BookBrowse Reviews You Glow in the Dark by Liliana Colanzi

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These seven haunting stories paint a picture of a world warped and maimed by man's hubris. They pulse with a wicked, surreal beauty, depicting lives of desperation and hope even where there is little to be found.

Somewhere Ray Bradbury is smiling. With this beautiful and brutal collection, translated from the Spanish by Chris Andrews, Liliana Colanzi cements her well-deserved place in the world of dystopian science fiction. Each story explores the devastation that can be wreaked on a world through environmental and manmade disasters. Colanzi approaches dark, harrowing subjects — the appalling effects of radiation poisoning, dangers of unchecked technological advancement, systemic oppression and poverty — with the deft hand of a poet, showing the reader unexpected beauty in even the ugliest parts of humanity.

In the opening story, "The Cave," Colanzi examines the cycle of death and rebirth in a single location over thousands of years and the distinctly human need to leave a mark on the world, even if that mark contributes to its destruction. The cave becomes a microcosm of humanity's progression (and regression) through time. It is a meeting place for star-crossed lovers, a source of wealth (and death) for crystal miners, the only spot on the planet where a certain microorganism can grow, the home of a mutant colony of bats whose existence is wiped out by a single sneeze, and the final resting place of a mutated man in the far-flung future who ensures, in a way, his immortality. Finally, the cave itself is subject to thousands of years of evolution, destruction, and rebirth. Nature, Colanzi seems to suggest, doesn't care, it simply is.

There is a propulsiveness to Colanzi's writing, infusing both characters and setting with a sense of chaotic urgency that kept me enthusiastically turning the pages. Many of the characters are trapped in their circumstances, unable to extricate themselves from isolation and poverty but increasingly desperate to do so. The lush jungles are full of bugs and diseases. Magnificent rainforests hide killer animals. Skies are described as "electric," "scandalous" rain falls, and lightning is a frequently repeated image. Places are used over and over for experimental science and dangerous technology with little regard for the people or the land. But there is often a bright spot of hope that creeps in through the cracks. In "Atomito," a town almost destroyed by a mysterious factory is driven to rise up and dismantle it. In "The Narrow Way," members of a cult kept in line by electric collars and high fences brave the shocks to escape.

The most emotionally impactful story in the collection, the titular "You Glow in the Dark," is a fictionalized reimagining of a real radiological accident that occurred in Brazil in the 1980s (see Beyond the Book). The story follows the hapless owner of a scrap yard who doesn't know how dangerous the beautiful, glowing, "finer than sand" particles he has discovered are. He unwittingly infects and kills many with radiation sickness. Once the contamination is contained and the dead are buried, a kind of mythology springs up around the incident as people gradually seem to forget its devastating effects. A very human error has been twisted into an act of God. The scrap yard owner is put on display as a "miracle" who looked into the glowing face of death and now "shines in the darkness" to the awe and amazement of the crowd who pays to see him. There's a deep frustration in seeing people's willingness to distort such a tragedy into something inspiring and outside human control, yet I too found myself fascinated by the image of a glowing man lighting up the night, an angel (or demon) on Earth.

There were times throughout my reading experience that I almost felt as though I were awakening from a strange, fevered dream. Colanzi's universes are distorted and not always fully formed in the way dreams often are. I found myself dropped into what seemed like the end of a story, after the rise and fall of a great technological achievement or an apocalypse that changed the world, looking over the fallout, unsure how I got there but fascinated nonetheless. The stories are not always easy to understand, and plots don't always take a logical course, but the subjects Colanzi writes about don't either. Nature follows its own path. It can be beautiful and horribly destructive at the same time. Elements pulled from the earth and molded into power sources can turn on those who wield them at any moment.

Colanzi writes about brutal subjects but wrestles startling moments of enchanting and intoxicating loveliness from them. I was surprised to find myself using words like "breathtaking" and "stunning" to describe her desolate landscapes, deadly jungles, and the survivors who populate them. The stories themselves do not always seem to matter as much as the feelings they inspire. I was often awed at the journey I'd been taken on.

This collection is ideal for fans of realistic science fiction and dystopian stories. Colanzi calls to mind other great authors in the genre like Bradbury, Margaret Atwood, and Frederik Pohl. Though the reality she writes about is grim, there is depth and wonder to be found amidst the ruin. There are shades of Bradbury's barren Martian landscape and Atwood's broken planet where Oryx and Crake tried to remake the world. This is a collection that fascinates and dazzles, full of vibrant, darkly beautiful imagery meant to be savored and returned to again and again.

This review first ran in the March 6, 2024 issue of BookBrowse Recommends.