Fragments Of Wasted Devotion

by Mia Arias Tsang

In this dazzling debut collection, Mia Arias Tsang explores the complexity and torture of queer heartbreak with an urgency that will leave you gasping. Flash nonfiction, fragmented vignettes and personal narrative combine to tell the almost-love stories of her young adulthood. From dusty university libraries to Boston-bound BoltBuses, and the icy grief of Somerville to the smoggy shores of Venice Beach, FRAGMENTS OF WASTED DEVOTION spans a country of desire, a galaxy of yearning, and seven years of failing, losing, and finding oneself in love. Featuring original illustrations by Levi Wells.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction, Queer, Essays, Memoir, LGBT, Lesbian

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2025

Reviews

[Emma Griffioen · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I know better now, I know you're really just afraid of losing access to someone you've trained so well. I let your subtle barbs slide into my skin. I keep my convictions firm. I keep my sunglasses on. You don't get to have my transparency anymore." Page 98

Fragments of Wasted Devotion by Mia Arias Tsang is an emotional collection of personal vignettes detailing the author's drawn-out first love and heartbreak. This is a really impressive debut. It was beautifully written, reminiscent of Ocean Vuong's writing style, I thoroughly felt the emotion through Tsang's writing. The illustrations throughout added, rather than took away from the work, and matched up well stylistically. I am really glad I decided to request this advanced reader copy on a whim, and I will definitely be reading everything Tsang releases in the future. 🤍

Thank you to NetGalley and Quilted Press for the e-arc of Fragments of Wasted Devotion by Mia Arias Tsang in exchange for an honest review.

Expected publication date: February 6th, 2025

[Mia · Rating 5 out of 5]

i wrote this :) i hope it helps your heart. 🩵

[ritareadthat · Rating 2 out of 5]

This one - not my cup of tea. The writing was very repetitive, and nothing extraordinary, almost immature-ish in style and content. It seemed like a very long diary entry to an ex-girlfriend that the author was hung up on. I think the author was trying to be deep and meaningful, I get it, but it just failed for me.

[Bryan Cebulski · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reads like a friend confiding something to you late at night while you're drinking on the floor and arguing over who gets the next song on the bluetooth speaker in your first post college studio apartment.

Ideas and emotions confessed in one manner and then another until you find the one that connects with you, whether it be interpretations of song lyrics or impressions of a text message or a hyper specific breakdown of what that all meant after all this time.

Very good!!

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

this girl might not know how buses work but she can write a damn book!

[Billie Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

tender, first-love chaos written with the unflinching, fierce tone of a writer that knows how to get to the depths of heartbreak and break it wide open. this deserves a standing ovation!!!!!!

[ariana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished it in one sitting. Even more beautiful than the first time I read it. For anyone who’s had their heart broken by a lesbian, you get it. Mia uses unlikely associations to create a visceral image of heartbreak, so descriptive it can almost make me nauseous. Lord save us lesbians… we need it

[Naava Guaraca · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mia!!!

This collection is a beautiful, stunning, showstopping debut from your new favorite sapphic writer. What a way to end 2024–remembering my own college years rife with longing and evenings spent with the wrong women—through Mia’s words that unapologetically archive feeling.

“When I dive into the new year closer than ever, choking on your smog and surf, the next person I open my legs for will be the sun.” <3

[Luna ꪆৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 ⭐

Before I begin I want to thank the author, Mia Arias Tsang, and Netgally for giving me this eARC.

This was beautiful. I adore this. It felt like a was reading her diary. The song choices were perfect with the themes and I feel so raw after reading this. I had to take a break sometimes when I felt it hit too hard. I'm not an expert in poetry or essays. I'm trying to read more of it. I really felt the yearning, it was translated beautifully into words. I also liked the drawings, even though I didn't really get them sometimes.

[Ayaan · Rating 4 out of 5]

“It’s hard to believe I was eighteen once.”

Lesbians? Longing? Long-distance situationships? Sign me up.

Fragments of Wasted Devotion is like flipping through an old journal you forgot you wrote. Tsang’s lyrical prose and fragmented storytelling capture the raw devastation of first love and heartbreak, spanning years and cities with a dreamlike urgency. The vignettes hit like a series of late-night voice memos, full of yearning, nostalgia, and the kind of sapphic heartbreak that lingers. The illustrations are perfectly in tune with the emotional weight of the text. A stunning debut—I’ll be reading everything Tsang writes from here on out. 

Thank you to NetGalley and Quilted Press for the e-ARC!

[Bri · Rating 5 out of 5]

breathtaking!!!! what an incredible way to write about memory and heartache and the all-consuming power of devotion. the essays in this collection are beautiful and devastating and i love how lyrical and honest Mia’s writing is. page 43 you mean everything to me!! “I’ve never chosen wrong because I’ve always chosen love” you mean everything to me!! this was absolutely spectacular, Im so in awe!!!!!

[amanda macchiarola · Rating 5 out of 5]

“no one ever feels things the way i do”

i’ve followed mia’s work for a while now and have been even luckier to get to know her irl and i can truthfully say that her work has struck a chord in me. it’s raw, it’s truthful, it’s scathing, and most importantly: it’s gay as hell. as a fellow lover and poet, i felt incredibly seen and understood. here’s to being “too much”, to being a fighter, and to being sentimental.

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Raw and deeply poetic.

A creative and honest depiction of queer heartbreak. Evocative, I felt like I was reading a personal diary at times. The use to imagery hittttttt. By the end felt like I had obsessively crashed out.

Mia’s book feels like rage -> art.

[Ajay · Rating 5 out of 5]

Powerful work, really felt the emotions in this. Im usually not a fan of works like this, but this pleasantly surprised me

[Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

like the work of the musicians she invokes, Mia’s writing makes me believe that there’s space in the world for my intense and untamed emotions—and not only are these emotions “allowed,” but they are a source of power

[Rachel · Rating 5 out of 5]

I circled so many lines and thoughts and moments in this collection ! Something that stood out was the way Mia articulated long distance relation/situationships in Longing Distance. It was so spot on I wanted to scream.

“Breaking my life to get to you.” 😩

—
Also, if you’re reading this, hi Mia!! This is Rachel from the writing workshop in Paris with Chloe. Metawhores are doing it, babe. I like the way your brain works, so please write a million more things!

[Grace · Rating 5 out of 5]

mia has a gift for capturing moments as they exist in our memories: shattered bits, cutting and raw, painful yet sublime. fragments of wasted devotion has lived in my head since the day i first read it. this is a gem.

and another thing! the illustrator, levi, is phenomenal. you can really tell they understand mia and her work. the illustrations pair wonderfully and add to the reading experience.

[Kim · Rating 5 out of 5]

reading this felt like i was sitting in a graveyard and reviving the ghosts of all my past relationships and wow was it aching but wow was it beautiful

[Lily Crandall · Rating 5 out of 5]

read in 1 sitting. loved.

[Shreela Sen · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s raw & powerful. (Clichés. I kept on feeling a lot of book-review-clichés as I read this book, intimate, vulnerable, immersive, … but these truly belong to this book!)

"Fragments of Wasted Devotion" by Mia Arias Tsang is a memoir, which consists of a collection of essays, not chronologically ordered, & some published before. Author knows best, & the flow is very coherent, & the sequence of the essays makes for a smooth reading & the story reveals well.

The writing style is easy-to-follow, neither bland nor pretentious, & the same POV & tone is maintained in all the essays, the second person is reserved for just one person, making the reading seamless.

The book is really engaging, & really made me relate with the author, & reminds me of people I know.

The rest of the review is how I feel …

Shoutout to Illustrator too.

First started out imagining “I” as a girl & “You” as a boy. (Even though the description, even though there’s a girl’s reflection on the cover) Just after starting 4th chapter “F I R S T Y E A R” I went back to the start & read it imagining both as boys. Midway through the 4th chapter “F I R S T Y E A R” , after “Capitalize my name when you’re talking to me. This may come as a surprise to you, but I’m a person, not an object.” I went back again & read it as two girls.
The beauty of the writing is that gender dos not matter, the experience of not being loved the way one needs, not being loved back with the intensity that one loves with, is captured in its very essence.

Feels almost voyeuristic! I am not the “you”. I feel an initial rush of irritation. Man! Why do authors have to cut a vein & bleed! I do not know what “being crossed” is. I look it up. There will be lot of Pop Culture references that I do not know. It does not matter. ...
... I know ...
The burning cravings of late teenage & early twenties. The mixing up of sex hunger & acceptance hunger … maybe even contact hunger. The conviction that the feeling of this moment is permanent & inescapable. The not knowing whether it is a good thing, or if even the feeling is an enjoyable feeling. To fall in love with a person with a mental illness. Narcissitic Personality Disorder is a mental illness. I look up Lykke Li. I do not look up Yumi Zouma’s album, not required. I will listen to it later, though.

“They (grandparents)’re temperamental like that” loved that, specifically.

"Riveting", though cliché, ... barely describes the reading experience ...
In the middle of “Letter to an old Architect”, I am getting worried about the main protagonist. Like her friends. This book is engulfing, inundating. It is a fog, it envelops me, & looks … feels thick. & completely blocks out the music that my carpoolmates are blasting. This is new. I am almost Attention Deficit-ed. Never has any material, academic or entertainment, text, video or even auditory, managed to completely turn off my peripheral hearing.
A little later in the same essay, I am feeling burnt out. Like I feel with friends whom I am trying to awaken from toxic relationships. I am a reader, not her friend… Author mentioned that she not a "storyshower". … Girl, you are! … I have to take a break. I notice my carpoolmates have put on Kailash Kher.
I read the book in two trips home. It is short, but that's not the only reason why it was so fast - it is unputdownable, even though it is somewhat emotionally draining.

I paid studious attention to the illustrations. It is fascinating that something this personal is illustrated by someone other than the author. These seemed mostly organic (another cliché word), Some are completely "magical realism", some are childlike whimsical & I really enjoyed that innocence, some are simply "still-life studies". Clean lines & a mix of white on black & black on white were really a pleasure to look at, by themselves. I realize that the illustrations in this book could have been much more "dark", & that would have rendered the book much more "dark", & I prefer it this way - as the author continually maintains - all her behaviour is actually self-preservation, she is not morbid at all. Illustrations complimented the book beautifully. But I did not understand the (alligator faced) person with an upended ice-cream cone on their face. Why? I presume someone did that as an insult. Who? How does it correspond with the text? I liked the one just before it – at the end of “Temperature Check”, & at the end of “Hardline” - best.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Kim Narby · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book absolutely stunned me. It felt like I was reliving the messy, tender, heartbreaking path of my 20’s over and over again. Girls who love but can’t communicate it. Girls who love to hard. Girls meeting at the wrong time. Every sapphic reader will see themselves in this collection; it’s a balm to know we are not alone.

[Aléxia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Beautifully written.

My goal for 2025 was to read more essays and find new authors who inspire me in my daily life with the power of their words, their stories, and their lives. And that's what I gained from this compilation of essays.

Love is a beautiful theme to work around, and even more interesting when we use our experience to write about it. There's something so human about the pursuit of romantic love, the stories of every almost-lover, and the heartbreaks and heartache we experience around the subject.

One of the interesting parts of Mia's writing was how she delivered the crudest poetry ever written. There's a no-nonsense approach to the theme but written so intricately with the right remarks that her thoughts became artistically appealing. I read it in the spam for two days and found myself thinking about the book on more than one occasion per day. My thoughts guided me back to my reading so I could appreciate her world, her words and her soul written for the masses.

Even though it is an essay, poetically creative, it is so relatable for everyone. There aren't "big words" for her prominent feelings, they are delivered in the simplest phrases but so powerfully written. It is a gift.

I gave it four stars because it took me a while to understand that she changed lovers and her new thoughts were about a new person, and because of that, I felt misplaced and needed to go back and forth to understand where the first love story ended and when the new one started.

I want to give a shoutout to the illustrations: they worked so nicely with the text and are the star on their own. I think you have a lot of talent, and I sincerely hope you keep doing what you're doing at the moment and find love in every drawing and illustration or even art project you immerse yourself in.

And for the author, keep writing, keep being a beautiful soul, keep exploring what hurts you and makes you happy and create for your happiness and replenish your soul. You have immense talent.

It was an honour to read your voice.



Thank you to NetGalley and Quilted Press for the e-arc of Fragments of Wasted Devotion by Mia Arias Tsang in exchange for an honest review.

Expected publication date: February 6th, 2025

[Dana | Rainbow Romance Reader · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5★

Fragments of Wasted Devotion is like stepping into someone else’s heartbreak playlist—messy, raw, and beautiful in equal measure. It’s a collection of essays, vignettes, and personal stories about queer heartbreak, almost-love stories, and all the ways we lose and find ourselves along the way. The writing is gorgeous—lyrical and emotional. Tsang really nails that universal ache of longing, and her words are painfully relatable at times.

That said, the format wasn’t always my favourite. The book is meant to feel disjointed, which I get, but sometimes I just didn’t know what I was reading or how it fit into the bigger picture. It left me a bit lost in places, and while I can appreciate the chaotic vibe, it didn’t always work for me.

The artwork by Levi Wells is lovely on its own, but it didn’t feel tied to the stories most of the time. I was hoping for more connection between the text and illustrations, but instead, they felt like two separate things that just happened to be in the same book.

All in all, Fragments of Wasted Devotion is an emotional and beautifully written collection, but it’s not the easiest read. If you’re into poetic, fragmented storytelling and don’t mind feeling a bit untethered, it’s definitely worth a go.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

[Ailey | Bisexual Bookshelf · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I curl into myself and I touch the feral creature of my heart and ask ‘is there anything left to give’ and it howls ‘yes yes yes forever.’”

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC! This book was released in the US on February 6th, 2025 by Quilted Press.

Mia Arias Tsang’s Fragments of Wasted Devotion is a blistering and tender exploration of love, loss, and the self that emerges from the wreckage. In this beautifully splintered collection, Tsang takes us through a series of almost-loves and broken promises, charting a journey that mirrors the haunting rhythms of queer heartbreak. With each vignette, she unearths the quiet devastation that appears even before the final break, capturing that liminal space where desire and pain collide.

Tsang’s writing is raw and confessional, laced with a vulnerability that cuts deep. Her prose often feels like a series of erupting reflections—each phrase, each sentence, like a glimmer of something real, something too raw to ignore. She has a way of making even the most fleeting moments of heartbreak feel monumental, wrapping us in the melancholy of unfinished connections. A key theme is the cyclical nature of love: the way it can start so brightly only to fade into something unrecognizable, or worse, something that never truly existed in the first place. There’s a fierce clarity in her exploration of queerness, self-worth, and the painful realization that not all love is reciprocal. As you read about Tsang’s heart breaking over and over again, so will yours.

The collection’s brilliance lies in how Tsang intertwines her personal journey with the wider resonances of queer experience. Her story is one of self-discovery, not in the sense of finding new parts of herself, but in unlearning the idea that she was ever broken. The music of boygenius, MUNA, and Mitski echoes throughout, adding an emotional soundtrack to her pain and self-realization. These essays remind us of the quiet violence of unreciprocated love and the resilience needed to break free from it.

Fragments of Wasted Devotion is for anyone who has been consumed by a love they knew would hurt them, anyone who has given too much of themselves to something that was never meant to last. It is a visceral, poetic reckoning with the fragility of love, and the promise of healing that comes when we finally stop looking outside ourselves to feel whole. Thank you, Mia - you are the bravest.

📖 Read this if you love: raw, confessional writing about queer heartbreak, self-discovery, and the complexities of love; introspective essays with a poetic, fragmented style; the works of Ocean Vuong or Carmen Maria Machado.

🔑 Key Themes: Queer Identity and Self-Worth, Unrequited and Dysfunctional Love, Emotional Vulnerability and Healing, The Cyclical Nature of Heartbreak, Resilience and Self-Acceptance.

Content / Trigger Warnings: Suicidal Thoughts (minor), Drug Use (minor), Sexual Content (minor), Toxic Relationship (moderate), Toxic Friendship (moderate), Pandemic (minor), Alcohol (minor).

[Amara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fragments of Wasted Devotion is a collection of non-fiction vignettes revolving around Tsang's queer heartbreak over the past seven years.

"I am a storyteller. I thought you knew this about me. I thought you would understand why I write what I write, why I post what I post. And yet you text me, angry. You don't want me to be telling this story. But I am a storyteller. I tell stories. And this one is mine to tell."

First of all the title for this collection is genius. This collection feels like a collection of small pieces. A journey of feelings and tableaus. The double entendre of the word 'wasted' captures the feelings of futility as well as the self-medicating Tsang engages in to cope with all she endures.

This collection hits home and hits hard. It doesn't pull its punches. The overall vibe felt very reminiscent of song lyrics at times. Which makes a lot of sense as Tsang references a myriad of songs throughout the book. From albums she listened to during certain periods of her life, to the feelings songs from Yumi Zouma, among others. evoked within her.

"I wanted you there in the silence with me. I wanted one moment where our Venn diagrams of truth became a circle."

I have to say this collection made me feel deeply. At times I felt I got sucked into a black hole along with Mia. Which speaks to Tsang's talent, but also points to the one minor issue I personally have with this collection. It ends without a feeling of resolution. It reads like a collection of traumatic events, and while it is good to find recognition and opportunties to learn in this, it can also feel traumatizing to read. So I would definitely suggest people check trigger warnings and read this one slowly (which the structure lends itself to perfectly).

The illustrations by Levi Wells are abstract, black and white scenes. Moments captured in time. A feeling personified, a room left behind. They fit very well with Tsang's writing, and enhance the experience of this collection.

"Have you always been this cruel, or did I awaken it in you?"

Fragments of Wasted Devotion is for you if you want to read and/or learn more about queer love. If you've ever felt like you were the one giving more in a relationship. If you want the recognition of loving deeply. And if you want some amazing song recommendations.

"Nothing can hold me back from the giving, the thinning, the eviscerating. The emptying of myself, the turning over of all I am to you."

TW include, but are not limited to: alcohol (ab)use, drug use, swearing, explicit sexual content, depression, mania, suicidal ideation, physical abuse, emotional manipulation/abuse

[eun · Rating 4 out of 5]

back when it was still available to read on yale broads between the years of (roughly) 2020-2023, i read longing distance so many times that it altered my brain chemistry. in 2023 when i was in my own lesbian long distance relationship and was in complete denial that something was wrong, it was longing distance that i couldn't help but to read again and again. it captured what i was afraid to put into words at the time - and although the exact details of our relationships were different, i was most drawn to mia's relationship to herself and what being in love drew out of her. put simply, i felt seen. after all, i too was using love as an escape from the horrible awful miserable mundanity of my own life. and i too blamed myself for being unhappy in my relationship - wasn't i the one that wanted too much?

re-reading longing distance again felt like catching up with an old lover. i suppose i've learned a lot since then, but i can't help but feel like if i fell in love again, i would forget it all.

anyway! fragments of wasted devotion is a lot more than longing distance, although it remains my favorite, and i am absolutely delighted to see the essay in print. i connected more with some essays than others - i like the long ones the best because mia is phenomenal when she gets to tell a longer story.

the best way i can describe this book is: you know when you are listening to an album from your favorite artist, and you suddenly get the feeling that they read your diary and they wrote this song for you? that's what reading this book feels like.

[Jaylin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to NetGalley and Quilted Press for providing an advanced copy of Fragments of Wasted Devotion by Mia Arias Tsang. I really enjoyed Mia’s writing style—each sentence felt thoughtfully put together, and the flow of the vignettes kept me engaged. Many of the lines stuck with me, and the themes of heartbreak, longing, and the pain of wanting love that always seems to hurt were powerful and moving.

One idea that stood out to me was the emotional distance in some of the relationships described. Several lovers seemed more focused on being written about than on the emotional connection with Mia herself. I found this heartbreaking, and you could really feel the pain behind these moments in the writing. It added a raw, vulnerable layer to the collection.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, though I did find the illustrations a bit distracting at times. The music references were nice, but since I wasn’t familiar with some of the albums, they didn’t resonate with me as much. Still, I’m grateful to Mia for being so open and sharing such personal experiences with us. Thank you for letting us into your world through these pages.

[Chelsea · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Book Sirens for providing an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. I enjoyed the emotional and narrative style of writing but it did take me a bit to understand the author's flow, or rather to understand what alphabet soup I was slurping. This is an intimate portrayal, and at times I felt that due to not being in the skin that experienced the claws of heartbreak and yearning, it wouldn't be within my reach to understand the descriptions or depths of despair. This is an illustrated collection, and while the art is very provoking, I didn't really link them to the works or the words. The segments are fractured and similar to life the journey remains unclear - but delicate beauty does prevail in this sad and overpowering undertaking of describing a first love - through the lens of toxicity and unrequited romance. Read it just to get the numerous music recommendations, it makes the quote "you can build an infinite playlist of your lovers" ring true. I wouldn't trust anyone to build this playlist but them.

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

“All I ever did was want you.”

Fragments of Wasted Devotion is a collection of vignettes that loosely tie together. There are many themes throughout, but the most prominent are painful yearning desire, first love, and heartbreak.

I found myself reflected within this book. It was so achingly relatable to my college years that I felt thrown back in time. Parts of this book are so beautifully written that I felt thrown back to my tumblr days (I definitely would have reblogged).

All together the read was enjoyable and somewhat cathartic. I enjoyed the illustrations for the most part. At times I couldn’t see how the illustrations connected. And on the opposite side, at times I felt the fit perfectly and complimented the writing exceptionally.

I received a free advanced review copy in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

[Alan Zhu · Rating 5 out of 5]

> I have never chosen wrong, because I've always chosen love. But now I'm starting over. I'm waking up and I am going to give it hell. I am going to shout and stretch and reach for everything that I'm going to make mine.

queer poetry on heartbreak in Cambridge and New York. sue me for being predictable.

there's a unique voice here - very (maybe overly) painfully and precisely self-conscious, very tied up in the you / I narrative dynamic. it grew on me (especially as That Kind Of Person) but it's probably not for everyone. as the collection goes:

> Listen, I'm not a writer. I have tried my hardest to sound like what I think a writer sounds like, but the fact of the matter is, I can't. So I'm not.