian vision that will leave you longing for human touch. If it were an episode of Black Mirror, it would be one of the best.” —Oliver Langmead
