Failure to Comply is a speculative novel by Cavar, set to be released in August 2024 from Featherproof Books. The novel follows a nameless protagonist who exists around the fringes of a high-tech authoritarian society dubbed the RSCH. They live in the wild with their partner Reya, but are soon captured by the RSCH to be mined for forbidden memories, doing their best to survive the intrusive medical treatments and retain their personhood.

The novel is highly disorienting from the start, but intentionally so, as the narrator is struggling to hold onto their memories and their understanding of the world around them as the world picks apart their biology. In the RSCH, bodies are policed and cultivated to highest forms of purity, where any such deviance can result in erasure from society. This means that all food is restricted to brown shakes, emotions like aggression and grief are banned, and any sense of privacy with one’s body is highly-monitored and subject to punishment.

Through a mix of speculative prose, interview transcripts, and surreal poetry, Cavar creates a terrifying dystopia of the body, but where the narrator and Reya find peace in the ability to explore their sex and genders free from the constraints of society. One where they can choose names for themselves and willingly be anything they want. This freedom of language defies the restrictions of their society, where words like “Truth” and “Knowledge” are commodified data and weaponized against the societal dissenters.

Failure to Comply may be difficult to take in, but the warnings it presents for a society that views the body as property are valuable as anti-trans policies are legislated and non-cisgender individuals are persecuted. It’s surreal and challenging, but asks one to really study their body and appreciate their autonomy of it.