Finna by Nino Cipri
General
Finna by Nino Cipri first book in the LitenVerse series is a delightful story about a couple navigating their relationship while surviving the multiverse. This delightful novella felt like an independent science fiction movie in the best ways: Quirky relatable characters, biting satire of our modern culture, and a small story with a lot of heart. Cipri does a wonderful job of building a beautiful world for her characters to inhabit. Most of the reviews I have seen for this novella focus on the satire of capitalism, but it’s much more than that. In 90 pages, the author talks about themes ranging everything from identity, decision paralysis, and anxiety. Now those may be heavy topics, but do not fear this is a fun romp. Those themes are weaved through beautifully. I truly enjoyed this story and I look forward to seeing where it goes in the next story.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Trajectory
When an elderly customer at a Swedish big box furniture store -- but not that one -- slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but those two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.To find the missing granny, Ava and Jules will brave carnivorous furniture, swarms of identical furniture spokespeople, and the deep resentment simmering between them. Can friendship blossom from the ashes of their relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.(1)
At ninety- pages, the story moves at a brisk pace. As fast as it moves, it does not sacrifice character and story. There are many moments in the story where Ava and Jules have a moment to reflect on their relationship and why they broke up. Jules and Ava’s relationship are constantly tested as they explore the multiple universes. The rescue mission of finding the grandma becomes the external problem that they have to face and gives them the space to think more objectively about their own lives and choices.
Theme & Character
This section has taken me a long time to write. For weeks after I finished it, I struggled to coalesce my thoughts and feelings . There is so much humor and beauty that it’s a challenge to distill it. Usually in my reviews I would try to separate character and theme, but I feel in this case they are the same. Each character embodies a particular challenge in life that many people deal with day to day. Ava feels lost in her life. Every day is full of with decision paralysis and is constantly afraid of making the wrong choice. This is in direct contract with her partner Jules, who knows who they are but has to fight to justify their existence. How does move forward from that fear and fighting to create a space where we can live and not just exist? The device of the multiverse becomes a metaphor for all the lives that we could be living. Jules’s bolder confident lifestyle is attractive to Ava. Through their trials, Jules teaches Ava that she needs to flip her thinking about the concept of choice. The infinite universe lives with in all of us. All of our co-exist in other universes. We just have to choose which one we are currently living it.
Reference
Cipri, Nino. “Finna (LitenVerse, #1) by Nino Cipri | Goodreads.” Goodreads, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/44081573-finna. Accessed 2 Feb. 2023.
