An alien spaceship has been spotted hovering over an Oklahoma gas station. But Avery’s got bigger concerns: she just got fired. ONBOARDING (WC: 62,000 ) is literary fiction with a sci-fi hook—it’s a big-hearted comedy and a love story coated in apocalyptic dread.

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Avery is a doer. Good grades led to a top-tier school led to a big-money consulting job in San Francisco. All she cares about is making enough money to secure her own future. Or maybe burying herself in work is just a way to hide from a world that feels increasingly hostile.

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With the job market frozen by the alien arrival and nothing to distract her from her dread, Avery becomes obsessed with finding a new job. As she suffers through the shame ritual of unemployment, Avery finds herself caught romantically between two men: her former coworker, Cameron, and her platonic best friend, Miles. Cameron matches his job—he’s slick, successful and emotionally unavailable. Miles is kind and caring, although his generational wealth makes Avery’s struggles feel like hypotheticals. Plus, wouldn’t having sex with her best friend destabilize the only solid thing left in her life?

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When the aliens leave their ship, they’re stranger than expected—more blobs than beings—although they promise to share three gifts with humanity. Is this a distraction? Or the first step toward utopia? And despite their supposed good intentions, there are rumors of abductions spreading across social media.

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As Avery’s desperation grows, she finds a mentor in Miles’ despised uncle Pierce. When Pierce offers her a morally compromising ultimatum, she must choose between the job she wants and the man she loves.

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From abductions to start-up interviews, bad roommates to love triangles, ONBOARDING uses genre to tell an emotion-driven story like STATION ELEVEN by Emily St. John Mandel, with the comedic voice and pacing of THE SISTERS BROTHERS by Patrick DeWitt.

 

“You following this invasion?”

“I haven’t really had time to focus on that today.”