The Splendid City

April 4, 2022
Heuler (The Inner City) throws together a young witch, an egomaniacal cat, and thinly veiled allegories in a quirky coming-of-age story that never fully delivers. Eleanor and her arrogant, misogynistic roommate, Stan, do not get along. So, she curses him, transforming him into a bow-tie-wearing, beer-guzzling cat. As punishment for her rash spell-casting, her New York coven exiles her and Stan to the new country of Liberty (formerly Texas). The president of this humourously depicted dystopia distracts citizens from the dire water shortage through endless parades and stunts, including a treasure hunt. As Eleanor occupies herself with the search for the missing water witch, Daria, who she believes may be key to understanding the draught, shadowy figures lure Stan with the promise of hidden treasure, and both roommates attract the attention of some powerful political players. The whimsy and topical satire ought to carry this, but Heuler keeps things disappointingly shallow, with a thin plot and characters as two-dimensional as Liberty’s propaganda newsprint. While the ingredients are enticing, brought to a bubble, this witch’s brew fails to pass the taste test. Agent: Christine Cohen, Virginia Kidd Agency.

April 22, 2022
Heuler veers her speculative fiction toward the absurdly surreal here, introducing the ostensible protagonist only to have her get shot by a talking cat on the first page. The trigger-happy cat's name is Stan, and he and a witch named Eleanor have infiltrated a walled-off section of the former U.S., where constant spectacle keeps the masses locked in to the president's cult of personality, and where citizens search state-sponsored Wiggle, since everyone knows Google is biased. Stan and Eleanor each have a mission (hers is to find a missing witch; his is a treasure hunt) that send them into a bewildering landscape of misinformation where even the maps are "open to different perspectives" and the president is always watching. Whether readers find this closer to Orwell's Animal Farm or the film Don't Look Up probably depends on their capacity for commentary on the current moment. The dialogue is clever and the satire spot-on. The social commentary hits the nail on the head even if, occasionally, it lands a little on the nose as well.

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