The Year We Got Away
A talking camera is the only thing keeping Dot sane when she first moves to Los Angeles.
A 2023 Elizabeth George finalist and the 2024 joint winner of Pulp Literature’s First Page Cage competition, The Year We Got Away follows Dot McIlroy’s trek out of the deep south and west to Los Angeles in the heart of the Lavender Scare in 1959. With a talking camera as her guide, Dot navigates a rich world of secret societies and sci-fi screenwriters, searching for home and a sense of place. But if Dot hopes to learn what “home” really means, she must first reckon with the secrets she hid back along the mossy backroads of Leon County.
Pulp Literature says…
“We just loved this quirky novel… Double exposures (emphasis on exposure) are about dual identity — what was historically acceptable and unacceptable. And traditional labels don’t do justice to the complex layers of Dot’s sexuality. This genre- and gender-bending historical novel is a stunning debut!”