UNDER A NEON SUN
Three Rooms Press: April 23, 2024
Three Rooms Press: April 23, 2024
Unable to afford rent, Mia—a community college student—lives out of her car, cleaning houses of the well-to-do in the LA area to meet her shoestring budget. Then Covid hits. For people living in houses and apartments, with stay-at-home jobs, the pandemic was inconvenient. For Mia and her fellow housekeeper friends—all living in their cars—the pandemic destroys the source of their frugal income. Fortunately, gutsy, funny Mia is a determined survivor. After weeks of cutting her limited spending even further, missing meals along the way, her wealthy employers become desperate for her services again. This time, she's determined not to let them take advantage of her as they have in the past. Her newfound confidence gives her new hope, until she discovers a dead body in a room she was assigned to clean. Sally Rooney meets Elizabeth Strout in this gripping page turner debut novel.
“Always compelling, alternately biting and funny, tragic and hopeful, Under a Neon Sun offers an unusual view into lives of people who are often unseen and unheard. They, and their world, are the beating heart of this story.”
— Mom Egg Review
“Kate Gale’s impressive debut as a novelist showcases her genuine flair for the kind of distinctive, narrative-driven storytelling that fully engages the readers' attention and is an entertaining, thought-provoking, deftly crafted read from start to finish, Under a Neon Sun will be of particular interest to fans of contemporary women's fiction raised to an impressive level of literary excellence.”
— Midwest Review of Books
“In her debut novel, Gale examines the uncertainty and chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic through the perspective of a young adult desperately trying to piece her life together. . . . Her story is one that will resonate with many readers because they have also lived it.”
—Booklist
“When I open a new book by Kate Gale I know right away that there will be bravery. . . . There will be beautiful, skillful, memorable language.”
—Ilya Kaminsky, author of Dancing in Odessa and Deaf Republic: Poems
"In the wellspring of creativity, there is sometimes a generosity that mirror’s the poet’s gift. It is the heart inside the heart, and so it is with Kate Gale. She gives out of what she feels was given to her so that we can all sit in the light of a greater gratitude."
—Afaa M. Weaver, author of Spirit Boxing
—Afaa M. Weaver, author of Spirit Boxing
"Refining, compressing, and expanding one’s writing while in ceaseless movement is almost unimaginable. Ms. Gale deftly succeeds.”
—Concho River Review
"Whether she's writing a poem, a lyric essay, or a novel, Dr. Kate Gale's work always brims with brilliance, wit, and compassion. As an editor, she's able to do what most editors only claim to be able to do but are usually really unable to do: help you make your work closer to what you want it to be instead of just pushing you to write in her manner. And when it comes to being a good literary citizen, I don't know of a better advocate for marginalized voices. She brings books into the world that wouldn't be published otherwise; she bleeds and breathes literature, and we're all the better for her blood and breath."
- Doug Manuel, author of Trouble Funk