Gunk Baby (‘Original and Unforgettable’ (Cosmopolitan)) - Jamie Marina Lau

''A tender horror story, all the more haunting for being so familiar'' Roisin Kiberd, author of The Disconnect''Here is a new existence among the malls of instant consumerism'' Alan WarnerThe suburbs of Par Mars. Two shopping centres, rows of estates and thematically designed neighbourhoods.Twenty-four-year-old Leen is going to open an ear-cleaning and massage studio in the Topic Heights Shopping Centre, taking her mother''s Chinese ritual to the West to bring people back to their bodies.But something is not quite right in Par Mars. Managers are being attacked, and when Leen befriends Jean Paul, a pharmacist who is obsessed with a cryptic online forum, she finds herself involved in a community that is intent on disrupting the routines of capitalism in increasingly troubling ways.