$24.99, 230 pages The picaresque novel, an antic, entertaining genre first developed among Spanish writers in the 1500s, usually features a low born rogue who lives on his wits in a louche world populated by similarly ragged and ethically ambiguous anti-heroes. The gendered pronoun in the last sentence is used advisedly. Until recently, the heroes of picaresque novels have been usually, although not entirely, male. Victoria author Allie McFarland’s delightful new novella, Disappearing in Reverse, playfully reverses that genre convention by making her protagonist a young woman and sending her off on a quest for a lost lover, presumed dead but now turning up in mysterious images online.