A terrible crime occurs in Elect H. Mouse State Judge. Two young girl are abducted and held hostage by a band of religious fanatics. The girls' anxious father, a politician on the eve of an important election, has reasons of his own not to go to the police, so he hires a pair of shady private eyes to investigate. All the elements of a classic noir-except that the kidnapped girls are mice, the abductors are Sunshine Family dolls, and the detectives are Barbie and Ken. Part 1970s childhood dreamscape, part Raymond Chandler, this is a world both familiar and transformed. Sex shops, illicit affairs, spies, political hypocrisy, and dangerous zealots may coexist with Barbie and Ken's acrobatic poolside sex, but the crises of faith that Nelly Reifler's characters face are as real as our own. Elect H. Mouse State Judge is an unusual-and masterful-blend of irony and tenderness, and a moving portrayal of a father trying and failing to do the right thing.
"William Blake laid it out: Stories are those of innocence or of experience; any messy gray area between the two, presumably, belongs to J.D. Salinger, Judy Blume and whoever else has taught teens important coming-of-age lessons. But what if precious childhood emblems came to life and the limbo between guilelessness and corruption became the norm? . . . While toying with the reader's expectations based on well-known anthropomorphic animal tomes, Reifler does an excellent job weaving between chipper and creepy. Though short and sweet, this novella of lascivious Barbies and political mice leaves a lingering suspicion that purity and worldliness are not far from one another."
Matthew Love, TimeOut New York
"A hilariously weird little book . . . reminiscent of Toy Story with a Coen Brothers twist."
Tyler Coates, Flavorwire
"Nelly Reifler's joyride of a first novel, Elect H. Mouse State Judge joins the pantheon of morality tales centered on rodents--Aesop's Fables, Maus, An American Tail: Fievel Goes West. Her slim volume sets itself apart from the pack with a riveting detective story that remixes Dashiell Hammett and Toy Story, along with a freakish sense of humor. This kooky playground disturbs all the more for its seeming innocence . . . Far from cartoonish, the mice and dolls that people Reifler's novel transcend their plastic or furry bodies."
