This was a hard book to get into, and one that you definitely need to just go with it and enjoy the ride. It's psychedelic and dreamlike in its narrative and visuality, but the themes this book explores are very tangible and real. To summarise, this book is weird, but it's an excellent type of weird.

Definitely a marmite book, weird and wonderful but agony if not your kind of thing...

With thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Corey Fah has won a prestigious book prize... but has no idea how to accept it. Like, how to literally accept the physical prize. Cue a space- and time-bending caper as Corey Fah meets Bambi (except with 4 extra spider legs and extra eyes), Fumper (with an f instead of a th) and a time-travelling TV presenter who is trying to find evidence of wormholes like the one he fell through in the 1980s just after he’d won the same prize.

I feel like there’s a lot to decode here, but scratch as I might I can’t really do any better than publishing being elitist and chewing up young authors from outside the ‘scene’ and spitting them out.

A very strange and surreal book that amused me on a sentence level, but which I sadly just didn't 'get'. And so it was an unsatisfying read for me. I very much feel like it’s a deficiency in me as a reader rather than Waidner’s writing, because I can see the craft, I just can’t understand it!

Iabel Waidner cements them self as an expert of the new weird, deftly weaving real life history, art and contemporary class issues with wormholes and spider-Bambi. This is a book not to be missed for its lively and captivating narrative that pushes the boundaries of the novel into new and exciting places.

Another inimitable and clever remodelling of all manner of 'now' into unique, provocative, funny shape. As much a mental art installation as a novel.

Weird, wild and funny 😊. I enjoyed reading this.
Thank you Hamish Hamilton and Netgalley UK for the ARC.

Having loved two other books of Waidner's before, but not been entirely sure what I read, I am very pleased to say that this book delivered exactly what I hoped- a truly distinctive voice, a blend of the real and the fantastical, and politics delivered in ways that are both biting and entirely funny.

Opening with a quotation from Bambi, the book then plunges headlong into a bizarre but fascinating tale of time travel and book prizes, as our protagonist tries to claim a literary prize but must first prove their identity in a world that is continuously obfuscating and complicating that.

I am sure a great amount of it went over my head, but that is the thing I love most about Waidner's writing- there is a depth and playfulness that invites lengthy rabbitholes, and for me again confirms Waidner as one of the most exciting writers out there.

I received an advance copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

"My modus operandi was dissociation and tonight was no exception".

Corey Fah has won a literary award - the Award for the Fictionalisation of Social Evils - and has been told to go and collect their award from Koszmar Circus, which should be "self-explanatory". When Corey goes to collect their award, which they need in order to identify themselves and take part in the book tour, and to collect the prize money, there is no award in sight but Corey comes back with Bambi Pavok, a creature which is half a deer, half a spider. Their partner Drew offers to help find the award. At one point, they both become a guest on Drew's favourite talkshow, which investigates cervi dira - a wormhole/ time travel phenomenon - but the host, Sean, seems distracted and moody, and everything goes wrong.

As a book it is hard to summarise - it sounds crazy and it is, hallucinogenic at times - not to mention the character's many dreams and nightmares, featuring frikadellen, deer burgers and TV shows, but it also felt fun, warm, clever in its commentary on class, privileges, and social capital, and success. It is experimental - something that would often deter me from reading, but I was drawn by the blurb on the back, the cover, and I don't regret giving it a try - I found it so enjoyable in its weirdness and so touchingly funny.

Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is a queer, quirky, fantastical novel about a novelist who has won an award, but can't quite get to claim it.

The award is neon beige and needs to be teleported to the winner, but it hovers overhead and doesn't seem to want to be caught. But a Bambi-spider hybrid and a one-toothed bully rabbit have now appeared through a wormhole and may or may not assist Corey to finally get their award. Or they might get to be made into frikadellen.

An enjoyable read as long as all disbelief is suspended!

I loved this book. My first read of Waidner and I will certainly be picking up more.

Usually I would give a plot summary but I think potential readers will enjoy the absurdity more if they go in without prior knowledge.

Instead I’ll say if you enjoy absurd and hilarious satire, the bizarre and surreal, or wormholes, you should definitely pick this up.

Pick up this book up if: you’re on your commute to your office job to go to meetings that could’ve been emails, or you want to read an examination of class and privilege with a spider deer.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Isabel Waidner's writing is just so utterly original and well-crafted. Always a quick and fascinating read!

This was a wonderfully weird little book. So weird, I’m not sure I can write a proper review for it. It had some excellent social commentary with Bambi at the heart of it. Also some surprising elements, including time travel and hybrids. It’s hard to talk about without giving away any spoilers, but it was a great read and a wonderful introduction to this author. I haven’t read any of their previous books, I’m not sure if I should have, but it made sense without me doing that. I bet it’ll only get better with re-reads too. It seems like the sort of book where you get something new out of it everytime you read it!

Thank you Netgalley and publishers for the review copy

Waidner is in perfect command of every aspect of this bitingly sharp social satire. It's surreal, clever and funny - not to mention very, very acute on the messages the author is sending about 'social capital'. Sit back and enjoy the ride.

It’s very difficult to describe this short novella. It’s a surrealist acid trip that encompasses a grotesque Bambi, wormholes and the murder of Joe Orton.
It’s set in an Eastern European location but not identifiable and the main characters are of no given gender.
I am sure there is a political message to the story - maybe about disappearing citizens - but it was lost to me amongst all the madness.
I got to the end and it wasn’t difficult to read but it overloaded my ability to make sense of the authors intentions.

Corey Fah has just won a literary prize and goes to pick up the physical award but it kind of, disappears. thus ensues a wild goose chase involving an eight legged bambi & Corey’s partner Drew. they end up on reality TV talking about wormholes.

I can really see people loving this but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. And I can really identify it as a me problem more than anything. I think so much of it just went over my head!

Corey Fahrrad Does Social Mobility is a wild ride which brings together Bambi, reality TV, time travel wormholes, celebrity, satire, Joe Orton, and Isabel Waidner's own award of a literary prize for her last novel. It's very inventive, although perhaps not as groundbreaking as some reviews would have it, and this can be a little exhausting at times but on balance CFDSM is further evidence of Isabel Waidner's remarkable talent and energy. .

Probably the best thing I'll read this year. A novel about someone from an ordinary, unprivileged background, non-binary and working class, winning a prestigious literary award and reality literally tearing itself apart as consequence. It’s brilliant. It’s too busy to be impressed by its own wild surrealism. It takes you into its world like a friend describing a problem at work. It’s pace-perfect. I think it gave me more interesting dreams. Waidner is The Future. Suitable fans of Kurt Vonnegut and all those who care about The Future.

“*I*, was and had been the presenter of *Corey Fah Does Social Mobility*, a show without history. Nothing to do with the fact that each alternate reality lasted no more than ten minutes, […] just normal erasure. The world moved on at lightning speed, time waits for no man, et cetera, we did not give a fuck about those who’d come before in the international capital during this distinct era.” The best part of any Isabel Waidner novel is that moment where you realise that you have absolutely no idea what the fuck is going on but you find yourself reading on helplessly like some kind of a bewilderment junkie, and their latest, imminent novel Corey Fah Does Social Mobility is simultaneously the most bewildering and the most addictive. Corey Fah, lately recognised by an award for the fictionalisation of social evils, finds their life thrown into abject chaos when they fail to seize their neon beige UFO trophy; from there, Corey’s life with their partner Drew falls into disarray, with the arrival of the seraph-spider deer Bambi Pavok (a la Nicole Eisenman’s Bambi Gregor artwork), their unfortunate visit to a talk show about spatiotemporal irregularities hosted by someone who may or may not be the murdered queer writer Joe Orton, and a gradual sublimation into a world of spacetime portals, time loops, Kalashnikov-wielding bunny-rabbit-mourning avenging angels and the repressed traumas of youthful emigration. This undaunted novel about embracing the ugliness of our pasts and resisting the dark assimilating forces of our present moved me just as much as it befuddled me, and what more can we want? “I was reading as if my life depended on it, and it did, it did.” I am and always will be an Isabel Waidner stan. (Six stars out of five.)

I *LOVE* Isabel Waidner's writing - it's utterly unlike anything else, and every accolade is absolutely deserved.
Full review coming soon!

Corey Fah has won a literary award. To verify their identity and receive their prize money, they’ll have to collect their trophy - a UFO that flies off when they try to retrieve it. Instead, they end up taking home Bambi Pavok - a strange deer/spider hybrid that has come through a wormhole.

This short novel is so utterly bizarre that writing a coherent review feels like quite a challenge. Waidner’s writing is smart, funny and surreal. The novel is packed with so many small details that it feels impossible to really get everything that it has to offer on a first reading. This, however, is not a criticism - this is exactly the kind of novel that you’ll want to revisit.

The world of the novel is eerie and strange, set in a non-specific city somewhere in Europe, 2024 - and also a forest in the 60s. Waidner plays with concepts of time, time travel, wormholes and time loops with no concern of getting too bogged down in logistics; it doesn’t matter how or why things are happening - they’re happening, just go with it.

This is a really wild, fun novel, covering a lot of big ideas without ever feeling like a chore. I loved it, and I think it’ll only improve with a reread.

Thanks to Netgalley and Penguin for the e-ARC!