Publishers Weekly
06/17/2024
Valencia’s accomplished debut collection portrays female characters in stark relief against unforgiving desert settings. In “The Reclamation,” a middle-aged woman attends a “self-actualization bootcamp” in the Coachella Valley. When her yurt mate disappears, she sets off on an increasingly dangerous walk across the “dried out and unwelcoming” landscape to find her. In the title story, Wendy arrives in Marfa, Tex., to supervise a marketing campaign for the reboot of a TV show only to find her efforts derailed by masses of young women devoted to an influencer who preaches “purity through chaos.” In “The White Place,” a standout entry, an unnamed artist reminiscent of Georgia O’Keeffe has an affair with a much younger ceramicist, who flatters her and her work in exchange for an introduction to her art dealer. In these stories, women are often in competition with each other; for instance, when the unnamed artist learns her lover has impregnated a 17-year-old, she exerts her influence to change the course of the younger woman’s life. Throughout, Valencia exhibits a mastery of plot and keen perception of her characters’s vulnerabilities. These alluring stories deserve a wide readership. Agent: Michelle Brower, Trellis Literary. (Aug.)
Julie Buntin
"I've loved Lena Valencia's brilliant, beguiling stories for years and read her debut collection in a single breathless evening. These are stories with teeth, both chilling and bold, about the strength and vulnerability of women and girls. Full of surprising turns, Mystery Lights reminded me of the incredible power of short fiction to speak the truth."
Kelly Link
"These are stories full of menace and delight, drawing from that deep well of human complexity, perversity, sincerity, and hope. Mystery Lights is gorgeous."
Rachel Lyon
"B movie aesthetics meet the cinematic splendor of the desert in these ten clever, neatly crafted, wryly stylized short stories. Against the backdrop of their desolate and often haunted landscapes, Lena Valencia's characters vividly come to life."
Clare Beams
"Lena Valencia writes some of the best stories I've read in years, as sharp and finely honed as knives. Here are women who turn out to be powerful enough to meet the threats of their worlds in kind: their lives may cut them, yes, but they can cut back, and astonishing truths are laid bare in the process. Both bold and sly, in turns righteously angry and sinister, Mystery Lights offers a brilliant new vision of what it means to be a woman in this world."
