In the blank quotidian spaces of Matthew Meade’s debut collection, circumstances of profound and surreal horror—reanimated corpses, “energy weapons,” highbrow artwork that’s alive—dissipate with deadpan ease into sensitive accounts of ordinary human resilience. With its heartfelt portraits of a magical world where late-stage capitalism has blurred the boundaries between the living and the dead, "Strip Mall" presents a strangely grace-filled vision of the dystopia already upon us.