The Lonely Girl's Vegetable Patch

A rural romp through bisexual awakening and obsessive love, as told by one unforgettably unhinged millennial.
Twentysomething and aimless in 2005, Drew moves to Vermont’s countryside and takes a job at a stable. Through the musings of her lovelorn trainer Tristan, she glimpses Cleo—his elusive ex, a woman seventeen years his senior who just opened a new coffee shop in town. Hungry for an indefinite more, Drew applies to work there and quietly lusts for her alluring new boss. As her slippery dynamic with Cleo begins to lose grip, Drew flails along her own boundaries, unsure where she ends and where Cleo begins.

Amid the wintry farmland, Drew’s want and anxiety flare against false peace, piqued by Cleo’s hidden appetite for reckless behavior. The web they weave around each other ensnares townspeople, tourists, and past and future lovers, until a wild experiment tests the sticky threads of their bondage. For fans of Big Swiss and Milk Fed, Genevieve Plunkett’s latest is an offbeat ode to losing yourself by going too far, written in masterful prose that balloons with longing.