First published 2019
Ellen realizes in 1970 that the cultural revolution is happening without her. She has never smoked marijuana or been unfaithful to her husband Nicky. Within a year she abandons her marriage, renames herself Rain, and travels to California to join Red Moon Rising, a radical lesbian commune. She performs as the Ten of Hearts in their outdoor Alice in Wonderland production when FBI agents arrive to arrest the Red Queen. Ellen works as a rising editor at a Boston publishing house before her transformation. At the commune she encounters an unforgettable cast: Artemis Foote, who treats her wealth and beauty like a game; Jordan, a fugitive with messianic tendencies who becomes Ellen's lover; Amethyst Woman, a dentist who follows Marxist ideology; Ross, who grew up in communist circles and writes for Ramparts magazine; and Pearl, an art history professor turned hippie. These women navigate the moral chaos of the sexual revolution in a world without clear boundaries. Their journey leads them toward destruction, acceptance, and redemption.
Genres: fiction, literary-fiction, american-fiction, 20th-century, contemporary, activism
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, identity-transformation, moral-ambiguity
Setting: Boston, California, Red Moon Rising
Period: 1970s
MP3 CD · Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio
Content warnings: drug-use, sexual-content