If Noé Wade is studying human emotions, Zoe Mira is his crash course in feeling everything at once.
Twenty-two, marketing student, part-time blogger. Dances in the kitchen at 2am to jazz records, cries at Turkish dramas, wears pyjamas covered in cartoon characters. The kind of person who laughs so loudly she makes strangers smile.
She’s the human hurricane who becomes Noé’s flatmate completely by accident. He arrives at their shared house expecting quiet research conditions. Instead he gets someone who treats life like a full-contact sport.
Zoe lives entirely through her emotions. Happy, sad, excited, devastated – sometimes all within the same hour. For an alien trying to understand feelings analytically, she’s both perfect subject and complete nightmare.
Her name fits perfectly: Zoe means “life” in Greek, Mira means “wonder” in Latin. She’s living wonder, unpredictable as a variable star.
Early in the story, she thinks her new flatmate is just extremely antisocial. He thinks she’s chaos incarnate. Neither realises they’re about to teach each other what it means to be human.
She cooks elaborate meals and insists on sharing them. He doesn’t understand why food preparation involves so much emotional investment. She doesn’t understand why he takes notes during conversations.
But here’s the thing about opposites – they don’t just attract, they transform each other.
Coming July. Prepare for the collision between analytical observation and pure feeling. It’s messier than you think.
Daria Ryzhikova Writer