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Dykette
An addictive, absurd, and darkly hilarious debut novel about a young woman who embarks on a ten-day getaway with her partner and two other queer couples
Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians—prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda—invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple—Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy—whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.
As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future.
Unfolding over ten heady days, Dykette is an unforgettable love story at the crossroads of queer nonconformity and seductive normativity. With propulsive plotting and sexy, wickedly entertaining prose, Jenny Fran Davis captures the vagaries of desire and the many devastating places in which we seek recognition.
Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians—prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda—invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple—Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy—whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.
As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future.
Unfolding over ten heady days, Dykette is an unforgettable love story at the crossroads of queer nonconformity and seductive normativity. With propulsive plotting and sexy, wickedly entertaining prose, Jenny Fran Davis captures the vagaries of desire and the many devastating places in which we seek recognition.
320 pages, Hardcover
First published May 16, 2023
About the author
Jenny Fran Davis
3 books156 followersJenny Fran Davis received her MFA at the University of Iowa, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. She lives in Brooklyn, NY.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 1,148 reviews
June 11, 2023
this book would kill a straight person
January 1, 2023
Straight people are going to be downright confused by a lot of this book and queer people are probably going to fight about it. This is, truly, a victory and perhaps the most important accomplishment for a queer novel these days. The market really wants a more friendly, watered-down queerness instead of the mess it really is, so I am delighted this novel was published.
Let's start with all the things I really liked about this book. It has a lot to say about the generational divides, the difference between a 20-something queer person and a 40-something queer person can be ridiculously vast and Davis spends much of the novel turning this over and looking at it from angle after angle. There is gender diversity here that feels actually accurate, with a masc nonbinary person and a butch who uses he/him pronouns along with she/her and still identifies as a lesbian. Along with the generational divides, this book is also very interested in the butch/femme dynamic, especially the performance and competition among femmes. The performance art in this book is bold and legitimately shocking, often in this kind of novel a big art setpiece cannot really deliver what it needs to the plot but oh this one does.
With all that said, ultimately I could not tell if this was a book that is trying to skewer the performance of aesthetics or if it is trying to celebrate them. I did not like any of these characters, which is fine. But Sasha and her constant need to be admired, to be petted and coddled, is exhausting. It is hard to say whether Darcy, Sasha's rival, is actually more genuine or if she is putting it all on as much as Sasha is, much to Sasha's chagrin. It is rather fascinating to see the two of them try to one up each other (and occasionally, when she puts in the effort, both get showed up by Miranda) but then you wonder what is it all for?
I admit that this novel is not really For Me because I have basically no patience for Status Queers and the particular brand of lesbian this book is about. The Performative Aesthetics are a big part of that, which made this book almost constantly grating for me.
Let's start with all the things I really liked about this book. It has a lot to say about the generational divides, the difference between a 20-something queer person and a 40-something queer person can be ridiculously vast and Davis spends much of the novel turning this over and looking at it from angle after angle. There is gender diversity here that feels actually accurate, with a masc nonbinary person and a butch who uses he/him pronouns along with she/her and still identifies as a lesbian. Along with the generational divides, this book is also very interested in the butch/femme dynamic, especially the performance and competition among femmes. The performance art in this book is bold and legitimately shocking, often in this kind of novel a big art setpiece cannot really deliver what it needs to the plot but oh this one does.
With all that said, ultimately I could not tell if this was a book that is trying to skewer the performance of aesthetics or if it is trying to celebrate them. I did not like any of these characters, which is fine. But Sasha and her constant need to be admired, to be petted and coddled, is exhausting. It is hard to say whether Darcy, Sasha's rival, is actually more genuine or if she is putting it all on as much as Sasha is, much to Sasha's chagrin. It is rather fascinating to see the two of them try to one up each other (and occasionally, when she puts in the effort, both get showed up by Miranda) but then you wonder what is it all for?
I admit that this novel is not really For Me because I have basically no patience for Status Queers and the particular brand of lesbian this book is about. The Performative Aesthetics are a big part of that, which made this book almost constantly grating for me.
August 5, 2023
Both me and this author (autofiction slay) getting our PhDs in delusional high femme/“straight for butches”/crazy lesbian at twitterinstagram university
December 2, 2022
‘Vivienne woke before Sasha and Jesse. Her need to pee wasn’t super urgent, so she nestled with her back against Sasha's stomach (though in general she preferred to be big spoon…)’
This novel is written in one semicolorful declarative sentence after another and there is honestly something appealing about the pah-pah-pah rhythm set up by this kind of prose, like the appeal of reading something written by a teenager who draws little hearts above the i’s instead of a dot, and although I found the story pointless and shallow maybe it’s purposefully pointless and shallow, like those pop art Campbell soup cans that were already passé the first time you saw one, and although this novel is not as interesting as the arrangement of old chewing gums you happen to notice on the sidewalk as you’re walking along, it almost is.
This novel is written in one semicolorful declarative sentence after another and there is honestly something appealing about the pah-pah-pah rhythm set up by this kind of prose, like the appeal of reading something written by a teenager who draws little hearts above the i’s instead of a dot, and although I found the story pointless and shallow maybe it’s purposefully pointless and shallow, like those pop art Campbell soup cans that were already passé the first time you saw one, and although this novel is not as interesting as the arrangement of old chewing gums you happen to notice on the sidewalk as you’re walking along, it almost is.
July 13, 2023
If Lena Dunham was a book.
July 20, 2023
Other reviews claiming that this oeuvre will "kill a straight person", have them "confused" or "hate this book" made me want to read it, but alas, I'm neither dead nor shocked nor raging, I'm not even properly entertained by this beach read-y lesbian relationship story. Our protagonist is Sasha, a femme lesbian in her twenties who loves all things girly and is here for the toxic womanhood the average magazine sells to usually straight women. Her butch partner Jesse isn't into the traditional marriage blablabla, but Sasha has an eye on Jules anyway (who is basically Rachel Maddow). So Sasha is your average normcore pick-me girlie performing her gender and conforming to societal expectations, she's just also a lesbian. Why should a lesbian character not be a clichéd, needy, ultra-feminine, toxic woman? I don't see the shock value here.
The book has some interesting things to say about generational changes and trans identity, but what annoyed me is that it sees itself as somehow edgelord-y, when it's mainly about the protagonist being an anti-feminist idiot - and I don't mean the outward presentation (who am I to comment on that, a woman who owns three pink coats and a concerning amount of shoes and handbags?), I mean the way Sasha behaves, which does not somehow become empowering when you call it high femme, as it insinuates that women are terribly vapid, needy creatures out for comparisons and cat fights with other women.
So I applaud the novel for intending to discuss that femininity can mean many different things, also related to class, race, and sex, but ultimately, it's unfortunately rather exhausting and boring to follow Sasha performing the most stereotypical kind of womanhood, the kind that is often referenced by misogynists.
The essay that was the starting point for the novel: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/h...
The book has some interesting things to say about generational changes and trans identity, but what annoyed me is that it sees itself as somehow edgelord-y, when it's mainly about the protagonist being an anti-feminist idiot - and I don't mean the outward presentation (who am I to comment on that, a woman who owns three pink coats and a concerning amount of shoes and handbags?), I mean the way Sasha behaves, which does not somehow become empowering when you call it high femme, as it insinuates that women are terribly vapid, needy creatures out for comparisons and cat fights with other women.
So I applaud the novel for intending to discuss that femininity can mean many different things, also related to class, race, and sex, but ultimately, it's unfortunately rather exhausting and boring to follow Sasha performing the most stereotypical kind of womanhood, the kind that is often referenced by misogynists.
The essay that was the starting point for the novel: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/h...
July 7, 2023
A 2.5 rounded up.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC.
I'm probably one of the readers who went into this book knowing what would await me. I've been around this kind of white femme my whole adult life. Some of them are wonderful. Others are like Sasha, Dykette’s main character.
Sasha is, if you've read the author's prior work, pretty obviously a self-insert. Same dog, same opinions, same behavior by her own admission. There are other characters who are also avatars. Sasha's primary rival, Darcy, is unmistakably a spin on a certain Brooklyn it-girl. Jules is nakedly Rachel Maddow.
But male authors do autofiction all the time and no one says a word. This is not my problem with the book, though it sometimes read like the internal argument one has with their imaginary enemy. It often read like practice for a conversation the author would like to have in person, or a rebuttal forgotten in the heat of the moment.
Despite this, I am fond of Davis' writing style. The book was an easy, beachy kind of read even though it's set between Christmas and New Year's Day. I found some scenes genuinely impactful, the one at the upstate thrift store for instance.
So let's get into why it's a 2.5 for me.
The book is beautifully written, but has very little to say. It builds itself up as some modern take on white butch/femme dynamics. It cannot accomplish this because the butches in the book, two of them trans, are marginalized by the text itself.
And look, I'm hard to shock with queer books, but implying your trans partner looks like a sex offender not once but TWICE in a book? That is actually a major, and pretty transphobic departure from butch/femme literature thus far.
I don't care if Sasha is a bad person, though of course she’s a bad person. That's not enough to ruin a book for me. But if this is what a loving homage to butches, particularly transmasculine ones, looks like in 2023, then I am sorry for the mascs because this ain't it.
Of course the racial dynamics were shitty, but I didn't come to this book expecting a nuanced conversation about American racial dynamics.
The lone femme of color gets lost in the sauce of the book. Her threads are never finished. Why is she being flamed online? We never learn. What's wrong with her body, something we get hints about? We never learn.
She gets absorbed as a mommy figure for Sasha and her far cooler rival. Which would be fine if she had any independence or agency at all that wasn't literally a sexual performance for the white characters in the book.
Even that I could have let go, having read JFD's other work and other works of the same ilk, were it not for the book's insistence on how groundbreaking and profound the narrator's internal life was. She truly writes, as does Davis, as if this work is the second coming of A Restricted Country or Stone Butch Blues. It's not.
Even the lane that is Dykette's birthright, that of Maggie Nelson and Michelle Tea-esque queer or queered femme writing, isn't improved by this addition to the genre.
It is an upper middle class lesbian sex romp that masks its own uncertainty about identity in grand proclamations and casual transphobia, while making the case for being terrible as an inherent part of some "modern" rich white cis femme identity.
Thank you to NetGalley for providing an ARC.
I'm probably one of the readers who went into this book knowing what would await me. I've been around this kind of white femme my whole adult life. Some of them are wonderful. Others are like Sasha, Dykette’s main character.
Sasha is, if you've read the author's prior work, pretty obviously a self-insert. Same dog, same opinions, same behavior by her own admission. There are other characters who are also avatars. Sasha's primary rival, Darcy, is unmistakably a spin on a certain Brooklyn it-girl. Jules is nakedly Rachel Maddow.
But male authors do autofiction all the time and no one says a word. This is not my problem with the book, though it sometimes read like the internal argument one has with their imaginary enemy. It often read like practice for a conversation the author would like to have in person, or a rebuttal forgotten in the heat of the moment.
Despite this, I am fond of Davis' writing style. The book was an easy, beachy kind of read even though it's set between Christmas and New Year's Day. I found some scenes genuinely impactful, the one at the upstate thrift store for instance.
So let's get into why it's a 2.5 for me.
The book is beautifully written, but has very little to say. It builds itself up as some modern take on white butch/femme dynamics. It cannot accomplish this because the butches in the book, two of them trans, are marginalized by the text itself.
And look, I'm hard to shock with queer books, but implying your trans partner looks like a sex offender not once but TWICE in a book? That is actually a major, and pretty transphobic departure from butch/femme literature thus far.
I don't care if Sasha is a bad person, though of course she’s a bad person. That's not enough to ruin a book for me. But if this is what a loving homage to butches, particularly transmasculine ones, looks like in 2023, then I am sorry for the mascs because this ain't it.
Of course the racial dynamics were shitty, but I didn't come to this book expecting a nuanced conversation about American racial dynamics.
The lone femme of color gets lost in the sauce of the book. Her threads are never finished. Why is she being flamed online? We never learn. What's wrong with her body, something we get hints about? We never learn.
She gets absorbed as a mommy figure for Sasha and her far cooler rival. Which would be fine if she had any independence or agency at all that wasn't literally a sexual performance for the white characters in the book.
Even that I could have let go, having read JFD's other work and other works of the same ilk, were it not for the book's insistence on how groundbreaking and profound the narrator's internal life was. She truly writes, as does Davis, as if this work is the second coming of A Restricted Country or Stone Butch Blues. It's not.
Even the lane that is Dykette's birthright, that of Maggie Nelson and Michelle Tea-esque queer or queered femme writing, isn't improved by this addition to the genre.
It is an upper middle class lesbian sex romp that masks its own uncertainty about identity in grand proclamations and casual transphobia, while making the case for being terrible as an inherent part of some "modern" rich white cis femme identity.
June 16, 2023
insufferable, but one star for lesbians
June 9, 2023
FINALLY a good lesbian book with REAL BUTCHES and FEMMES!!!!!!! (throwback to "total soft butch" from whatever that one book was LOL). genuinely so refreshing to read after so many one dimensional "sapphic" rom coms that quake in their boots at the thought of having to say the word lesbian or (god forbid) having a single butch character lmfao. this book was messy and gross and funny and had me laughing screaming shaking crying etc. at its exploration of intergenerational lesbian culture and insights into what goes on in the heads of evil jealous (pretty) femmes
December 23, 2023
I wanted to like this and sit with the cool girls. I will remain a dweeb today
June 26, 2023
this will be a book you either love or hate. and me? I LOVED it. this is my junk food. it’s quite literally, the perfect type of book i want from contemporary lesbian stories (maybe with a black lead instead but yknow, baby steps ig).
similar to many hetero books, dykette is a story about what white people get up to when the mundanity of life is just too much to bare, except it’s so much better because we have hot butches, one sided dyke beef and a femme that is a chronic attention seeker, over-thinker and desperate to tell you all about how much she wants to fuck and take care of butches. (basically, she’s so me!). it’s written in this fun and very…’modern’ way by someone that actually knows what internet dykes and other queers are up to and not just in a “hello fellow internet crew!” way. it’s very in your face and the audiobook is so fun. even though i’m very much going to get a physical copy, i highly suggest you consume the book via audiobook!
i think one of the reasons i like this book so much is because it feels specifically tailored to me. not straight people, honestly, not even general queer people, and even more honestly, probably not even general lesbians. this book feels very much for butches and femmes. i really hope we get to see more lesbian lit that openly embraces butch femme culture, not in just historical fiction where there’s the whole “oh forbidden!” aspect but just in general fun novels like this. where we get to see bitchiness, overdramatic behaviours and well “high femme camp antics”.
similar to many hetero books, dykette is a story about what white people get up to when the mundanity of life is just too much to bare, except it’s so much better because we have hot butches, one sided dyke beef and a femme that is a chronic attention seeker, over-thinker and desperate to tell you all about how much she wants to fuck and take care of butches. (basically, she’s so me!). it’s written in this fun and very…’modern’ way by someone that actually knows what internet dykes and other queers are up to and not just in a “hello fellow internet crew!” way. it’s very in your face and the audiobook is so fun. even though i’m very much going to get a physical copy, i highly suggest you consume the book via audiobook!
i think one of the reasons i like this book so much is because it feels specifically tailored to me. not straight people, honestly, not even general queer people, and even more honestly, probably not even general lesbians. this book feels very much for butches and femmes. i really hope we get to see more lesbian lit that openly embraces butch femme culture, not in just historical fiction where there’s the whole “oh forbidden!” aspect but just in general fun novels like this. where we get to see bitchiness, overdramatic behaviours and well “high femme camp antics”.
June 19, 2023
2023 LGBTQIA+ Pride Month #6 ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜
I read in many reviews that this is a queer book written for queer people, so I was excited to pick it up. And I get it. So many queer books are made palatable for a straight audience.
Ekene were just talking about how a large proportion of straight women will read M/M, but not F/F. I have done absolutely zero research on the matter, so don't quote me, but is it possibly because they can't "see themselves" in the characters?
Anyway, this book is unapologetically lesbian, and I'm here for it. Sasha is inherently unlikeable as a narrator, and that's fine. What's important here, for me, because I'm sure the queer community is already familiar, is learning so many terms and nuances that go on between relationships. And that's not to say these relationships are indicative of a whole. But they're certainly not cookie-cutter. This is what I like about expanding my reading. You learn something new every day, if you let yourself.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.
I read in many reviews that this is a queer book written for queer people, so I was excited to pick it up. And I get it. So many queer books are made palatable for a straight audience.
Ekene were just talking about how a large proportion of straight women will read M/M, but not F/F. I have done absolutely zero research on the matter, so don't quote me, but is it possibly because they can't "see themselves" in the characters?
Anyway, this book is unapologetically lesbian, and I'm here for it. Sasha is inherently unlikeable as a narrator, and that's fine. What's important here, for me, because I'm sure the queer community is already familiar, is learning so many terms and nuances that go on between relationships. And that's not to say these relationships are indicative of a whole. But they're certainly not cookie-cutter. This is what I like about expanding my reading. You learn something new every day, if you let yourself.
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher.
July 11, 2023
Everyone needs therapy
May 25, 2023
Surprised this wasn’t written by AI that just learned about lesbians….horribly vapid simplification of queerness all in one book.
May 16, 2023
now available
The style of this book is very gay-insiderish, so not every reader will get all the little references, like "Renaissance Butch."
The novel is an exploration not just of lesbian butch and femme relationships, but also of older well-off gays vs. baby gays just starting out. It's clear that the older couple are in charge of every last detail of this vacation getaway, even when they appear to be accomodating. Anytime they're being informative, they're also being performative, and assertive about their strict parameters.
In the beginning, of the three couples at the vacation farmhouse. Sasha and Jesse are the most defined and fleshed out. Early in the novel, other than evidence of their strident posture, we don't know much about who Jules and Miranda are.
A quick aside : Jules seems rather obviously based on Rachel Maddow. Though Jules is a very different person, with basically the same bio as the common denominator.
The story moves along a while before Lou and Darcy, the third couple, finally arrives. Truly, Sasha's neuroses are fed by the number of stimuli available, so maybe staying with two other couples in a house, even a big one, might not be a good idea. This is quickly confirmed as Darcy the Internet Influencer takes center stage and anything else she can take.
Soon, all the personalities are sorted out for us, but Sasha remains our lens through which all events unfold. And one puzzling particular trait stands out: Sasha's obtuseness when it comes to art, whether created or found in the natural world. We begin to see that sonething has happened in her life to derail the way she relates to beauty. It's as if she distrusts the beautiful so much that she can no longer stand to see it.
Atmospherically, the air is crackling, it's so charged around these three couples. Electricity of attraction collides with rapid fire judgements. We sense danger ahead in the form of rage, want, and need, bubbling up through the constant display of startling aggression. Frankly, all the posturing has to be exhausting. It certainly is exhausting to read.
Lou seems the most comfortable with themselves, and Jules is the most pretentious, like she always has to try too hard.
Sasha starts off well, being able to occupy her most comfortable space, as an observer, she remains separate from the crowd, away from all the puffing and preening. It cannot last. It doesn't.
And what is Sasha's big problem? She's constantly enraged, and she needs to find drama to pin it on, a cause outside of herself. Otherwise, she will have to look at herself as the actual source.
The author makes it seem that most Lipstick Lesbians are hella insecure and emotionally volatile. That is certainly true for some, but it's hard to stereotype, well, a *type*. But, the author nails it with the revelation that many relationships are predicated on shaky ground, where each person is acting to present the best, most attractive version of themselves, like an image filter.
The games these people play with each other are weird, but not impossible to imagine, until it escalates into painfully absurd territory.
Sasha, for all her baggage, does understand more than she gets credit for. She has a keen intuitive sense for real vulnerability, and the kind of gender fluidity reserved for those one really trusts. The trouble is, none of these characters are all that trustworthy.
Even when these folks are hungover, they still put so much effort into preserving their persona. Their most public dramas are well-known by the group, but their energy isn't taken up by trying to defend themselves, but rather by trying to pretend that nothing bothers them. Some go as far as self-deprecation in order to seem above all that pfaff.
Just when you think you've seen the edges of this group's eccentricities, they break out the Instagram costumery they've brought along. Who brings fricken angel wings to a holiday getaway?!?
It occurs to me, sadly, through the interactions of these characters, that lesbians can be just as catty as anyone else, and twice as competitive. In this crowd, you're only as popular as your last antics.
And Jesus, the antics of these women are flat-out annoying. There's not nearly enough tenderness or humor to even begin to balance out all the nonstop fraught, uncomfortable exchanges. At some point, I wanted to start walking away from all of them, on foot, if necessary. But, I won this book as a giveaway, so I decided to grit my teeth and stay the course.
The book is competently-written and character-driven, but the characters gave me a headache. I would have seriously hated them, but they weren't even fun to dislike.
The style of this book is very gay-insiderish, so not every reader will get all the little references, like "Renaissance Butch."
The novel is an exploration not just of lesbian butch and femme relationships, but also of older well-off gays vs. baby gays just starting out. It's clear that the older couple are in charge of every last detail of this vacation getaway, even when they appear to be accomodating. Anytime they're being informative, they're also being performative, and assertive about their strict parameters.
In the beginning, of the three couples at the vacation farmhouse. Sasha and Jesse are the most defined and fleshed out. Early in the novel, other than evidence of their strident posture, we don't know much about who Jules and Miranda are.
A quick aside : Jules seems rather obviously based on Rachel Maddow. Though Jules is a very different person, with basically the same bio as the common denominator.
The story moves along a while before Lou and Darcy, the third couple, finally arrives. Truly, Sasha's neuroses are fed by the number of stimuli available, so maybe staying with two other couples in a house, even a big one, might not be a good idea. This is quickly confirmed as Darcy the Internet Influencer takes center stage and anything else she can take.
Soon, all the personalities are sorted out for us, but Sasha remains our lens through which all events unfold. And one puzzling particular trait stands out: Sasha's obtuseness when it comes to art, whether created or found in the natural world. We begin to see that sonething has happened in her life to derail the way she relates to beauty. It's as if she distrusts the beautiful so much that she can no longer stand to see it.
Atmospherically, the air is crackling, it's so charged around these three couples. Electricity of attraction collides with rapid fire judgements. We sense danger ahead in the form of rage, want, and need, bubbling up through the constant display of startling aggression. Frankly, all the posturing has to be exhausting. It certainly is exhausting to read.
Lou seems the most comfortable with themselves, and Jules is the most pretentious, like she always has to try too hard.
Sasha starts off well, being able to occupy her most comfortable space, as an observer, she remains separate from the crowd, away from all the puffing and preening. It cannot last. It doesn't.
And what is Sasha's big problem? She's constantly enraged, and she needs to find drama to pin it on, a cause outside of herself. Otherwise, she will have to look at herself as the actual source.
The author makes it seem that most Lipstick Lesbians are hella insecure and emotionally volatile. That is certainly true for some, but it's hard to stereotype, well, a *type*. But, the author nails it with the revelation that many relationships are predicated on shaky ground, where each person is acting to present the best, most attractive version of themselves, like an image filter.
The games these people play with each other are weird, but not impossible to imagine, until it escalates into painfully absurd territory.
Sasha, for all her baggage, does understand more than she gets credit for. She has a keen intuitive sense for real vulnerability, and the kind of gender fluidity reserved for those one really trusts. The trouble is, none of these characters are all that trustworthy.
Even when these folks are hungover, they still put so much effort into preserving their persona. Their most public dramas are well-known by the group, but their energy isn't taken up by trying to defend themselves, but rather by trying to pretend that nothing bothers them. Some go as far as self-deprecation in order to seem above all that pfaff.
Just when you think you've seen the edges of this group's eccentricities, they break out the Instagram costumery they've brought along. Who brings fricken angel wings to a holiday getaway?!?
It occurs to me, sadly, through the interactions of these characters, that lesbians can be just as catty as anyone else, and twice as competitive. In this crowd, you're only as popular as your last antics.
And Jesus, the antics of these women are flat-out annoying. There's not nearly enough tenderness or humor to even begin to balance out all the nonstop fraught, uncomfortable exchanges. At some point, I wanted to start walking away from all of them, on foot, if necessary. But, I won this book as a giveaway, so I decided to grit my teeth and stay the course.
The book is competently-written and character-driven, but the characters gave me a headache. I would have seriously hated them, but they weren't even fun to dislike.
June 27, 2023
possibly the worst book i've ever read. i need to read a colleen hoover book so my least favorite book of the year isn't about lesbians
Read
March 13, 2024UPDATE: lowered to one star because time has only made me hate this book more.
while i appreciate this book in some very real ways—there’s a lack of honest, sexually explicit, unapologetically lesbian contemporary fiction—it sparked some profound annoyance in me and I can’t say I enjoyed the actual reading experience.
indeed, i kind of despised this book from the first page, and yet I slogged my way through it because as a Literary Lesbian I felt like I had to. it does pick up significantly in the final fourth with some disturbing performance art and ensuing chaos.
in a nutshell, the focus of this book is on creating Dykette as a category— a sort of new high femme // femme-in-relation-to-butch // femme-as-seen-by-butch. Dykettes, judging from this book, are performative, over the top, insecure, protective, coquettish, concerned with beauty & aesthetics. they see other femmes as competition and butches as potential sexual / romantic partnership. butches are there to provide horniness / sexual interest, while the femmes receive. the sex scenes representing this idea were hot. I also didn’t mind the referencing of external texts in true Iowa MFA form—if you liked this aspect of In the Dream House or Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, this might interest you.
what little there exists of a plot mostly revolves around the dynamics between the protagonist, histrionic high-femme Sasha, and her stoic butch bf. it’s made clear that Jesse, the butch, feels sexually unwanted & pigeonholed because of the rigid constraints of the butch-femme dynamic on which Sasha gets off. Rather than the book being an arc of Sasha empathizing with her partners needs more, the book seems to double down on the idea that Jesse should empathize more with Sasha and her High Femme Camp Antics. the Big Conclusion at the end is just that these two are bad for each other and like—no shit.
Sasha is such an irritating, unpleasant character. Her constant recounting of her neuroses reminded me of that scene in Girls where Hannah is like, “I am thirteen pounds overweight and it has been miserable for me my whole life!” And I, the reader, feel like Adam Driver playing the world’s tiniest violin (and then immediately getting hit by a bus). Your mileage may vary here.
Then, on this book’s Message…. i don’t know…. butch femme dynamics just don’t really factor into my personal life. If that’s your bag that’s great, and i don’t begrudge you your subjectivity & preferences. But I don’t get how any of this is meant to look appealing. While I can’t deign to speak to the universal dyke experience either, I do think had the protagonist had tried to understand or relate any other kind of lesbian relationship dynamics, this book would have had a more realistic view on 21st century lesbianism. no one’s individual neuroses Say Something about Lesbinianism. but also, as a femme in style only, maybe I just didn’t get it. I’m not saying every gay book has to Say Something. But this book is purporting to, and that’s what’s often enraging (especially through the first 3/4 before shit gets moving plot-wise).
so yeah. I couldn’t really bring myself to care about the Dykette Subjectivity nor the brooklyn lesbian Scene presented here. the vision of lesbianism presented here is rigid, unempathetic, and rather unfun (side note: davis has a pointed section about people who lob Boring accusations, but i’m sorry, I had to kind of skim over much of this book. I groaned whenever a scene turned yet again to pages of useless exposition, whenever yet another outfit was meticulously described).
another tiny note is that there are also lots of allusions to the dirtbag left / Red Scare scene which I felt ashamed of understanding so well— I really hope darcy wasn’t based on the decidedly non-lesbian dasha nekastrova. one can only hope.
while i appreciate this book in some very real ways—there’s a lack of honest, sexually explicit, unapologetically lesbian contemporary fiction—it sparked some profound annoyance in me and I can’t say I enjoyed the actual reading experience.
indeed, i kind of despised this book from the first page, and yet I slogged my way through it because as a Literary Lesbian I felt like I had to. it does pick up significantly in the final fourth with some disturbing performance art and ensuing chaos.
in a nutshell, the focus of this book is on creating Dykette as a category— a sort of new high femme // femme-in-relation-to-butch // femme-as-seen-by-butch. Dykettes, judging from this book, are performative, over the top, insecure, protective, coquettish, concerned with beauty & aesthetics. they see other femmes as competition and butches as potential sexual / romantic partnership. butches are there to provide horniness / sexual interest, while the femmes receive. the sex scenes representing this idea were hot. I also didn’t mind the referencing of external texts in true Iowa MFA form—if you liked this aspect of In the Dream House or Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl, this might interest you.
what little there exists of a plot mostly revolves around the dynamics between the protagonist, histrionic high-femme Sasha, and her stoic butch bf. it’s made clear that Jesse, the butch, feels sexually unwanted & pigeonholed because of the rigid constraints of the butch-femme dynamic on which Sasha gets off. Rather than the book being an arc of Sasha empathizing with her partners needs more, the book seems to double down on the idea that Jesse should empathize more with Sasha and her High Femme Camp Antics. the Big Conclusion at the end is just that these two are bad for each other and like—no shit.
Sasha is such an irritating, unpleasant character. Her constant recounting of her neuroses reminded me of that scene in Girls where Hannah is like, “I am thirteen pounds overweight and it has been miserable for me my whole life!” And I, the reader, feel like Adam Driver playing the world’s tiniest violin (and then immediately getting hit by a bus). Your mileage may vary here.
Then, on this book’s Message…. i don’t know…. butch femme dynamics just don’t really factor into my personal life. If that’s your bag that’s great, and i don’t begrudge you your subjectivity & preferences. But I don’t get how any of this is meant to look appealing. While I can’t deign to speak to the universal dyke experience either, I do think had the protagonist had tried to understand or relate any other kind of lesbian relationship dynamics, this book would have had a more realistic view on 21st century lesbianism. no one’s individual neuroses Say Something about Lesbinianism. but also, as a femme in style only, maybe I just didn’t get it. I’m not saying every gay book has to Say Something. But this book is purporting to, and that’s what’s often enraging (especially through the first 3/4 before shit gets moving plot-wise).
so yeah. I couldn’t really bring myself to care about the Dykette Subjectivity nor the brooklyn lesbian Scene presented here. the vision of lesbianism presented here is rigid, unempathetic, and rather unfun (side note: davis has a pointed section about people who lob Boring accusations, but i’m sorry, I had to kind of skim over much of this book. I groaned whenever a scene turned yet again to pages of useless exposition, whenever yet another outfit was meticulously described).
another tiny note is that there are also lots of allusions to the dirtbag left / Red Scare scene which I felt ashamed of understanding so well— I really hope darcy wasn’t based on the decidedly non-lesbian dasha nekastrova. one can only hope.
May 16, 2023
THIS BOOK NEEDS A WARNING FOR DISTURBINGHEIMER CONTENT. You may go into it thinking it’s a silly fun satire about nyc lesbians but in fact it is actually sick, twisted, and perverted. And the characters are EXHAUSTING. They make being gay seem like non-stop homework. Every page is like butches must do this and femmes must do that, and you may think that it’s a critique of academia etc, but actually the main character is repeating the author’s real opinion (and her real weird sex life). and speaking of sex lives (?) this book genuinely made me want to vomit. i’m not kidding about the disturbingheimer content. DO NOT LET THE HYPE MAKE YOU WANT TO READ THIS. I am going absolute hater mode.
March 3, 2024
God. This book was insufferable I'm sorry. There was wayyy too much meaningless detail. It was a struggle to finish it. It was written so poorly, possibly my least favorite book I've read. It was humorless and reductive, following the most annoying and immature protagonist ever. A caricature of queer culture. Never has a characters whiteness been so apparent to me while reading a book. Thumbs down. Bummed because I was so excited to read this one.
February 8, 2023
A painfully Zillennial novel that you really don’t want to relate to, but cannot help it. THIS is how and unreliable narrator should be done - so unabashedly projecting her own insecurities while wildly aware of how absurd she is being. Though the narrative was a bit disjointed and jumpy in its timeline and points of view, it all comes together in a very thought-provoking exposé of my own queer insecurities and desires.
May 30, 2023
**ARC provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review**
Let's get this out of the way: I am not queer enough and too middle aged to enjoy this book. 6 lesbians vacationing together in an upstate house between Christmas and New Years sounded like a great setup for character study and exploration of the dynamic between them. In reality this book assumes that you already has a good understanding of the butch/femme dynamics and a lesbian scene and immediately dives into details that for a beginner LGBTQIA+ reader like me were definitely over my head.
When it comes to my not satisfied middle-ageness there was too much social media drama, talking about aesthetics of this or that culture and dwelling on the who-has-a-crush-on-who scenarios. I was not able to connect with main character, Sasha, because she spends majority of this book obsessing about what is cool and what is not, what she should do and think as a femme lesbian and how she should present herself to others. In relaxed setting of the sleepy time between Christmas and New Years Sasha is constantly tense, constantly overanalysing everything, constantly plotting how to be in the center of attention. It was so exhausting and felt quite pointless to me. Alas, I feel like I am not the target audience of this book and I did not understand it so take my review with the grain of salt.
Let's get this out of the way: I am not queer enough and too middle aged to enjoy this book. 6 lesbians vacationing together in an upstate house between Christmas and New Years sounded like a great setup for character study and exploration of the dynamic between them. In reality this book assumes that you already has a good understanding of the butch/femme dynamics and a lesbian scene and immediately dives into details that for a beginner LGBTQIA+ reader like me were definitely over my head.
When it comes to my not satisfied middle-ageness there was too much social media drama, talking about aesthetics of this or that culture and dwelling on the who-has-a-crush-on-who scenarios. I was not able to connect with main character, Sasha, because she spends majority of this book obsessing about what is cool and what is not, what she should do and think as a femme lesbian and how she should present herself to others. In relaxed setting of the sleepy time between Christmas and New Years Sasha is constantly tense, constantly overanalysing everything, constantly plotting how to be in the center of attention. It was so exhausting and felt quite pointless to me. Alas, I feel like I am not the target audience of this book and I did not understand it so take my review with the grain of salt.
April 1, 2023
A modern day bourgeois comedy of manners, that follows three couples of brooklyn-dykes on a winter holiday on Long Island. Sasha, our main character, is femme, high-strung, and 'straight for butches.' Her disposition lacks any crumb of an earnest heart, and like most of the characters in this book, I found her kind of insufferable. Her lesbian boyfriend, who is on T and uses he/him and she/her pronouns interchangeably, is at the whims of Sasha's projections, that range from strict gender roles, to non-consensual-roleplay during sex.
While the characters gave me less than something to like, I did find the Contemporary Queer Tableau a fascinating display of the upper echelon of dyke society. This book will be hit or miss for most people, and maybe even a little incomprehensible to the cis/hets. I guess my most sympathetic reading of Dykette is that dyke archetypes lack fun in most of the queer lit I've read, and this book was queer melodrama at its best. Maybe give it a try?! I don't know.
While the characters gave me less than something to like, I did find the Contemporary Queer Tableau a fascinating display of the upper echelon of dyke society. This book will be hit or miss for most people, and maybe even a little incomprehensible to the cis/hets. I guess my most sympathetic reading of Dykette is that dyke archetypes lack fun in most of the queer lit I've read, and this book was queer melodrama at its best. Maybe give it a try?! I don't know.
July 12, 2023
Sasha is the kind of girl you would feud with on Tumblr and know, deep in your heart, that she's the most annoying person in the world, but ultimately you'd find solace in the fact that she knows it too.
I hated this, then loved it, then GOT it, then Hated it, then really, really hated it.
I think art should be uncomfortable and intense and slimy and weird, and this took that idea and RAN with it.
If you don't care about plot, character development, or naturalistic dialogue, go for it. This book exists in the heightened mind of one intensely solipsistic character who thinks in advanced Sociology of Gender terminology, so fair warning if you're going to be triggered by tumblr/twitter/tiktok chronically online therapy-speak.
I hated this, then loved it, then GOT it, then Hated it, then really, really hated it.
I think art should be uncomfortable and intense and slimy and weird, and this took that idea and RAN with it.
If you don't care about plot, character development, or naturalistic dialogue, go for it. This book exists in the heightened mind of one intensely solipsistic character who thinks in advanced Sociology of Gender terminology, so fair warning if you're going to be triggered by tumblr/twitter/tiktok chronically online therapy-speak.
July 3, 2023
straight people will hate this book. 3 stars due to lacking form. great lesbian discourse material though; can't wait to argue with my fellow gays about this one.
November 13, 2023
I'm really sorry, but I didn't like this.
Not just because I physically recoiled every time the main character referred to her vulva as her "kitty cat" and sex as "S" like we're in fucking middle school, although that should have been enough. The characters all appear to be supremely insecure about sex, yet that is literally all they talk about. But more than that, the microscopic examination of body language as if it speaks volumes, disjointed dialogue, childish overreactions, and uncomfortable sexual overtones all combined to make me feel annoyed and vaguely embarrassed.
I kind of had a mini identity crisis about it, actually. I've found that a lot of recent popular queer literature doesn't make me feel seen; rather, I feel actively excluded. I just can't connect with this book and others like it, for a reason that's hard to describe. Like normally, I can relate to characters who are unlike me and in unknowable situations because I can understand their feelings, motivations, and wants and therefore understand their words and actions. Not so here. I don't know why any of this. Like, I can tell when characters are very uncomfortable about certain topics, but I cannot fathom why and the book won't explain it to me.
This is supposed to be very funny, but I don't get any of the jokes. I can't even tell where the jokes ARE. I think pretty much every character sucks but not in a relatable "We all know someone just like that!" way. They each seem like a caricature but of whom I can't tell. Is that the joke? Are these parodies of people I should recognize? Should I take what they're saying at face value or consider them naïve? Are the shifting pronouns of the butch supposed to be a joke? The graphic performance art that takes place? The characters acting like children for no reason? The definition of femininity as unmitigated jealousy of other femmes? The casual alcohol abuse and embarrassing sexual reverberations?
All this makes me feel like I'm not Enough. That I'm not active in the community enough, that I'm not reading the right articles, that I'm not following The Discourse closely enough, that I'm not putting on the correct performance, and therefore I'm not queer enough because that's how they define queerness: performance and fantasy. It strikes me as vaguely religious. And it hurts my feelings, not gonna lie.
This was way more personal that I ever meant to get, but I really can't give an objective explanation why I found this read awful. What numerical value can I give to something that actually made my life worse?
X/10
#WhatsKenyaReading
Not just because I physically recoiled every time the main character referred to her vulva as her "kitty cat" and sex as "S" like we're in fucking middle school, although that should have been enough. The characters all appear to be supremely insecure about sex, yet that is literally all they talk about. But more than that, the microscopic examination of body language as if it speaks volumes, disjointed dialogue, childish overreactions, and uncomfortable sexual overtones all combined to make me feel annoyed and vaguely embarrassed.
I kind of had a mini identity crisis about it, actually. I've found that a lot of recent popular queer literature doesn't make me feel seen; rather, I feel actively excluded. I just can't connect with this book and others like it, for a reason that's hard to describe. Like normally, I can relate to characters who are unlike me and in unknowable situations because I can understand their feelings, motivations, and wants and therefore understand their words and actions. Not so here. I don't know why any of this. Like, I can tell when characters are very uncomfortable about certain topics, but I cannot fathom why and the book won't explain it to me.
This is supposed to be very funny, but I don't get any of the jokes. I can't even tell where the jokes ARE. I think pretty much every character sucks but not in a relatable "We all know someone just like that!" way. They each seem like a caricature but of whom I can't tell. Is that the joke? Are these parodies of people I should recognize? Should I take what they're saying at face value or consider them naïve? Are the shifting pronouns of the butch supposed to be a joke? The graphic performance art that takes place? The characters acting like children for no reason? The definition of femininity as unmitigated jealousy of other femmes? The casual alcohol abuse and embarrassing sexual reverberations?
All this makes me feel like I'm not Enough. That I'm not active in the community enough, that I'm not reading the right articles, that I'm not following The Discourse closely enough, that I'm not putting on the correct performance, and therefore I'm not queer enough because that's how they define queerness: performance and fantasy. It strikes me as vaguely religious. And it hurts my feelings, not gonna lie.
This was way more personal that I ever meant to get, but I really can't give an objective explanation why I found this read awful. What numerical value can I give to something that actually made my life worse?
X/10
#WhatsKenyaReading
April 29, 2023
2.25 stars because I plowed through more than half in an evening just to find out what the hell was even happening. There was so much detail for such meaningless things and it dragged on and on (I don't care about every detail of each characters' outfit and what brands they are wearing, etc). I almost DNF because it was so bizarre and arbitrary but there was just enough curiosity in me that wanted to find out what the point of all of it was.
At times I felt like this was going to lead up to some scandalous murder in the cabin in the woods, with an intense, shocking ending, but instead it just slogged through an excessively long holiday away for a bunch of queer strangers in toxic relationships, hung up on gender roles, and a bunch of other performative bullshit. Though, there was some shocking, graphic torture and maybe that was the climax of all the buildup considering the sex scenes were all sort of bland and lacking excitement or detail that may have been expected with all of this tension building throughout the vacation - very anticlimactic. For being so graphic and explicit with the "livestream" scene, the rest of the encounters were just meh and felt very wrong/uncomfortable to be "witnessing".
Maybe I just don't understand this side of queer culture (I am queer myself), but I could not relate to any of these characters and felt very much like an outsider, looking in on a secret queer club I'm not allowed to be in (and frankly wouldn't want to be). Damn this was an exhausting read.
I wanted to love this book, was super stoked to win a goodreads giveaway copy, but it was a total miss for me.
At times I felt like this was going to lead up to some scandalous murder in the cabin in the woods, with an intense, shocking ending, but instead it just slogged through an excessively long holiday away for a bunch of queer strangers in toxic relationships, hung up on gender roles, and a bunch of other performative bullshit. Though, there was some shocking, graphic torture and maybe that was the climax of all the buildup considering the sex scenes were all sort of bland and lacking excitement or detail that may have been expected with all of this tension building throughout the vacation - very anticlimactic. For being so graphic and explicit with the "livestream" scene, the rest of the encounters were just meh and felt very wrong/uncomfortable to be "witnessing".
Maybe I just don't understand this side of queer culture (I am queer myself), but I could not relate to any of these characters and felt very much like an outsider, looking in on a secret queer club I'm not allowed to be in (and frankly wouldn't want to be). Damn this was an exhausting read.
I wanted to love this book, was super stoked to win a goodreads giveaway copy, but it was a total miss for me.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 8, 2023
when I said I wanted lesbian representation, I don't think this is what I meant
July 16, 2024
i gotta say, it took a lot longer than i expected for this one to take its turn toward the deranged and bizarre.
really interesting lgbt+ cultural discourse blended with unabashedly self-indulgent narration and dizzying dyke drama. i didn't love it, and spent a lot of time cringing over the white feminist vibes. the ending, however, is superb.
the writing style is declarative and visceral, peppered with mini grossout details. the main character, sasha, is unapologetically insufferable. and it takes some time for things to get rolling, but once it turns absurd, it's a blast.
my favorite parts:
✧ examination of the generational divide among the characters - so many cultural shifts have occurred in the past 20 years, especially for queer folks, that there are noted differences between the 20-somethings and the 40-somethings.
✧ the portrayal of butch/femme dynamics and performative femininity are super interesting. i love a gay book with multiple forms of butch rep!! also love how jesse uses multiple pronouns, identifies as a butch lesbian, but also as sasha's boyfriend, without ever having to explain or spell out their identity. beautiful queer ambiguity.
✧ vivienne, the charming black pug, is my favorite character! the chapter that takes on her POV without precedent is absolutely wild.
✧ She was a lifelong starer. It was generally accepted that the one who stares is uncool and the one who is stared at is cool, but Sasha didn't feel uncool staring at Chloe. She felt instead profoundly lesbian, seen-by-butch, seen-as-femme. Maybe a better word for it was dykette, containing both the butch's gaze and the femme's stare - because, of course, they're looking at each other. It's not a stare from below, the lesbian stare, but a pure wanting, a desire whose direction is always in flux. ✧
really interesting lgbt+ cultural discourse blended with unabashedly self-indulgent narration and dizzying dyke drama. i didn't love it, and spent a lot of time cringing over the white feminist vibes. the ending, however, is superb.
the writing style is declarative and visceral, peppered with mini grossout details. the main character, sasha, is unapologetically insufferable. and it takes some time for things to get rolling, but once it turns absurd, it's a blast.
my favorite parts:
✧ examination of the generational divide among the characters - so many cultural shifts have occurred in the past 20 years, especially for queer folks, that there are noted differences between the 20-somethings and the 40-somethings.
✧ the portrayal of butch/femme dynamics and performative femininity are super interesting. i love a gay book with multiple forms of butch rep!! also love how jesse uses multiple pronouns, identifies as a butch lesbian, but also as sasha's boyfriend, without ever having to explain or spell out their identity. beautiful queer ambiguity.
✧ vivienne, the charming black pug, is my favorite character! the chapter that takes on her POV without precedent is absolutely wild.
✧ She was a lifelong starer. It was generally accepted that the one who stares is uncool and the one who is stared at is cool, but Sasha didn't feel uncool staring at Chloe. She felt instead profoundly lesbian, seen-by-butch, seen-as-femme. Maybe a better word for it was dykette, containing both the butch's gaze and the femme's stare - because, of course, they're looking at each other. It's not a stare from below, the lesbian stare, but a pure wanting, a desire whose direction is always in flux. ✧
February 23, 2023
i just cannot finish this…easily one of the most poorly written books i have ever read in my entire life…
July 14, 2023
what do you guys know about lesbianism!!! finally not a boresome “wlw” (fuck that term) book with closeted lesbians having internalised homophobia!!
really freaky and weird at times but i love insufferable lesbians :3 also REAL REP (he/him butch, trans mascs ,etc) WHO ARE NOT SUFFERING THEYRE VALIDATED AND LOVED ive a lot of positive feelings about this book but it was too quirky for me and lacked poc characters
ps: the fiona apple lyrics, the price of salt audiobook, stone butch blues quotes, eileen myles mentions hit too close to home😭 they’re like my messy lesbian friend circle
really freaky and weird at times but i love insufferable lesbians :3 also REAL REP (he/him butch, trans mascs ,etc) WHO ARE NOT SUFFERING THEYRE VALIDATED AND LOVED ive a lot of positive feelings about this book but it was too quirky for me and lacked poc characters
ps: the fiona apple lyrics, the price of salt audiobook, stone butch blues quotes, eileen myles mentions hit too close to home😭 they’re like my messy lesbian friend circle
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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