What do you get if Philip K. Dick worked a crap job at Walmart while simultaneously being treated for mental illness and talking to interdimensional beings? You'd get the year's best debut SF novel, Stay Crazy by Erica L. Satifka.
Stay Crazy is the story of Emmeline, a young woman with paranoid schizophrenia who works a dead-end job at Savertown USA, the cost-cutting big box store which sucks the soul out of everything it touches. Emmeline sees her job as a step toward getting her life back together after a recent mental breakdown. But when a strange being from another dimension begins talking to Emmeline through the RFID chips in the store's merchandise — warning of a pending global apocalypse — she must find a way to both save the world while not suffering another breakdown.
Stay Crazy mixes a fast-paced science fiction plot with deft social criticism, characters you'll love, and laugh-out-loud humor. The novel is also an excellent exploration of neurodiversity and how there are multiple ways to see both your own life and the world around us.
I highly recommend people read this novel, which is the best debut novel I've read this year. Erica Satifka is a highly talented writer which a rich imagination and I look forward to reading her next novel.