Iâm gonna give my favorite-novel-of-the-year award to Venita Blackburnâs Dead in Long Beach, California , about a woman who assumes her brotherâs identity shortly after his death. Itâs fun, beautiful, slim, weird. And itâs about grief. Blackburnâs approach to space-time in her short fiction is awesome; her novel has vivid characterizationsâof both... See more