PINK GALLERY TO MAR SUITE centers on an self-aware android named ICQA-1037 living in an America II metropolis. We follow Icy, as he’s called, and fellow android A3-11 as they try to pick up women. Such outings fade into the background as Icy’s mental state deteriorates into bouts of murderous anger, misogyny, and paranoia. In between thwarted hookups and unhinged rants, vague notions surface of a super-corporation running an android assassin company by the name of Pink Gallery.
Icy, it turns out, is a unique robot. There’s nothing in his code that prevents him from killing humans. So what happens when a robot assassin goes off the mental deep end? The answer is almost uniformly “murder at the slightest provocation.” And such violence, unfortunately, seems to be the bulk of the novel. The text is a transcription of Icy’s spiraling thoughts, out-loud diatribes, and inner monologues. Their content ranges from misogynistic anger at women not having sex with him to murdering a complete stranger in cold blood because of a wrong look to the soaring high of knowing an android won’t be caught for his crime.
The few times the larger world of America II or local neighborhoods are hinted at, Icy’s megaphone voice drowns it out. Altogether, this makes for a novel that conspicuously lacks all elements of mise en scène, atmosphere, and basic world-building. Similarly, other characters lack dimension and substance. In the limited number of times we see on-page back-and-forth dialogue between characters, it is poorly characterized.
As for flow and pacing, readers are given a nonstop—at times barely comprehensible—recitation of Icy’s yo-yoing and extremely negative emotions. This is understandably disorienting, which may have been purposeful to illustrate Icy’s deraling mental state. But in practice it proves mentally difficult to read and, at times, emotionally taxing. Further, this format turns the narrative into a kind of perpetual now that makes it hard to gauge time passing or judge how the story has advanced. Added to that are perplexing calls-to-action to follow the author on Twitter, which come at random intervals and take the reader out of the narrative.
While the content itself borders on nonsensical, PINK GALLERY TO MAR SUITE is well copy edited. Its spelling, punctuation, pagination, and syntax are mostly sound, minus confusion over a few near-homophones. But these technical accomplishments do not make up for the lack of plot, characterization, and fundamental world-building necessary for an effective narrative.
While interesting in its most abstract, androids-as-weapons premise, PINK GALLERY TO MAR SUITE is an near unbearable stream-of-consciousness monologue of needless violence and misogyny without the distraction of plot, characterization, or world-building.
~Remy Poore for IndieReader