- The Good: Queer anti-capitalist adventure romance
- The Bad: Multi-verse worlds not well explored
- The Literary: A relationship that begins with a breakup
It’s another work day at the big box furniture store LitenVärld until an elderly customer falls through a portal to another dimension. The company is aware of these alternate dimensions, and after screening a training video about them, sends its minimum wage employees to track down the old woman in order to protect the store’s bottom line. Unfortunately, that task falls to Ava and Jules, who just broke up a week ago.
I really enjoy the comparisons to the big box store we all know and love/hate. Ikea is a maze that starts arguments with your partner, even if you never fight, and saps your energy to make decisions about napkins, so wormholes into parallel universes may not be too far-fetched of an explanation. If you’ve ever worked a minimum wage, soul-sucking job, then you’ll appreciate the satire of retail culture, from middle managers to entitled customers, as well as the compulsive need of our throw-away consumer economy to constantly purchase the same things over and over.
The search for the missing customer through worlds unknown is a metaphorical journey for the two exes trying to navigate their new relationship status. Ava and Jules already have to navigate our world while queer, and Jules as black and non-binary. Ava, the anxious, neurotic protagonist, who can’t ever seem to go grocery shopping or make a dentist appointment, never really understood the outgoing, funny, and charming Jules who desperately wants to travel, until she sees them fulfilling their wanderlust. They might have a chance to rebuild something even better, but it’s tenuous.
If you like the sound of a “creepy Scandinavian Narnia”, this short adventure is for you! And remember, be suspicious of fuzzy chairs.