FINNA by Nino Cipri

Reviewed by GGGinny

What I drank: I had a delightfully grassy Sauvingnon Blanc.

Goodreads Overview:

When an elderly customer at a big box furniture store slips through a portal to another dimension, it’s up to two minimum-wage employees to track her across the multiverse and protect their company’s bottom line. Multi-dimensional swashbuckling would be hard enough, but our two unfortunate souls broke up a week ago.

Can friendship blossom from the ashes of a relationship? In infinite dimensions, all things are possible.

Drunk Overview: Ava has broken up with their significant other (Jules) and is bitter to be called into work at LitenVarld (and ikea esque store) on her day off. There also so happens to be a wormhole that a customer walks into that she and her ex need to go through.

Drunk Thoughts: Man, I fucking love a multi-verse book. I think traveling through the different worlds is fun, and I really enjoyed the different worlds that popped up in this book.

• Honestly, I feel like multiverse can be hard because each world needs to be different and keep up the stakes, and this book does this really well. From carnivorous furniture to a hive mind this book did a great job of making worlds feel unique in a short amount of time.
• Honestly, I could have used an entire book on the ship (I’m going to spell this wrong b/c many reasons but I think it was the Anahita?)
• But Ava and her anxieties felt really familiar, as did the way that Jules (who is nonbinary) dealt with the things in their life.
• It’s so clear why these two broke up, but at the same point, their personalities also mesh really well.
• The fact that this book had such a focus on how relationships work, and talking about why they failed, in the midst of what is basically a crisis situation was delightful.
• It reminded me of the Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire in that things are life or death, but people don’t stop being people.
• Even in the midst of massive, life-changing situations, people still have to deal with the (relatively) minor hurts that come from being with another person in wahtever way that happens.
• Also, Jules just seemed really fucking cool. They gave off the vibe of that kid you wish you had become friends with in high school because they had great style and always seemed to be into cool things, but you were never actually able to talk to.
• Also, while never having worked in retail, I think this book did a nice job of talking about how draining and soulless working for such a large company could be.
• But really, I loved the world building, there’s so much packed into a short book.
• And this is a very short book. I think it was something like 144 pages? But, again, there was so much happening that the book didn’t feel too short.
• I think a sequel came out or will come out this year and I’m definitely going to check it out

What I’d Pair it With: A tequila shot for each world. There’s something about the transition from one place to the next that I think deserves a marker.

Rating: 5/5