Book Club: The World Wasn’t Ready for You with Justin C. Key
December 10, 2024— 8 PM ET to 9 PM ET
Fourth Quarter Book Club
The World Wasn’t Ready for You by Justin C. Key
Once a quarter Mary Robinette hosts a book club for her Patreon members and for December, we’re focusing on the short story, “The World Wasn’t Ready for You” in the collection of the same name by Justin C. Key. Order it on bookshop.org to support your local bookstore. It is not required that you read the book prior to coming but it is encouraged!
The first 20 minutes will be released publically and during that time Mary Robinette asks her questions. After 20 (ish) minutes she opens the floor to the audience to join in the conversation.
Join by subscribing to her Patreon at the Book Club and Classes level. A 7-day free trial is available; if you wish to use this option, make sure you register within 7 days of the Book Club virtual event.
When you sign up, you will also gain access to all tier benefits below this level including a monthly writing class and a monthly Q&A with Mary Robinette. You also gain access to all previous book club recordings and over 70 hours of class recordings.
About the Author
Justin C. Key wanted to write for as long as he can remember. He blended his passions for science and writing by penning short stories in middle school and sat down to draw up his first novel while studying Biology at Stanford University. He’s been writing ever since.
His short stories have appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Crossed Genres, and KYSO Flash, as well as in the revolutionary children’s iPad application, FarFaria. He held a writing advice blog for several years at Scribophile.com and worked as a professional health blogger and content editor at WellnessFX while applying to medical school. Justin’s medical training richly informs his writing, and the power of story and narrative allows him to connect with patients on a deeper level.
Justin lives in Los Angeles with his wonderful wife, two sons, and daughter. Even as a full-time Psychiatrist, he finds ample time to write. Just don’t ask him how he does it; he wouldn’t be able to tell you.
About the Story
Justin C. Key has long been obsessed with monsters. Reading R. L. Stine’s Goosebumps as a kid, he imagined himself battling monsters and mayhem to a triumphant end. But when watching Scream 2, in which the movie’s only Black couple is promptly killed off, he realized that the Black and Brown characters in his favorite genre were almost always the victim or villain—if they were portrayed at all.
In The World Wasn’t Ready for You collection, Key expands and subverts the horror genre to expertly explore issues of race, class, prejudice, love, exclusion, loneliness, and what it means to be a person in the world, while revealing the horrifying nature inherent in all of us. In the title story we will be focusing on for Book Club, a father tries to protect his son, teaching him how to navigate a prejudiced world that does not understand him and sees him as a threat.
The World Wasn’t Ready for You is a gripping, provocative, and distinctly original collection that demonstrates Key’s remarkable literary gifts—a skill at crafting science fiction stories equaled by an ability to sculpt characters and narrative—as well as his utterly fresh take on how genre can be used to delight, awe, frighten, and ultimately challenge our perceptions. Wildly imaginative and powerfully resonant, it introduces an unforgettable new voice in fiction.
