[Jillian] Tamaki’s work, both in her new collection and in her collaborations with her cousin,

[Jillian] Tamaki’s work, both in her new collection and in her collaborations with her cousin, shows a distinct flare for displaying the humanness in our constantly changing world. Her work regularly confronts us with situations, settings, and behaviors that we recognize, but may never have seen before in a work of art or literature. In 2017, you’d hardly believe this was possible.

It’s significant that Tamaki couches many of these stories so deeply in technology. This is something that, while impossible to ignore, can be a crutch for authors writing in the present. Most writers tend to try and circumnavigate it, and focus directly on the people, or they submit themselves to writing in the same language presented by our expanding vortex of social media, which has a tendency to focus on the post-postmodern, re-contextualizing what’s already been done in loud and, too often, ironic, ways.

Boundless doesn’t do this. Tamaki draws her inspiration from people, from what is real. She is a student of “now,” and seeks to explore the humans that are still present in the thick culture-cloud of media and technology that envelopes us today.

SPOTLIGHT: The Rumpus Review Of Boundless by Brandon Hicks