In the wake of her best friend Vivian’s death, the narrator of Hazel Jane Plante’s debut novel remembers her lost friend through the objects she left behind: an encyclopedia for children, a box set of the quirky TV show Little Blue. The narrator re-watches the series and catalogues the chaotic, fictional world of Little Blue, whose often lonely characters cohabit on a remote island. Largely ignored by critics, Vivian’s beloved cult show is full of potential for sparking memories. As the novel progresses, the coherence of the television plot falls away and the show becomes a sounding board that prompts the narrator’s remembrances of Vivian and their relationship—both an intimate friendship and an unrequited queer love. Plante’s voice is familiar and seductively honest. She toys with the expectations and contours of fiction as the narrator describes the emotional, grief-driven process of writing the very ...