AVAILABLE MAY 31
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Featured in The Millions’ Spring Book Preview
One of Our Culture’s Most Anticipated Books
"A timely horror fable about how the American grindset grinds us alive, FREELANCE is funny, dark, and impossible to predict. Just when you think you know where it’s going, it reroutes and drives you somewhere weirder, until—by the bleakly surreal ending—you’ve arrived in a nightmare with little memory of how you got there. It’s a little like if David Cronenberg had written Christine."
— Bennett Sims, author of OTHER MINDS AND OTHER STORIES
“FREELANCE is all the best things: suspenseful, darkly funny, addictive, and a lot of fucking fun. Kearney so astutely peels back the layers of the gig economy to reveal the quiet terror of trying to survive in a late capitalistic hellscape. It’s what happens at the intersection of hustle culture, selfishness, and ignorance—all while being extremely entertaining. This book is one hell of a ride; 5 stars for my driver.”
— Marisa Crane, author of A SHARP ENDLESS NEED
“While FREELANCE is a warning, it's not without pleasure. This book is dystopian, diabolical, and filled with humor—a page turner that also has something to say.”
— Ned Russin, author of HORIZONTAL RUST and member of GLITTERER and TITLE FIGHT
“Reading FREELANCE feels like watching an episode of Black Mirror written by Harlan Ellison; terrifying, captivating, and impossible to look away from. Absolutely unputdownable.”
— Lexi Kent-Monning, author of THE BURDEN OF JOY
“This dashboard fable about the absurdity of gig work could not be more timely. The masculinity crisis, the loneliness epidemic, the loss of privacy and intimacy and dignity in the face of technocapitalism: it's all here in well-oiled prose and pitch-black humor. Kearney's dystopian ride through the one-way streets of Philadelphia charms and disturbs in equal measure.”
— Michael Deagler, author of EARLY SOBRIETIES
Simon McNamara might only be 19, but he knows he’s destined for greatness. It doesn't matter that he barely finished high school, spends his free time texting a cam girl, and drives for HYPR, the ride-sharing app notorious for its long hours and low pay. Eventually, he knows, he'll catch his big break.
Simon quickly learns, though, that HYPR is more than just a gig, with the app offering lucrative bonuses, a real-life girlfriend, and justice for disrespectful passengers. By the time politicians and organizers begin calling on HYPR to change its abusive practices, Simon struggles to quiet the app’s soothing voice, even when it asks him to silence its critics.
A vivid snapshot of our fraught relationships with labor and artificial intelligence, FREELANCE explores the hyperrealities of work in the digital age, asking what we owe to our jobs and, ultimately, what we owe to each other.