I Can’t Wait For…Landlocked In Foreign Skin by Drew Huff

Posted 8th January 2025 by Sia in Can't-Wait Wednesday / 0 Comments

Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted over at Wishful Endings to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about but haven’t yet read. Most of the time they’re books that have yet to be released, but not always. It’s based on the Waiting on Wednesday meme, which was originally hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine

This week my Can’t-Wait-For Book is Landlocked In Foreign Skin by Drew Huff!

Landlocked In Foreign Skin: A Sapphic Sci-Fi Novella by Drew Huff
Genres: Adult, Horror, Queer Protagonists
Representation: Nonbinary sapphic MC
Published on: 28th January 2025
Goodreads

"LANDLOCKED IN FOREIGN SKIN is a blend of far-future science and ancient folkloric religion...sharp and quirky."
-- Ai Jiang, Stoker and Nebula award-winning author of Linghun and I Am AI

How far would you go to reclaim your stolen body?

The Fisherman would do anything.

Anything to return to their natural, monstrous state in the alien oceans of Europa. But they've been kidnapped, trapped on a human ship, forced into human form--very pathetic--and dragged into a mad human princess's plot to find an eldritch god. A princess that also seems...very interested in sharing a bed. Strange. All of this is strange.

The Fisherman can't fathom why anyone would want to be human.

Small wonder. The Fisherman's been ripped from their underwater home under Europa's ice, and stripped of their skin--the nebulous outer layer that enables them to shapeshift for survival. Imprisoned on a ship that's hunting for a mad undersea god, they must help the crew find it if they want to retrieve their skin and return home.

Dame Isobel, a cruel princess, owns the ship, desperate to find the god in the hopes that it will heal her mortally-injured girlfriend. The Fisherman is stuck in a female human form and pulled into a toxic romantic relationship with Dame Isobel-- in a world where being LGBT is punishable by death. In the midst of this insanity, it's quite clear to the Fisherman: Humanity is confusing, inefficient, and messy.

When Isobel reveals that she will never let the Fisherman go, even if they find the mad god, the Fisherman knows:
It's time to get violent.

Landlocked In Foreign A Sapphic Sci-Fi Novella has mature content and some violence, as well as profanity. Reader discretion is advised.

I have no idea if I’m going to be able to handle this – self-declared horror wimp over here! – but damn, I am HOOKED by this premise! I adore non-human characters, and the Fisherman sounds properly alien and monstrous – what ARE they? If they come from the ocean of Europa – that’s one the moons of Jupiter!!! And – they’re usually a shapeshifter? How did Isobel steal their skin? HOW CAN THEY GET IT BACK? This has hit me in the same places selkie stories hit me…except the Fisherman is probably MUCH more equipped to get vengeance.

I can sympathise with Dame Isobel to a point – who wouldn’t do unspeakable things to save the person they love? But I’d be surprised if things end well for her… What kind of eldritch god is hanging out on JUPITER, anyway? Will this be a wholly original being of Huff’s creation, or might this be a god whose name we’d recognise???

And. I mean. ‘The Fisherman can’t fathom why anyone would want to be human.‘ IS THAT A VIBE, OR WHAT?

‘it’s time to get violent’ look, I’m HERE for this, okay, this sounds epic in all the ways, and I REALLY want to see the Fisherman when they decide they are Done With This Shit!

Just a few more weeks!

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