Paradise Logic

Paradise Logic is hilarious, hot satire. This debut novel from writer Sophie Kemp mixes surrealism, cultural criticism, and comedy to create a propulsive and unforgettable read, as wildly unpredictable as it is intelligent.

Reality Kahn is unbothered and pure of heart. Age 23, she moves to New York and spends her time making zines or working as a waterslide commercial actress. Then, one day, her drug dealer suggests she should find a boyfriend. From here, Reality embarks on a mission that leads her down a fateful path towards Ariel, an intellectual man who offers her little, yet of whom she becomes wholly enamoured. He and his friends live in a grungy apartment, affectionately called ‘Paradise’, where she now spends practically all of her time. Determined to make him fall in love with her as much as she is with him, Reality descends upon an idiotic quest that paints a caricature of our most tragic selves: youth’s naivety and the desire to belong.

Weighed down by the subversive powers of patriarchy, Reality’s mission leads her across astral plains, slowly chipping away at the facade of compulsive heterosexuality. Simultaneously aching to be both pious and desirable, her identity is rapidly consumed by what others expect from her. Biblical motifs, such as talking snakes and disembodied voices, add additional irony to an already outrageous journey towards self‑acceptance.

Kemp has created an original fever dream novel that reflects the zeitgeist of the internet era. Rapidly paced and sardonic, Reality’s quest blurs the line between real life and hallucination, imitating our digitally saturated world. This epic tale of jest is painfully honest and, in moments, alarmingly real, revealing beneath its wicked colours questions of desire, sex and femininity. A book that will make you laugh out loud, Paradise Logic is a mischievous delight.