4 stars — thought-provoking, haunting, and quietly powerful in all the best ways.”

Depart, Depart! is a unique blend of climate dystopia, ghost story, and deeply personal exploration of identity. When a massive hurricane floods Houston, Noah, a young trans man, finds refuge in an emergency shelter—only to realize he’s not entirely alone. A ghost begins to appear, one that carries both warnings and a history of trauma that echoes Noah’s own.

It’s a short read, but it packs a punch—tackling themes of displacement, trans survival, systemic inequality, and generational pain with eerie nuance. The speculative elements never overshadow the human heart of the story, and the tension between fear and hope feels very real.

It’s not a traditional thriller or action-heavy dystopia—it’s quieter, more intimate, and that might not work for everyone. But for me, it was original, thoughtful, and emotionally resonant.

If you like your speculative fiction layered with social commentary and a touch of the supernatural, Depart, Depart! is well worth the read.

Having to seek shelter from a devastating hurricane, Noah, Jewish and transgender, encounters discrimination, but ultimately finds shelter with other marginalized people. Though provoking, and a good study of human behavior under pressure.

This is either a short story or novella that really encapsulates a whole range of modern issues, everything from discrimination to climate change and its impacts. Based to a certain extent on experiences shared with author Sim Kern, lead character Noah is a sympathetic figure who struggles with both acceptance from the outside world, and internal acceptance for who he is. There is a certain mystical, supernatural vibe to this tale also with Noah’s long deceased great grandfather Abe taking a dominant role. I can appreciate the story for its insight into a world not much experienced by those that live a gender conforming life. As someone who is already freaked about climate change, this does not help to put me at ease any. One can certainly connect the dots with our abuse of fossil fuels and the future that humanity seems to have no will to steer away from. Scary as it is, it’s always good for people to spend time magnifying these issues. Review posted to Goodreads, Amazon, LibraryThing, and Facebook.

Depart Depart by Sim Kern.
This was a good read. Little slow in places. story but slow in places. My favourite part was the guy with the gun. 3*.

Depart, Depart! is an incredible novella, Sim writes with passion and that is visible in their story. In a few pages, this ghost story has a perfect development and entertains until the last moment.

In this short novella we find Noah, a young trans man coming to grips with his Jewish heritage. Set against the backdrop of a hurricane in Houston Texas where our protagonist is forced into the Dallas Mavericks basketball arena for shelter and learning the meaning of family. Spurred on by the ghost of his great-grandfather, Noah finds community and connectedness despite the evil forces, both in nature and humanity that he must navigate.
Beautifully told, this short book packs a punch. Touching on some relevant themes of living in the world today the author does a wonderful job of enlightening the reader to experiences they may not otherwise encounter. This is more than just a LGBTQ+ story, it's what it means to find yourself in a confusing and often hostile world.
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**I received an e-ARC from NetGalley for an honest review**

First and foremost, if you have strong feelings about them (positive or negative), be aware, this book deals heavily with LGBTQA+ issues as it is told from the POV of Noah (formerly Nora).

Depart, Depart opens with Noah arriving at a Dallas basketball arena, having been rescued and evacuated from a flood. Surrounded by a sea of humanity, Noah realizes that here in Texas, between his transgender identity and his Jewish heritage, his safety is less than guaranteed.

This book not only covers issues of gender identity and religion, but also climate change, police corruption, and so much more. It's a timely book that makes the reader wonder, if Hurricane Katrina happened today in such a politically divided climate, how much worse could it have been?

I had really high expectations for Depart, Depart! and I’m very happy to say they were fully met.

I’m always a little cautious when reading books involving climate change because after two climate change courses at uni I feel like I can easily be disappointed or see mistakes in the author’s research or in their attitude towards what climate change is/does and how we can/should respond to it. That was not the case here. I think the strength of this novel, from the climate change side of things, lies in how Sim Kern managed to write a cli-fi novella that can’t be classified as a dystopia: this is not something far off in the future, it’s not an unfamiliar setting with historical events that we haven’t witnessed yet. This is our world as we know it, and that’s all the more powerful for it. The climate disaster at the beginning of the book (and during the book, depicting a state that’s become a limbo between fire and water) is something that could happen next week, next month, next year. It is happening now right in front of our eyes.

Something else this book does wonderfully is showing how your marginalized identities are fully part of your story at any given moment. That is what non-marginalized folks don’t get when they talk about diverse books and either complain that they wish the marginalization was just part of the character but not the focus OR say that if someone’s identity is only mentioned in passing then it might as well not have been there in the first place. There is no splitting your identity from your story, and Noah’s particular circumstances make it so his identities are at the forefront, but they wouldn’t have mattered any less or any more, he wouldn’t have been any less or any more trans or Jewish if the author had chosen to write, let’s say, a more plot-focused book.

Noah’s arrival at the arena destined to Houston refugees is characterized by mutual recognition among queer and trans folks, something that more or less happens on a daily basis for us queer folks but is of the utmost importance for sticking together when everyone else is a potential threat to your immediate safety. Cue The Best Of Tropes, queer found family; and yet it’s not all smooth, because there’s diversity among queer people too, and sometimes sharing an acronym and even other identities doesn’t mean that you don’t have privilege over others and that you won’t use it in a selfish way. Sim Kern and this book gets it.

Noah’s story and in particular his days after hurricane Martha are as much influenced by his being trans as by his being Jewish. I’m not Jewish but I think the author did an amazing job at portraying different aspects of such a complex identity and its long history. Noah’s emotions about his ancestors, about Abe, finding the intersections between being Jewish and trans, his nightmares and visions about Nazis, the betrayals he suffered at the hands of other Jewish people; they were all palpable.

Kern’s writing was engaging and it really resonated with me, and the pacing of the novella was also perfect. By the end I felt as though I’d read a full length novel because Noah and the rest of the characters had started to feel like real people long before, almost as soon as I met them.

So in case it’s not clear I absolutely loved this novella and I would highly recommend checking it out. As for myself, I’m going to try to get my hands on whatever next Sim Kern writes.

TWs: misgendering and deadnaming, gender dysphoria, mentions and visions of concentration camps and Nazis, mentions of antisemitism, anti-queerness and slurs, gun violence

DEPART, DEPART! is a deeply moving and political story about gender, queerness, religion, global warming, bigotry, police corruption, gun control, the holocaust and so much more.… We follow Noah, who has just been rescued after a hurricane causes dangerous flooding in Houston, Texas. He's been evacuated to the Dallas Mavericks' basketball arena, which has been repurposed as a shelter. Noah, a gay trans man, is completely alone, but soon finds himself gathering with the other LGBT people who have also been sent there. With beds set out in rows, the shelter soon becomes a microcosmic look at neighbourhood dynamics, and tribal politics vs collectivism. It examines the way that queerness is one of the only factors other than race that affects this.

Noah’s also being haunted by his Great-Grandfather Abe’s ghost, or at least a child version of Abe, at the age he would have been when he escaped Nazi Germany and ultimately a concentration camp, by stowing away in a duffle bag. Abe acts as a guide (and sometimes a foil) to Noah throughout the story, often moving him towards certain decisions or leading him to safety. As these interactions with Abe become more tense, Noah is taken by visions that blur Nazi Germany with his current reality. Noah often feels a lot of conflict about receiving help from him, as Abe went on to abandon his family as an adult and was generally hated by the rest of Noah’s family. Abe is in some ways a symbol of individualism, and the narrative doesn’t completely shun him for this, but acts as a trigger for Noah to think about it. It becomes an exploration of whether one must deserve survival, or if that is even possible, and poses the question: should you ever put your own safety above others? or should you ever put your own safety at risk to help others?

Ultimately DEPART, DEPART! examines, in almost too perfectly and coincidently a timely manner, the way that a mass disaster can often bring out the worst, and most prejudiced side of people. But the transphobia and homophobia and anti-semitism that Noah faces in the novel are no less harmful or damaging because of what is going on in the world around him.
It can hard to fight against your base flight instincts, to look after anyone beside yourself, but this story highlights that we must make the effort to do this. We can only fight mass injustice, and global warming, and mass disasters collectively. They are not completely separate struggles, and also not struggles that we should face separately.

"Depart, depart quickly!"

Yes! Finally I have found an LGBT+ story that isn't about romance. I have longed for an interesting story that has a wide range of characters on the queer spectrum without it being about their love interest.

A hurricane destroys Texas (which is happening right now 😬) and Noah is spared only because of a mysterious, ghost-like materialization of his great-grandfather as a child. Abe is a Jewish child that survived the holocaust by being hidden in a duffel bag and boarding a ship.

After being rescued, Noah finds himself a piece of normalcy in small group of queers in a popped up shelter in a sport's arena. This group finds comfort in each other, but others in the arena become more and more aggressive. Abe helps Noah navigate his courage and survive the insanity with his newly made family.

This novella is a great start to an awesome story. At times things didn't transition well or could have used more descriptive language, but the plot is solid and Noah's character development is building toward an amazing character.

The last quarter of the book was much more fast paced and I enjoyed it most. It's a very short amount of space to fill with so much knowledge and I could see it being structured as a full length novel. After that ending, I really hope this isn't it for Sim Kern!

3.5 stars rounded up

“It’s hard enough being trans here. Why are you making me be Jewish?”

Interesting read that offers some rational thoughts on hatred, identity, and religion.

Noah, a Jewish trans, seeks shelter at the American Airlines Center in Dallas after a hurricane nearly wipes out his homestead in Houston. A fine-drawn comradeship is established among fellow LGBTQ refugees, and It doesn’t take long before an apprehensive strain takes a toll on the arena-police violently target minorities, mass shooters go rogue, and hate messages are scrawled in various places. While chaotic agitation ensues, Noah becomes possessed by a dybbuk (demon), and begins seeing the spirit of his great-grandfather, Abe, an evader of Nazi Germany.

For a book that is borderline short story, I was enthralled with the amount of juxtaposition that took place. Godwin theory doesn’t play well in most productions from a contemporary standpoint, but from a post-disaster standpoint, I think it serves the plot quite well.

Definitely worth checking out, and Sam Kern is right, ‘Depart! Depart!’ is a story for uncertain times.

I loved this story! Son’s ability to write a story with multiple plot points and ingredients. The way they were able to write a story involving a great-grandfather Abe was so well done. My mind was blown how all the characters interacted, especially dealing with those “capital T” Texans. Plot points were so well placed. Great prose. I LOVED this story!

Thank you to Stelliform Press & Netgalley for an arc for an unbiased review.

Kern tells the story of Noah Mishner who finds shelter after a major hurricane within the walls of the Dallas Mavericks' basketball area. Noah starts seeing visions of his absent grandfather, Abe, who had fled Nazi Germany as a boy. All the while he is just trying to survive in a micro-community full of the same aggressors before the hurricane happened. This tiny novella packs such a punch. There were a few anxiety inducing moments but as someone new to the horror genre I feel like it was something I could handle. Within only 70 pages I found myself about to cry more than once. I devoured this in a single sitting and can't wait until I can go back and highlight the passages that really sunk in for me.

Sim Kern’s novella Depart, Depart! is deep and full of hope. Some readers are already aware that they would love to find climate fiction with a transgender main character and a Jewish ghost. Those who do not already know this about their own literary tastes should pick up the book and allow themselves to be persuaded.

Houston has already flooded as the story opens. A powerful hurricane has swept through, and the dam burst. Noah had lived in a queer neighborhood there, but now he’s in an emergency shelter for evacuees. It’s impossible to know yet how many hundreds of thousands people, and exactly who, might have died. But Noah has survived.

Raised by atheists and having taken psychology courses, Noah is inclined to believe that his visions of his great-grandfather as a seven-year-old boy in knickerbockers are a “stress-induced hallucination.” He tells himself: “There’s no such thing as god or ghosts. No life after death.”

But it was the ghost who told him to seek higher ground. And wasn’t that good advice?

In navigating the shelter system, Noah decides to stick with his new queer friends. They are people of various genders in various stages of transition, and they are subject to rude stares from the other Texans. As hurricane refugees, they have little privacy in their sleeping and bathing arrangements and little control over their dress and medical care. They have different struggles, fears, and resentments, but they sense that they are better off together, especially now that so little is left.

One of the interesting things about this novella is its treatment of Judaism, which means different things for different characters, especially in how it is linked to loss and remembrance, vulnerability and power. Noah’s great-grandfather had been smuggled out of Germany in a duffel bag when he was a young boy. He was religious, but he abandoned his own children when they were still young, and with him departed much of what his great-grandchild might have learned about Judaism.

In Depart, Depart! the dual images of the duffel bag and the chest binder are meaningful: the cloth binds your life (at least temporarily) and helps you escape from a place you cannot stay. The interplay of these images helps make sense of the motion of transition, the way we navigate in simultaneous rejection and embrace.

Well written story. Kept me engaged the entire time. A page turner for sure! Looking forward to reading more books by this author!

When an unprecedented hurricane devastates the city of Houston, Noah Mishner finds shelter in the Dallas Mavericks' basketball arena.
His fears take form when he starts seeing visions of his great-grandfather Abe, who fled Nazi Germany as a boy.

Pretty good story about a transgender man.
It will honestly open you eyes on everything about the LGTB Community.
Very well written.

Thank You NetGalley And Slim Kent for the ARC.

This is quite a short read but you get thrown in to the story from the very first paragraph, making you become immersed straight away. This was actually quite clever as it didn't waste any time building up the world and you learned everything as you were reading. It is also a clever way to ensure that the reader is immediately intrigued and somewhat invested in the story, the events that are taking place within and also the characters. It uses those pages wisely and instantly got me intrigued and invested, wanting to discover not only what had happened, but what and where the story was going to go.

This story takes place after the events of a natural disaster, an unexpected Hurricane takes place in Dallas, Texas, causing unprecedented damage and death. Among the survivors, we are introduced to Noah, a trans, Jewish man who, not only finds himself worrying about the aftermath of the disaster, whether his friends and family have made it out okay or have had an unthinkable outcome, but on how the rest of the survivors are going to be around him and fellow LGBTQ+ survivors. All of this, while also seeing a the ghost of a young boy, whom he is sure is his grandfather. There is so much packed into such a short read and it left me with so much emotion and thoughts afterwards, that it's actually hard to express. 

I don't want to give too much away about this short read, as I went in not knowing too much and left, not only feeling more educated, knowing this was a great read that I was going to not only remember for a long time, but one that I will also be recommending often!! I also read about the author, which is another reason why this book is so special and why I enjoy and encourage people to do so. It brings more meaning to the story and has made me a deeper fan of Sim Kern. 

So if you are looking for a short read, a book about LGBTQ+ characters or storyline, books about prejudice or want to read about different cultures (Jewish culture), then I highly recommend this book! - I highly recommend it anyways!!

I have the pleasure of reading and reviewing “Depart, Depart!” by Sim Kern. I phrase it this way because there is so much of this novella that is out of my scope of reality that I feel like it is an honor to be exposed to themes and lives that I know very little about. I mean I have never steered away from LGBTQ+ literature, movies, or the community, but “Depart, Depart!” feels different. This is a story that needs to be told, needs to be shouted, needs to be required.

Noah is in the middle of a fight for his life. When a hurricane floods Houston, he is bussed to Dallas to stay in a makeshift shelter for the Dallas Mavericks. He only escapes the flood because the young ghost of his great-grandfather Abe tells him that he has to leave and leave now. This premise is one that lured me into the novella, but the writing, characters, and themes are what allowed me to sit and read the entire story in one setting. There are so many things in this novella that can be talked about, can be explored, from LGBTQ+ issues and disrespect, from police arrogance and the way they interact differently with certain groups, from immigrantion and the treatment of refugees (even though in this case they are citizens from a neighboring city), from the fears of the uncertain future, this is a frightening book. There is tension and fear on every page, and this is the scariest kind of horror novella, one that explores how we treat one another.

I loved every page of this, every thread and theme, every statement about humanity and politics. I’m sure that this is not a novella that everyone will enjoy, but nobody can diminish the importance and timeliness of the work. I can also say that I started to follow Sim Kern on Twitter after reading this, and they have the most accurate and thought provoking tweets. I recommend following them. I recommend “Depart, Depart!”, especially for someone like me who does not know as much as he needs to know about the world around him. This is a thought provoking and haunting book. Every praise I can give it pales in the amount of praise it should receive.

I received this as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Depart, Depart! followed Noah into a large hurricane shelter after he has lost everything. The hurricane took his friends, his community, his home, his car and his sense of safety.....and his Testosterone pills. Now he is surrounded by a crowd of "all american red-blooded" Texans who have also lost everything and all he has left is his backpack and, under his loose hoody...his binder that keeps his breasts flattened to his chest. As he stands in line to enter the stadium he also discovers that he has Abe, the ghost of his great-grandfather who survived the holocaust of Nazi Germany, along to guide him. As Noah navigates the shelter he finds new community among the shelterees and new things to fears too.

As I read Depart, Depart I tended to get into my "professional head" as a Public Health Response Coordinator and take mental notes of things to do to make sure that EVERYONE feels safe in any shelter or response operation I have a part in. Everyone needs to feel safe in the showers, restrooms and bigotry and bullying must not be tolerated. During a meeting I was once asked "what if the evacuation bus driver doesn't want a transgendered person on the bus"? My answer was, "then the driver can walk and someone else can drive the bus." I also appreciate that Sim Kern included the needs of those with Sensory issues in the book. People who don't have sensitivity to lights, sound, heat, etc have no idea how difficult it is and how panic inducing it is when you can find no relief. There are tools and methods to help these people, which in turn, helps everyone. The bottom line is that all disaster shelters should have at least one on-site advocate to ensure that the needs to everyone are met and to ensure that everyone feels safe. I am going to recommend this book to our state Red Cross Director. #SimKern #Depart,Depart! #netgalley

I absolutely loved this hopeful, beautiful novel about solidarity, the development of identity, and the strength of community and love and acceptance. Noah is a survivor of a devastating hurricane that destroys Houston. Evacuated to Dallas, he's given shelter in an athletic arena, where neighborhoods of similar folks spring up. There he finds other trans people who are--like him--in need of medical care and emotional support. And to top it all off, Noah is being haunted by his great-grandfather Abe, whose presence has been both life-saving and disquieting. Over the course of several weeks, Noah and his new friends form tight bonds, face very real and very dangerous transphobia and other forms of bigotry, and begin to make steps towards creating new lives for themselves.

Kern does an absolutely beautiful job of showing the ways in which trans people are treated by those who are ignorant, unaccepting, or think of themselves as allies but haven't truly gotten past deeply ingrained beliefs to the contrary. They illustrate the difficulties that all refugees from minority groups in volatile situations like those that arise in shelters are forced to face, and show how much it can mean to have a few people in authority on your side. They also write with great depth about the struggles in trying to reconcile religion with lived experiences. Noah is a secular Jew, but in researching why Abe is haunting him, he finds religious texts and arguments that are both enormously uplifting and relatable, and others that make him push back from identifying as a Jew. Based on my own reading, I think secular Jews and queer people are going to feel a chill of understanding as they read about Noah's experiences as he thinks about his Jewish heritage and the way its religious texts can offer both comfort and despair.

This is such a real story, and such an important one, that I want this novel to succeed: I want it taught in schools, I want it chosen for book clubs and reading groups, I want it on library displays everywhere. I want everyone to read it, and hope.