Happy book birthday to CROSSHAIRS by Catherine Hernandez, which is out today from Harper Avenue!
From the beloved author of Scarborough, comes a dystopian novel set in a frighteningly familiar near future. With massive floods leading to rampant homelessness and devastation, a government-sanctioned regime called the Boots seizes on its power to force communities of colour, the disabled, and the LGBTQ2S into labour camps in Toronto. In the shadows, a hero emerges. After his livelihood and the love of his life are taken away from him, Kay joins the
Resistance, alongside Bahadur, a transmasculine refugee and Firuzeh, a headstrong social worker. Guiding them in the ways of combat is Beck, a rogue army offer, who helps them plan an uprising. A cautionary tale filled with fierce and vibrant characters, Crosshairs explores the universal desire to love and be loved as your true self.
Crosshairs will be published by Atria in the U.S. on December 8, and in the UK by Jacaranda in
early 2021.
Here are the rave endorsements that Crosshairs has received to date:
“Crosshairs is both unnervingly prescient and undeniably profound. A harrowing work that’s as
much a battle cry as a ballad for the erased, and we should all be listening.”
– V.E. Schwab, New York Times bestselling author of A Darker Shade of Magic
“A beautiful, unapologetic, and unwatered-down burst of fury against cis white supremacy and
tyrannical power systems, centered around a main cast that must be fiercely protected.
Hernandez writes the best kind of dystopian story, one that holds a sobering mirror up to our own
world. Let this book haunt you.”
– Marie Lu, New York Times bestselling author of the Legend Series
Catherine Hernandez is groundbreaking. Her talent is remarkable. I dare you not to cry or scream
or marvel or, like me, do all at once while reading this book. This story is a masterpiece of voice
and metaphor, image and embodiment. But it is also a perfectly crafted portrait of us now, of us
then, of the us we hope to be. I love this book, this big, bright missive that not only breaks the
ground, but that gifts us with the steps to take in order to get to the other side, together.”
‒ Cherie Dimaline, bestselling author of The Marrow Thieves and Empire of Wild
“Crosshairs made me shiver. It troubled my dreams. Still, I could not put down this dystopia. It
was utterly compelling. Catherine Hernandez prophesies Canadian genocide against Queer,
Black, Brown, and Indigenous folks. At the same time, she inspires the reader with her depiction
of a resistance full of characters who ‒ even in the face of hatred and complacency ‒ show love,
pride, endurance, courage, and insist on living to the very last breath.”
– Lawrence Hill, bestselling author of The Illegal and The Book of Negroes
“Crosshairs is a blistering page-turner. One can describe it as dystopic fiction, but Catherine
Hernandez is presenting us with something much more prescient to consider. The novel acts as a
provocation and a challenge for readers to locate themselves. Crosshairs offers a glance into a
world that is possible if we continue on a trajectory that is frightfully present. Most importantly,
Crosshairs asks us what we will do to resist and build a better future when faced with such
momentous and dangerous times.”
– Carianne Leung, award-winning author of That Time I Loved You
“In Crosshairs, Catherine Hernandez shapes a world at once fantastical and familiar, remarkable
and relatable . . . The result is a sparkling but devastating novel about corporate and state cruelty,
individual as well as community sacrifice, and Queer Black and Brown kinship that must be
protected at all costs. Timely, unapologetic, complicated.
– Jenny Heijun Wills, award-winning author of Older Sister, Not Necessarily Related
Catherine Hernandez is a proud queer woman of colour, a radical mother, a theatre practitioner, an award-winning author and the artistic director of b current performing arts. She is of Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Indian heritage, and she is married into the Navajo Nation. Her novel Scarborough, which is soon to be a motion picture, won the Jim Wong-Chu Award for the unpublished manuscript; was a finalist for the Toronto Book Award, the Evergreen Forest of Reading Award, the Edmund White Award and the Trillium Book Award; and was longlisted for Canada Reads. She has also written the plays Singkil and Kilt Pins, as well as the children’s book M Is for Mustache: A Pride ABC Book. Crosshairs is her second novel. She lives in Toronto. Catherine is represented by Marilyn Biderman.