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Jet Set Desolate
A dive into post-millennial San Francisco, where electroclash cuts lines with the burgeoning dot-com bubble, and Lena falls for Jesse, a street-walking cheetah with a heart full of need. Follow the sores beneath the sequins, food stamps and semen, the broken milieu of a youth smashed between utter excess and utter loss.
202 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
About the author
Andrea Lambert
13 books12 followersAndrea Lambert is the author of Angeline at the Serrano (Lost Angelene Books: 2023) Hollywood Hedgewitch (cyberwit.net, 2023) Dining with a Cursed Bloodline (Lost Angelene Books: 2021), Jet Set Desolate (Future Fiction London, 2009,) and other books. Chapbooks: G(u)ilt (Los Angelene, 2011.) Lexapro Diary (Moonchaps, 2018.) Anthologies: Impact, Golden State 2017, Haunting Muses, Writing the Walls Down and elsewhere. Nevada recluse. Widowed, divorced and over it.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 3, 2026
"Jet Set Desolate" is part II in Andrea Lambert"s "Lena Cosentino" series.
"Jet Set Desolate" follows "Scaffolding " and although "Scaffolding" was published in 2021, 12 years after "Jet Set Desolate" had been published, the chronology of the story of the narrator/ protagonist, Lena Cosentino follows the events which occurred in Lena's life that we'd read about in "Scaffolding."
You do not have to have read "Scaffolding" in order to appreciate "Jet Set Desolate," "Jet Set Desolate" works perfectly on its own, though I do recommend that people who intend to read both "Scaffolding" and "Jet Set Desolate" read "Scaffolding" prior to reading "Jet Set Desolate," because we gain some insights into Lena's personality from reading about the events which had occurred during the tears that she'd been a college student during the second half of the 1990's, as the author describes in "Scaffolding."
In "Jet Set Desolate," Lena has recently graduated from the college that she'd attended in Portland, Oregon, and she's moved to San Francisco.
In "Jet Set Desolate," we read about Lena's moving into an apartment in San Francisco, the job that Lena had worked, the people whom Lena had socialized with, and Lena's struggles with a relationship with an abusive boyfriend.
I found "Jet Set Desolate" to be interesting for a number of reasons- Andrea explores a number of interesting themes in this book:
People who enjoy reading about the pace of urban life during the early 2000's will enjoy this book. When the author describes each of the characters whom we read about in this book, she's illustrating a very specific aspect of how the vices that people engage in can soon lead to mindsets which are similar to depravity. While this is not at all anything new, numerous authors have been writing about this phenomenon since the 19th century, in "Jet Set Desolate," Andrea Lambert does an absolutely beautiful job describing the behaviors of people who were in their 20's in the early 2000's in San Francisco, and how various vices effected their behaviors, their lifestyles, the day- to- days activities that they'd engaged in, how they socialized and interacted with each other, as well as the mindsets that they'd worked themselves into.
I also want to recommend "Jet Set Desolate" to anyone who likes to read books in which the characters struggle with substance abuse issues, and people who are interested in reading books in which one of the characters struggles with a toxic relationship will appreciate this book.
And people who enjoy reading books in which the underground/ alternative/ independent bands that were popular among the some of the subcultures in San Francisco during the early 2000's are an integral part of the backdrop for the storyline will also enjoy reading "Jet Set Desolate."
Andrea's wording style is graceful, once you begin reading "Jet Set Desolate," you will immediately become curious to continue reading the other books in this series, you'll want to continue to read about the events which occur in the life of the narrator/ protagonist, Lena.
"Jet Set Desolate" follows "Scaffolding " and although "Scaffolding" was published in 2021, 12 years after "Jet Set Desolate" had been published, the chronology of the story of the narrator/ protagonist, Lena Cosentino follows the events which occurred in Lena's life that we'd read about in "Scaffolding."
You do not have to have read "Scaffolding" in order to appreciate "Jet Set Desolate," "Jet Set Desolate" works perfectly on its own, though I do recommend that people who intend to read both "Scaffolding" and "Jet Set Desolate" read "Scaffolding" prior to reading "Jet Set Desolate," because we gain some insights into Lena's personality from reading about the events which had occurred during the tears that she'd been a college student during the second half of the 1990's, as the author describes in "Scaffolding."
In "Jet Set Desolate," Lena has recently graduated from the college that she'd attended in Portland, Oregon, and she's moved to San Francisco.
In "Jet Set Desolate," we read about Lena's moving into an apartment in San Francisco, the job that Lena had worked, the people whom Lena had socialized with, and Lena's struggles with a relationship with an abusive boyfriend.
I found "Jet Set Desolate" to be interesting for a number of reasons- Andrea explores a number of interesting themes in this book:
People who enjoy reading about the pace of urban life during the early 2000's will enjoy this book. When the author describes each of the characters whom we read about in this book, she's illustrating a very specific aspect of how the vices that people engage in can soon lead to mindsets which are similar to depravity. While this is not at all anything new, numerous authors have been writing about this phenomenon since the 19th century, in "Jet Set Desolate," Andrea Lambert does an absolutely beautiful job describing the behaviors of people who were in their 20's in the early 2000's in San Francisco, and how various vices effected their behaviors, their lifestyles, the day- to- days activities that they'd engaged in, how they socialized and interacted with each other, as well as the mindsets that they'd worked themselves into.
I also want to recommend "Jet Set Desolate" to anyone who likes to read books in which the characters struggle with substance abuse issues, and people who are interested in reading books in which one of the characters struggles with a toxic relationship will appreciate this book.
And people who enjoy reading books in which the underground/ alternative/ independent bands that were popular among the some of the subcultures in San Francisco during the early 2000's are an integral part of the backdrop for the storyline will also enjoy reading "Jet Set Desolate."
Andrea's wording style is graceful, once you begin reading "Jet Set Desolate," you will immediately become curious to continue reading the other books in this series, you'll want to continue to read about the events which occur in the life of the narrator/ protagonist, Lena.
November 26, 2020
Reading books is such an important activity for me right now… and especially those books that can take me somewhere else. “Jet Set Desolate “, by Andrea Lambert, set in San Francisco, and focusing on the drug culture there, is one such book. Gritty and darkly humorous by turns, the author pulls no punches in her description of the drug life: its sadness and greed, the idea of hope dashed by addiction, and the day by day grind of trying to exist while under the thrall of drugs. Virtually every page has a description of something which brings the reader further into the story. A few of my favorites, and there are many:
“the mango smoothie ads reared up in all their washed-out and dirt speckled goodness behind bars”
“a scrawny boy in ripped woman’s clothing, he moved with gutterpunk grace”
“found his dirty glamour in the mythos of cheap tricks”
“A sliver of arousal ran through me. Triangulation? Who’s the hypotenuse?”
“the mango smoothie ads reared up in all their washed-out and dirt speckled goodness behind bars”
“a scrawny boy in ripped woman’s clothing, he moved with gutterpunk grace”
“found his dirty glamour in the mythos of cheap tricks”
“A sliver of arousal ran through me. Triangulation? Who’s the hypotenuse?”
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews