Déjà Vu
A woman with a traumatic past seeks self-acceptance in the afterlife in the fantastical allegorical novel Déjà Vu.
While traveling through the Underworld, a woman remembers her trauma and fights for acceptance in Niki’s fantasy novel Déjà Vu.
After dying by suicide, Zenia wakes up on a beach with bloodstained hands and no memory of the event. She meets Persephone, the goddess of the Underworld, who sends her on a quest through her paintings as punishment for the way Zenia lived and ended her life. As a trans woman, Zenia argues for her right to exist and to control her own destiny.
Each of Zenia’s paintings depicts a location in Greek mythology, including the Fields of Asphodel and the Garden of Hesperides. Within each, Zenia encounters people from her past and either relives old traumas or gets the opportunity to say goodbye to those she loves. As she travels through the images, their myths blend into her story too: A woman who sold Zenia into sex work becomes the goddess Hecate; one of her friends becomes a nymph who helps her cross the river Styx. The weaving together of disparate narratives helps reveal and ground Zenia’s backstory.
The narrative form alternates between traditional prose and dialogue in verse, evoking the style of classic Greek epic poetry. Surreal descriptive language and instances of introspection are used to flesh out Zenia’s afterlife. When she lands in a new painting, flowing prose sets the scene before any action takes place. Once she starts to move through the painting, thoughts of her past struggles guide her, and she bolsters herself to continue fighting in a world that does not want her to exist.
However, clarity is sometimes lost in service of the book’s style. For example, when Zenia returns to the present within a painting after sharing memories, the narrative sometimes remains in the past tense, muddying the transitions. The physical positioning of characters in scenes also sometimes changes without explanation after long stretches of conversation.
Further, because Zenia’s story is not linear, and because she struggles to move forward throughout, a sense of redundancy sets in. She relives old fights with friends and family, their exchanges becoming repetitive; her continual need to assert her own identity when people refuse to accept her is limiting. Further, no answers are provided for the weighty moral questions the book asks; it instead opts for a cyclical structure that highlights the cycles of abuse Zenia is trapped in.
A trans woman faces her traumatic past and seeks true rebirth in the surrealistic fantasy novel Déjà Vu.
Reviewed by
Julia Dillman
Disclosure: This article is not an endorsement, but a review. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book and paid a small fee to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Foreword Reviews and Clarion Reviews make no guarantee that the publisher will receive a positive review. Foreword Magazine, Inc. is disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255.
