This sharply observed satire stars a monstrous physical manifestation born of the evils of racism, gentrification, and cultural appropriation. When Darla, an unemployed African-American art school student, moves into a windowless former factory in the Bottomyards, a notoriously dangerous section of Chicago-s South Side, she begins to see and hear disquieting things. Her upper-class white pal, Cynthia, and Hadley, a fashion director, are initially afraid to visit (-That part of town is like a war-zone!-) but yet are attracted by the area-s -authenticity,- for which Darla calls Cynthia out: -You-re trying to use me and my scary black neighborhood to look cool.- Meanwhile, the terror lurking within Bottomyards-s secret passages has awakened, and an atmosphere of subtle menace builds into full-out chaos and body horror. Daniels (Upgrade Soul) manages to locate the humanity in even his least sympathetic characters while peppering the narrative with well-honed jabs at art school jargon and the frequent racial biases of mass media (exemplified here by the local media framing the breaking story as Cynthia-s rather than Darla-s). Passmore (Your Black Friend), a skilled visual stylist with a particularly fine, bright palette, ably renders the humor in the horror and the horror in the humor (the story-s title has a nasty double meaning). The book pokes fun at the zeitgeist with a sharp stick in a manner reminiscent of Jordan Peele-s film Get Out. (June)