How it begins Anna wanders around at night. Her full name, Reanima, was given to her by a grandmother who perhaps liked Rianna or Rihanna. Reanna has always reminded her of something dead that was brought back to life. Not like Rianna, or Rihanna. Or even Breanna. No, her name is closer to… reanimate. No one knows if her grandmother got it from first Americans, African-Americans. something at the cabaret—or if she had read Octavia Butler’s Fledgling or Toni Morrison’s Belov

Before the deadline, his life had been measured by the aristocratic ticktock of duty. His conception, his birth, schooling, friends, work, lovers, even death. His parents had succumbed ten minutes apart, under a coroner’s report of joint suicide. Their corpses had chased him to the train station, reminding him of the deadline for marrying a woman whom they both knew to be genetically unsuitable. They accepted that any children he had with her would have been a strong candidat