AllNight Pharmacy, Ruth Madievsky
AllNight Pharmacy, Ruth Madievsky
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All-Night Pharmacy
A Novel

Author: Ruth Madievsky

Narrator: Moniqua Plante

Unabridged: 8 hr

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/08/2023


Synopsis

On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister Debbie to Salvation, a Los Angeles bar patronized by energy healers, aspiring actors, and all-around misfits. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions—nothing unusual for two sisters bound in an incredibly toxic relationship. Our unnamed narrator has always been under the spell of the alluring and rebellious Debbie and, despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears.

Falling deeper into the life she cultivated with her sister, our narrator gets a job as an emergency room secretary where she steals pills to sell on the side. Cue Sasha, a Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union who arrives at the hospital claiming to be a psychic tasked with acting as the narrator's spiritual guide. The nature of this relationship evolves and blurs, a kaleidoscope of friendship, sex, mysticism, and ambiguous power dynamics.

With prose pulsing like a neon sign, All-Night Pharmacy is an intoxicating portrait of a young woman consumed with unease over how a person should be. As she attempts sobriety and sexual embodiment, she must decide whether to search for her estranged sister, or allow her to remain a relic of the past.

About Ruth Madievsky

Ruth Madievsky is the author of a bestselling poetry collection, Emergency Brake. Her work appears in Harper's Bazaar, Guernica, Literary Hub, Kenyon Review, Ploughshares, and elsewhere. She is a founding member of the Cheburashka Collective, a community of women and nonbinary writers from the former Soviet Union. Originally from Moldova, she lives in Los Angeles, where she works as an HIV and primary care pharmacist.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Ruth

I wrote this book! It slaps.......more

Goodreads review by el

all-night pharmacy marks yet another submission into what i call the (ever-growing) domestic dread literary niche: contemporary books following disillusioned young women flailing against their sociocultural bindings through unhealthy relationships with sex and desire (read: men, men, men, and more m......more

Goodreads review by Zoe

what a lovely first read of the year. it’s about sisterhood and generational trauma and finding a way to live beyond the shadow of family: both those closest to you and those who came long before. more queer girl coming of age stories pls 💖 out 7/11!......more

Goodreads review by Thomas

3.5 stars I deeply resonated with certain elements of this book and found other parts more boring. To start with the positives, I think Ruth Madievsky did a great job portraying the difficult cycle of addiction, both in regard to substances and relationships. Our unnamed protagonist struggles with pi......more

Goodreads review by Cassie

Being Debbie’s sister was obliterating. It was also the closest thing to knowing who I was. All-Night Pharmacy follows an unnamed narrator who, shortly after she graduates from high school, becomes addicted to pills, following in the footsteps of her older sister Debbie, whom she idolizes. Then D......more