Geek tragedies / Carljoe Javier.

Whether in superhero costume, in cosplay, or in street clothes (or in hardly any clothes at all), each story in this collection comes snug in language and streetwise in sensibility, and engages us and sweeps us off as swiftly as an oncoming MRT. Just get on, and get off on the characters and their destinations. Because we know their daydreams and wished-for destinies really secretly mirror ours, And so we also know, of course, that each of these tragedies is really a victory for Carjoe Javier. -Sarge Lacuesta. Like any sharp writer, Carljoe Javier articulates the aches and pains-and the occasional pleasures-of his generation. His typical persona is that of "a comic book character driven to the edge, "speaking in a voice emboldened by fantasy but also tenderized by youth. His characters come coated with a veneer of Western Pop Culture, but at heart they're still just people looking for connections, for consequence. "He dreamed of touching her," Javier writes in one story. "She would bring him the things the arcade could not." Welcome to the arcade, and welcome to him and her. -Butch Dalisay.