Luckmonkey

A punk band's anti-capitalist rebellion clashes with the realities of queer life in Pittsburgh.

By day, Luckmonkey is a struggling punk band playing in record stores and taco joints. By night, its members are anti-capitalist agitators, breaking into homes and businesses, each time stealing one possession and leaving something different in its place. Squatting in an abandoned building, they scrounge a life as a raucous, mismatched family of queer, trans and first-gen social activists.

But when one of them steals a wind-up monkey toy, things deteriorate into squabbles and bad decisions, until an arrest forces the group to weigh the hard work of political resistance against their individual needs for stability and safety. Luckmonkey explores queer identity, found family, and the challenges of balancing ideals with the need for survival. For readers of LGBTQ+ fiction, punk subculture, and stories of social activism.

Alysia Constantine is a critically acclaimed author whose novels blur the line between reality and fantasy, feature luscious prose, and explore complex themes of otherness.