Non Serviam

Expressing emotion is prohibited by law in the city state of Vencenza.

Beneath its tyrannical shadow, Giorgianna, a deranged former playwright turned political fugitive, flees a brothel to seek justice for the murder of a beloved friend.

When the last remnants of her bloodline are reaped by the incorrigible Minister of Dominion, Giorgianna's crooked path to retribution crosses with Vencenza's Machiavellian revolutionary hellbent on regime overturn.

All the while, the weight of unending tragedy erodes Giorgianna's psyche into a vengeful bloodlust plagued by cabbalistic visions hinting at an ever-darker face of the violent Powers That Be.

The first in a grimdark political fiction duology with gothic fantasy undertones, “Non Serviam” is written with a unique, experimental style in the spirit of poetry and art cinema-suffused with visceral symbolism, lush, archaic-esque purple prose, and philosophical ponderings aimed at interrogating totalitarianism, colonial legacy, and state violence. Venice, Sardinia, and the Etruscan Civilisation inspire its vividly intricate, queernormative setting. Take note that this book is very heavy on worldbuilding and conlang, and features very dense prose, something which some readers may find detracts from immersion for them. Content Warnings: government oppression, death, graphic gore, self-injury, mental illness, sex trafficking, sexual harassment, police brutality, violence against women and trans-identifying peoples, birth-related trauma, gun violence, religion, classism, discussions of sexual violence (humans, minors, corpses), child abuse, workplace violence, divorce, smoking (tobacco and opium), alcohol, mention of intravenous drug abuse, surgical procedures and needles (singular instance), fires and burns, strong language.