Flat Earth

by Anika Jade Levy

A young woman struggles with the artistic success of her more privileged, beautiful best friend in this ruthless portrait of the New York art scene in which relationships are transactional, men are vampiric, and women have limited time to trade on their youth, beauty, and talent—it’s Renata Adler’s Speedboat for the Adderall generation

Avery is a grad student in New York working on a collection of cultural reports and flailing financially and emotionally. She dates older men for money, and others for the oblivion their egos offer. In an act of desperation, Avery takes a job at a right-wing dating app. The "white-paper" she is tasked to write for the startup eventually merges with her dissertation, resulting in a metafictional text that reveals itself over the course of the novel.

Meanwhile, her best friend, Frances, an effortlessly chic emerging filmmaker from a wealthy Southern family, drops out of grad school, gets married, and somehow still manages to finish her first feature documentary. Frances's triumphant return to New York as the toast of the art world sends Avery into a final tailspin, pushing her to make a series of devastating decisions.

In this generational portrait, attention spans are at an all-time low and dopamine tolerance is at an all-time high. Flat Earth is a story of coming of age in America, a novel about commodification, conspiracy theories, mimetic desire, and the difficulties of female friendship that’s as sharp and sardonic as it is heartbreaking.

Genres: Fiction, Literary Fiction, Contemporary, The United States Of America, Novels, Friendship, Adult

224 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 4, 2025

Reviews

[Kaleigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Flat Earth was my MOST ANTICIPATED book of the latter part of the year. I have been following the author on Twitter since probably before she was writing a book and honestly the synopsis sounded like the type of book I would write (or have secretly written under a pen name WHO’S TO SAY) anyway—I clawed my way to securing an ARC audiobook (an ALC if you must) AND winning a goodreads giveaway of a physical copy. I know that I manifested it because I wanted it THAT badly.

Based on the description, I was hoping for a novel that dealt with insecurity and introspection, academia and the internet, navigating life in our newly insane, conspiracy-laden world—something like Elif Batuman (whose books are mentioned IN THE BOOK) if she wrote about the 2020s instead of the 1990s. Something about trying and failing and interrogating the whole cycle. What I got was a protagonist who was already jaded beyond trying or caring at all. Whose eyes were glazed over and whose brain was shrunken to a pea size from the very first page (and that didn't unglaze or grow by the end). Yes, Flat Earth is YET ANOTHER entry into the trend of mid-2020s miserable nihilistic and cynical fiction.

Don’t know why I expected anything else in 2025 when everything I’ve read has been a mean spirited book about someone who snarkily derides everyone and everything they encounter. In the same vein as every other post-Red Scare, Muumuu House-era contemporary litfic published over the past year or so, Flat Earth illustrates an internet-poisoned world from the point of view of someone who has not escaped the poisoning and views everyone as vapid and nasty and reacts in an equally vapid and nasty way. Read Perfection, read Good Girl, read Happiness and Love, read Banal Nightmare, read Paradise Logic and then read Flat Earth. There's like some edgelord misery canon forming.

I’m so sick of these shallow books that take our hyperreal world at face value and don’t do anything with it—or don’t do anything with it and then call it satire (the Rene Girard reference in the blurb is a WARNING). “I want all the men I sleep with to beat me up, I want to take a bunch of benzos and have a My Year of Rest and Relaxation, all my friends are famous in the art world and all I can do is bang old married men who read books about hitler bc I’m a hot young stupid woman and honestly it’s all I really want to be tee heee”. This sucks to read about.

Anyway, thank you to Netgalley and Brilliance for the ALC, this was truly a book I wanted to read desperately I’m glad I got the chance. Thank you to goodreads for the giveaway win, I will be tossing it right in the trash jk I will be selling it on Pango.

The audiobook is narrated in a bored vocal fry which is the correct choice though insufferable, BUT she mispronounces “buccal fat” which is unforgivable in a book like this whose protagonist probably spends 1 hour a day every day minimum thinking about buccal fat.

[Erin · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC for review. To be published November 4, 2025.

2 stars

Well, that’s it. I’m officially old. I hated everyone in this book. They all needed to wash their faces, get themselves together and accomplish something.

[Alwynne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writer and editor Anika Jade Levy’s debut novel grew out of earlier stories. It’s fractured, fragmentary, very much following in the footsteps of writers like Renata Adler, Elizabeth Hardwick and Sheila Heti. It’s narrated by Avery who’s initially in grad school in New York, spending much of her time with ultra-wealthy friend Frances. Avery’s chronicle of her life’s interspersed with a series of accounts of distinctly unsettling developments in the America she inhabits, giving this an off-kilter, dystopian feel. Avery herself could easily double as a textbook study of anhedonia, she has a curiously detached reaction to events in her life and around her. It seems a desolate existence, Avery invests in notions of femininity meant to make her more appealing to men, particularly the predatory older men she depends on to fund her studies. A strategy she accepts as inevitable in a society in which everybody has a price or a valuation, for her that price rests on the fading currency of her youthful body. A perspective that’s underlined by Frances’s ongoing project, a documentary entitled Flat Earth which aims to showcase an increasingly right-wing, decaying America. A country riddled with conspiracy theorists and mired in poverty. Back in New York Avery’s connected to the brief flowering of a post-pandemic subculture centred on Dimes Square, an area of the city close to the Lower East Side – a movement renowned in reality for its disturbingly conservative undercurrents. There Avery rubs shoulders with up-and-coming writers and artists – artists who she perceives as akin to the Flat Earthers, equally convinced that their view of the world is somehow unique and privileged. Yet another subsection of a deluded, delusionary culture.

Avery’s suffering from the Adderall shortage, coping without stimulants highlights everyday brutalities. Frances abruptly departs, marries a labourer and returns to South Carolina where she grew up, her wedding marked by the jaunty bridesmaids whose dresses conceal Confederate flag bikinis. Avery meanwhile takes a job for a right-wing dating app “Patriarchy.” The app’s doing well attracting incels and porn-obsessed loner men but it’s lacking women who’ll go out with them. Its approach underlines Avery’s conflicted views about womanhood, and her lack of faith in feminism as an antidote to her existential angst. Levy’s characterised her book as a portrait of what it’s like to exist in the midst of widespread collapse: social, romantic, spiritual. And in that sense, this is entirely successful, acerbic, rueful, aphoristic, even in its lighter moments it’s a pretty bleak take on America in the early 2020s. But it’s also predictive of unhinged, creeping fascism as it starts to really bite in a country where money is essential to have any hope of surviving. As a variation on a coming-of-age story this is often arresting, there are some truly memorable passages. But I’d have liked Levy to dig just a little deeper, a lot’s gestured towards that really needs more sustained consideration. But even though this didn’t totally work for me, it’s still an impressive debut and I’ll be interested to see what Levy does next.

Thanks to Netgalley and publisher Abacus Books for an ARC

Rating: 3/3.5

[leah · Rating 4 out of 5]

at its core flat earth is a coming of age story, following a woman coming to terms with the end of her girlhood as the world teeters on the edge of complete ruin.

it follows avery, a grad student in her 20s who’s struggling with the success of her more privileged best friend, frances, in the new york art scene. avery wants to be a writer but doesn’t ever actually write much (relatable), instead spending her time with older men who treat her badly and taking a job at a startup right-wing dating app.

the writing is very acerbic and meta in the way a lot of these gen z-esque books are. it’s told in fragments, flitting between avery moving through the world and witty social commentary on politics, culture, capitalism, the internet, environmental collapse etc. - basically a satirical comment on the ennui of our current zeitgeist. i read it in about 2 sittings and enjoyed my time with it, highlighting many passages as i read.

thank you little brown uk for the netgalley arc!

rating: 3.75

[Jillian B · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not going to be for everyone (just look at the Goodreads ratings!). The narrative has a distinct, satirical voice and the main character makes incredibly self-destructive decisions. I can totally understand why people would find her annoying! That said, this book absolutely worked for me. I devoured it in one sitting. The humour absolutely landed, and I found the main character fascinating to follow. There’s a sort of nihilism to the narrative that I found intriguing. Watching the world crumble around her, the main character chooses shallow pursuits. I’m interested in reading more from this author!

[Fiona · Rating 3 out of 5]

You can’t all be the voice of your generation

[Anna Dorn · Rating 4 out of 5]

smart, funny, elegant, stylish debut! bleak but chic!

[Brandy Leigh · Rating 1 out of 5]

As expected this is just a bunch of pretentious rambling. Zero substance- definitely just a cover buy.

The way the author describes people, being old/used up by 26, and life in general is shallow.

I’m constantly asking myself “wtf”. You can say “well it’s fiction… not how the author really feels” - I know this, but I still hate it. Sorry

[alize · Rating 1 out of 5]

Boring empty vapid bullshit. Absolutely nauseating. Truly has nothing to say. And if it does have something to say, it’s been said 10 years ago. Seriously I thought we all grew up and realized red scare edgelord cynicism is actually super annoying and useless? Like seriously get a real job go volunteer at a food bank touch some fucking grass and understand that your stories about having empty sex with old men need to kept to yourself. “Did the journal factory explode?” I honestly didn’t have any context going into this I didn’t even know who the author was and I was quickly and thoroughly disappointed to find out it’s more white girl apathetic ED nonsense. I can’t take it. We already have the Bell Jar okay! This story has been told before! And they got it right the first time! No need to try again! If you’re gonna write about capitalist realism, red-pill brain washing, and American mass psychosis you actually have to SAY SOMETHING. Not just list off flashes of it and call it satire. I actually can’t even quote something to provide as an example because I returned the book on Libby the second I was done with it. But the book does nothing to engage with politics on a meaningful level. Just uses it as a thinly veiled excuse to justify the characters own insecurities (i.e. youth and aging and trad wifery and sex as a tool for access/mobility/whatever) but it reads as so insanely out of touch and annoying. It’s just an endless slop of “I slept with this old man and he told me that I’m young but not that young and my best friend is prettier and more successful than me and I can’t write because I’m addicted to doom scrolling but I’m also too depressed to get a real job oh and by the way the government is run by lizard people so I guess that means I should sleep with another old man.” Get offline talk to your neighbors and realize there is a whole world out there. Self-hatred isn’t noble, it’s still just narcissism. I’m mad. And I’m taking away a star from My First Book.

[annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

an inscrutable book with a jaded, porous narrator who seems to have no definition or understanding of herself and a tendency towards the reactionary, in a way that's sometimes sharp and sometimes eye roll-inducing. i really can't decide whether i liked this book and felt like the satire worked or if it makes me want to throw something. honestly i do find that red scare listener lower east side irony poisoned type of person so irritating and morally repugnant in general that i'm not really the ideal audience for this book because i can never fully immerse myself in the satire of this social scene because like, there's not really much interesting about these people to satirize? like if i had to read one more line in those little interstitial sections that was like "we were skinny and sad and solipsistic. we wanted a pink kitchenaid stand mixer and a million dollars and for a man who reminded us of our fathers to hit us in bed" i was going to scream.

but at the same time there is some interesting stuff here about the emptiness of avery, our protagonist, and her friendship with frances and simultaneous jealousy and admiration of her. i wish there was more of that, and the stuff w sally and her mother, that was good too. and the prose outside of those mostly cringy interstitial sections was solid, it was nimble and page-turning. ultimately, i did like this one, or at least found it a quick and engaging read, but it also vexed me quite a bit.

3.5 stars

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a hard one to review tbh, it’s a quick read - a little too quick. I enjoyed my time with it but ended up wanting more meat to the story, it’s trying to make some points about modern internet/reddit culture but it felt like it’s over before the story really got started.

[Marcus (Lit_Laugh_Luv)]

My library hold for this isn't ready yet (happy pub day btw) but the reviews are SENDING ME TO THE MOON why are they so scathing and so funny djdlfddkdvfkajals

[Igor Harb · Rating 4 out of 5]

To je bizarna knjiga, polna nespoliranega družbenega komentarja in naključne tragedije/komedije (ne pa tragikomedije), s samodestruktivno glavno junakinjo, ki je tako odtujena od sveta, da bralka_ec ne more biti prepričan_a, če se zgodba odvija v sedanjosti ali v neki apokaliptični prihodnosti pojutrišnjega dne. Z neposrednim, a niti do sebe, kaj šele do bralca_ke iskrenim slogom spominja na bitnike in minimalizem Breta Eastona Ellisa (pa tudi v družbi inherentne mizoginije ne gre spregledati). Skratka, priporočam v branje, ampak kar povem, da se po tem ne boš počutil_a nič kaj bolje.

[J. Joseph · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m perplexed. This book has a lot to say and yet fumbles every single message. The goal appears to be satirizing society from all angles, not just the conspiracy theorists as the title suggests, but it doesn’t feel successful. Instead, it feels like a legitimizing of conspiracy theory perspectives about the world, woman, liberal citizens, science, etc. But at the same time it’s clear we’re not supposed to take the conspiracy theorist perspectives seriously, which makes the message a paradox. And as such, the characters seem to promote a form of libertarianism but through a process of acting like conservatives while believing they are liberals.

It would have been a DNF if the book was longer. However, the shortness (and massive font) made it feel more like a slow motion train wreck that I had to watch unfold. And this then made all the characters, every single one of which was insufferable, transform into all the people I didn’t like in my undergraduate. Speaking of all the characters sucking, Levy made certain that even Forrest, the farmer who the main character’s best friend married, who was the only one portrayed as marginally functional and tangentially redeemable….. became beyond irredeemable at page 170 (give or take).

Original comments from March 15
The best way to summarize this is: libertarian mess tries acting conservative while believing she's liberal. See also: it felt like a fever dream about everyone I hated in undergrad.

Did I like the book? Not at all. Am I happy I read it? Maybe. Full review to come.

[Celine Nguyen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really loved the first 60 pages (actually, rereading it now, I was captivated up until page 88) but the novel drags a bit after. Still trying to figure out why. Levy is obviously a really great and funny prose stylist—like this description of an art opening in NYC is so good:

We descended the architecturally unremarkable staircase and found a crowd clustered around an enormous, untouched charcuterie table. I had assumed the audience for an exhibition like this would be Chinese real estate developers and Slavic oligarchs. Instead what I found was a hundred million dollars' worth of NYU degrees.

Some of my dissatisfaction is personal taste (I have a strong preference for less nihilism and some sense, at the end, of lightness being wrested out of the terrible ordeal of living…but unfair to criticize a novel that way!)

I think the larger, more justifiable part is that the plot (or non-plot fragmentation) isn’t dynamic enough in the middle-to-end-ish, and Levy’s prose style isn’t quite enough to carry it through. The protagonist is stuck and unhappy because her economic precarity, dehumanizing job, bad non-relationships with men that all seem like extended heterosexual humiliation rituals, and routinely self-sabotaging. I think I felt unhappy because I wanted to believe that she could escape! And that something could change! Even a nihilistic ending needs a bit more of a journey towards it, I think…it would have been nice to have some moments of false hope and salvation? Some sense of the plot unexpectedly turning and defying my expectations…

[Safura · Rating 1 out of 5]

Read this because I was curious about the ‘dimes square’ group. Reaffirmed my previous belief that we’re giving a certain group of people way too much clout (and seemingly, literary merit) for having very few interesting thoughts to share with the rest of us.

[nestle • whatnestleread · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m still not totally sure how I feel about it.

It’s a quick read, dare I say too quick, and I ended up wanting more from it. It dives into modern internet and Reddit culture, exploring how identity, validation, and self-worth get warped online, especially for young women. It captures that sense of existing in an endlessly collapsing America, where everything from your body to your opinions to your productivity gets turned into a kind of social currency.

Our main character is hyper-aware, self-destructive, and constantly analyzing the world around her through this mix of irony and pain. Levy writes her with a satirical edge—she’s not meant to be likable, but she feels familiar.

The book touches on themes like internalized misogyny, female friendship, online performance, and the pressure to find meaning in a system designed to burn you out. My main issue is that while the writing is strong, the story never fully comes together. It’s all voice and commentary, not much plot, and sometimes it feels like the author is juggling too many ideas at once.

Enjoyed my time reading it, I just wish I got more out of it.

[sjb · Rating 2 out of 5]

when the primary adjective used in the praise section is ‘zeitgeisty’, tells you everything you need to know.

[crowjonah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reading this is not unlike giving yourself microscopic cuts by stubbornly continuing to swipe at a shattered touchscreen (complimentary)

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

An almost uncomfortable level of relatable, Flat Earth is very Woman Vs. The Void-- our narrator feels as if she is decomposing in an ever-collapsing America, where it seems that every social group determines a woman's worth on youth, fertility, and use. Levy successfully conveys everyday psychological struggles in young people, particularly young women, in a way that doesn't necessarily provide readers with hope, but with the reminder that you are not alone in this erratic, capitalistic hellscape.

[Ava F · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is aptly named, because it fell flat for me. While it aims to explore some interesting themes (reactionary internet culture, the rise of backwards gender norms, forgotten middle America), Levy never goes beyond the superficial. She focuses instead on how ugly and old she thinks she is at the age of 26 1/2. This reads much like the Red Scare podcast, but is somehow even more boring and ignorant.

Read this book as an ARC.

[Samuel]

I met this writer a few weeks ago and she was nothing but nice to me

[Amany · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I wanted to like this, it kept getting harder as I went on. Definitely an easy read and I can see it being relatable by Gen Z (white) women, but it's so overly self indulgent to the point of satire. And I don't think the author was attempting to be satirical. There is definitely a phenomena, probably inspired by Substack blogs and influencer culture and an all-time high of American individualism that I believe has impacted the way we all write. Everything has to turn us into the Main Character.

Anika gives her protagonist the name "Avery," which is incredibly close to her own name. Her protagonist is a young, beautiful 20-something year old living in New York City as a writer, grad student, and cultural philosopher. She also lives in the shadows of her more beautiful, more successful, more well off best friend. This just reads as an autofiction novel that asks "what if The Bell Jar took place in a post-covid, ai-driven, hypersexual world?"

Not only does the novel not go out if its way to make a point, it just doesn't attempt to make a point at all. Okay Avery scrolls on her phone a lot, she drinks a lot, she fucks a Law professor at her univeristy a lot, so what?

I kept reading this because, 1. It was incredibly easy to read (maybe not a good thing) 2. I desperately wanted a point to be made because these experiences WERE relatable. My only takeways were Anika Jade Levy is a borderline self-obsessed white woman desperate to be the most beautiful white woman in the room. I don't even think I remember reading ANYTHING related to race except for all the weird comments about Palestinians and calling everyone "anti-semitic" as a way of flagging them as the Bad Guy in the book. So elementary.

[kiwi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Lots of girls felt close to Sally's writing because she had written about degrading sexual experiences with eroticism and intelligence, which is all anyone really wants from a book.

i would've loved if this book had been written with eroticism and intelligence, but instead it feels like the literary version of a neon green shein polyester tube top.

it's impossible to connect with the writing since she just drifts through the world with the ironic detachment and cynicism that seems to be the hallmark of contemporary literary fiction. i'm sick of female characters that can/do articulate every single aspect of their psyche at all times and that's somehow supposed to be the story. we get it, you want your semi-fictionalised self to have her hip coked-out new york it girl moment, but it's so fucking boring to read about.

the friendship between avery and frances could've been sooooooo interesting and layered, but it was barely developed and i just didn't care about their love-rivalry-competition-whatever. she fucks her best friend's husband and somehow neither of them really cares? she's jealous of frances' success but she's also too sexily self-aware and post-modernly ironic to really feel this jealousy. nothing matters to her because nothing matters at all in this late stage capitalist world and are we all supposed to think that stating this is good art?

"the patriarchy can't hurt me if i embrace it with hypersexual irony" seems to be the mantra of these works and apparently it's unnecessary to explore it with complexity or depth, all you need is a young woman with an eating disorder and adderall addiction who has degrading sex with men her dad's age. it doesn't matter why she likes degrading sex or how it might intersect with (internalised) misogyny because exploring that type of tension would be so cringe and we must all worship at the altar of hyperreal irony.

i don't think eroticism can coexist with this heightened cynicism. without earnestness these books will just keep feeling like shallow trend pieces.

[Roxane · Rating 2 out of 5]

I’m not sure I want to call this a novel. About 100 pages into this insipid book, the author quotes Kenneth Goldsmith: “The world doesn’t need any new writing, just new arrangements of writing.” Anika Jade Levy very clearly took that to heart, cobbling together what can only be described as a mixture of topics she and every other cuspy Zillennial writer has been interested in recently and has already written about ad nauseam. I suppose I disagree with Goldsmith because Flat Earth was worse than all the other books I’ve read about those topics, combined. Maybe that quote should come with a caveat about the arrangements being good? Housemates does a better job at investigating middle America, as well as the way different kinds of arts can be used to explain or question. Plus, the characters are lovable, despite their pretentiousness & stupidity (unlike Avery & Frances). Happiness & Love is a funnier & smarter attack on the New York art scene, all the while being technically excellent (something Flat Earth is not). The foil character of Frances is flat & her storyline confusing. Her role as a plot device to make fun of artists is too obvious. And Delusions, which I finished before this book, is a better portrayal of what it’s like to be mentally ill in a society obsessed with consumerism disguised as wellness.

[Sophia June · Rating 5 out of 5]

anika is a genius

[Gideonleek · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is quite good. I should have done a review.

[Elizabeth Tuttle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A frustratingly accurate portrayal of contemporary ennui, Flat Earth can be safely situated somewhere between Honor Levy (derogatory) and Patricia Lockwood (complimentary).

[carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

i’m not too sure what happened here? we’ll leave it at that

[emily]

It's a tone thing/issue for me with this one. Also a stylistic problem. I'm sure the plot is fine. In any case, it just wasn't the one for me. DNF after about thirty pages or so.