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August Clarke - "The Felicity Complex"
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August Clarke - "The Felicity Complex" - Tamara Jerée

Past event

Featured Book

Cover Photo of The Felicity Complex

The Felicity Complex

"Annie Bot" meets "Fallout" in this dystopian satire: six women created in a lab, designed to serve the billionaires of the future in a luxury fallout shelter, rebel against their programming after the end times arrive.

Welcome to the Felicity Complex! Constructed during the height of the Cold War, our unique hotel is prepared to protect you, the billionaire class, from nuclear annihilation! Shielded from radiation and supplemented with closed air systems and hydroponic gardens, this resort bunker offers a prime existence underground: full gymnasium and spa, gourmet meals, top-tier medical care, and the best in entertainment.

Meet Hallelujah! Grown in a lab and educated in the ways of concierge hospitality, she believes in her duty to comfort the Lord-anointed refugees of the apocalypse. (Even if her lover Anastasia disagrees. Even if her creator Dr. Younghusband is disappointed in her.) Don't worry--everyone is safe from communists in the Felicity Complex!

Look, Hallelujah, guests have finally arrived! Hallelujah and her sister specimens have waited ages for you. Never mind the secrets other rich survivalists may be hiding. Just make sure they don't notice the violent intentions behind our staff's wide, wide smiles...

A sendup of traditional womanhood and lampooning the paranoias of the elite, "The Felicity Complex" questions the ambitions behind the entitled few who plan for the end times--and who truly survives them.

This book will be available for purchase at the event.

About This Event

August Clarke will discuss his new book The Felicity Complex. He will be joined in conversation by Tamara Jerée. A Q&A and book signing will follow the discussion.

At the Co-op

About the Book: Annie Bot meets Fallout in this dystopian satire: six women created in a lab, designed to serve the billionaires of the future in a luxury fallout shelter, rebel against their programming after the end times arrive.

Welcome to the Felicity Complex! Constructed during the height of the Cold War, our unique hotel is prepared to protect you, the billionaire class, from nuclear annihilation! Shielded from radiation and supplemented with closed air systems and hydroponic gardens, this resort bunker offers a prime existence underground: full gymnasium and spa, gourmet meals, top-tier medical care, and the best in entertainment.

Meet Hallelujah! Grown in a lab and educated in the ways of concierge hospitality, she believes in her duty to comfort the Lord-anointed refugees of the apocalypse. (Even if her lover Anastasia disagrees. Even if her creator Dr. Younghusband is disappointed in her.) Don't worry--everyone is safe from communists in the Felicity Complex!

Look, Hallelujah, guests have finally arrived! Hallelujah and her sister specimens have waited ages for you. Never mind the secrets other rich survivalists may be hiding. Just make sure they don't notice the violent intentions behind our staff's wide, wide smiles...

A sendup of traditional womanhood and lampooning the paranoias of the elite, The Felicity Complex questions the ambitions behind the entitled few who plan for the end times--and who truly survives them.

About the Author: August Clarke is here and queer, etc. They have been published in PRISM international, Portland Review, and Eidolon. He was a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction and a Locus Award, Dragon Award, and Pushcart nominee. They researched queerness, labor, and monstrosity at the University of Chicago. He is the author of the indie-bestselling series The Scapegracers, which he writes as H. A. Clarke.

About the Interlocutor: Tamara Jerée is a fan of women with sharp teeth. Their short stories have appeared in the Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthologies Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness and Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology. Their debut novel The Fall That Saved Us won the 2023 Indie Ink Award. They’re a bookseller based in Chicago.

Featured Author

Photo Image of Author August Clarke

august clarke

August Clarke is here and queer, etc. They have been published in PRISM international, Portland Review, and Eidolon. He was a 2019 Lambda Literary Fellow in Young Adult Fiction and a Locus Award, Dragon Award, and Pushcart nominee. They researched queerness, labor, and monstrosity at the University of Chicago. He is the author of the indie-bestselling series The Scapegracers, which he writes as H. A. Clarke.

In Conversation With

Tamara Jerée

Tamara Jerée is a fan of women with sharp teeth. Their short stories have appeared in the Shirley Jackson Award-winning anthologies Unfettered Hexes: Queer Tales of Insatiable Darkness and Professor Charlatan Bardot’s Travel Anthology. Their debut novel The Fall That Saved Us won the 2023 Indie Ink Award. They’re a bookseller based in Chicago.

About the Venue

Seminary Co-Op Bookstore Logo in Black and White

Seminary Co-Op Bookstore

For over 60 years, the Seminary Co-op Bookstores has served as a cultural anchor in and beyond Chicago; as the first not-for-profit bookstore whose mission is bookselling, their stores, which include 57th Street Books, celebrate the power of the browsing experience to inspire curiosity, discovery, and delight.

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