YES I just finished the new Franny Choi and it was soooo good - part cultural criticism and part memoir, framing anti-Asian racism and misogyny in the context of our current moment in tech. I think the question they grappled with the most - who is allowed the dignity of humanity, and why is racialized violence enacted on cyborgs with Asian femme faces - was such an interesting angle. I think that the way Franny Choi talks about race and gender through feeling non-human is just. Really gutting but visceral stuff. Def look into the TWs for this.

I didn’t love the new Olivie Blake but I do think that she does really interesting things with narrative style in approaching a gothic set in Hollywood. I also really liked The Manor of Dreams by Christina Li, We Hexed the Moon, Best Offer Wins, and Into the Blue… though I think the last one does some stuff character-wise that I thought was incredibly corny. Hanif Abdurraqib just formally announced his forthcoming poetry book and there’s new Lauren Milici on the horizon, and those are my go-tos for writing inspo.

Honestly, I’ve DNFed or 2 starred so many books this year and I need a win