ENHANCE YOU

Stefani Nellen's riveting debut novel, ENHANCE YOU, is described by Jim Kelly as "a thriller with a literary soul."

What happens when prescription drugs that alter the very fabric of our brain chemistry-drugs that claim to make us happier, smarter, more efficient-are consumed by almost every human being on the planet? And what happens when a population dependent on these drugs reaches a neurological tipping point, and the only thing to do is crash? Against the backdrop of a near-future society once preoccupied by a mad rush to self-improve at all costs, ENHANCE YOU offers a timely meditation on prescription drug addiction. Wilson and Danielle are called Flatheads-some of the only ones left in the world-otherwise known as those who have never engaged in taking an Enhancer. Enhancers, known as MEMORY, ENCODE, SOLVE, and more, are widely consumed pharmaceuticals that drastically improve the brainpower of the taker. But Wilson and Danielle, previously derided for their cautious outlook on Enhancers, are now burdened with the task of caring-taking care of their loved ones whose brains have become addled by Enhancer abuse: the Crash Heads. In a foggy, run-down Pittsburgh of the near-future, where Wilson and Danielle reside, more and more ordinary citizens are becoming Crash Heads, creating a society no longer capable of running itself. But with the world quickly falling into disarray, Wilson and Danielle enlist the help of Mender, the only pharmacologist advanced enough to potentially concoct a cure for the world's rapidly diminishing neurological health. Mender, however, has become a victim of crashing himself, as a direct result of his own pharmaceutical experimentation, and has to navigate his tenuous memory in order to do so. Nellen has imagined a nuanced world that is simultaneously thrilling and disturbing for its proximity to ours. Nellen has degrees in Psychology from the University of Heidelberg and Carnegie Mellon University. As a writer, she has been a graduate of the Clarion Workshop, where she studied with Kelly Link and Neil Gaiman, among others. Her story "Men in Pink Tutus" won first prize in the Glimmer Train Fiction Open in June 2012 (published in the Fall of 2013 and attached as a PDF). Her inspirations are cognitive science, the mind, a deep and abiding love of running, and, with the rapid growth of her first son, the mysteries of motherhood. She lives with her family in the Netherlands.