Unprecedented Times

by Malavika Kannan

Malavika Kannan establishes herself as the literary voice of Gen Z in this piercing coming-of-age narrative

Which comes experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford. Her narrative is set—she’s going to leave behind the strict trappings of her Indian-American childhood in Florida, embrace her queer identity, experiment with love, and write all about it. Within a few months, she gets a new tattoo, makes her first real best friend, falls in love with her un-labeled situationship, and even gets her heart broken. Rishi’s first semester Asian American Autofiction final practically writes itself.

What is not a part of Rishi’s plan, however, is the onset of the COVID pandemic. As the outside world becomes a terrifying place, she finds more and more solace in the friendships she’s made. In lieu of virtual college, Rishi and her classmates join a farm collective and grapple with America’s political situation and growing disillusionment…along with sexual tension and responsibility. It’s only when those relationships, too, start fracturing under the stress of careless decisions, unrequited crushes, jealousies, and, yes, the unprecedented times, that Rishi begins to question her own story.

Unprecedented Times captures the beauty, frustration, love, and pain that exists in relationships between best friends, between lovers, between mothers and daughters, and between storytellers and themselves. Malavika Kannan’s fresh, arresting novel captures the excitement and the terror of modern young adulthood through the eyes of an unforgettable, flawed, and lovable narrator.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, LGBT, Contemporary, Literary Fiction, Adult

352 pages, Paperback

Expected publication August 18, 2026

Reviews

[Malavika Kannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope you like it!

[cyd · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review. This book was so amazing I am actually speechless. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect going into it but it had a pretty cover and the synopsis sounded interesting so i figured why not. I was not expecting to enjoy this book so much. I am often wary when reading books revolving around the pandemic because they never really capture what it felt like going through that time in a way that feels worth it. This book explored the pandemic and its effects on people without it seeming unnatural. The characters in this book were messy and real and relatable. Reading this made me forget I was reading it felt like watching an intimate home diary of someone’s life. I don’t even have the words to explain how much I loved this but I seriously recommend it.

[Han Reads]

**Review of advanced copy received from NetGalley****

I now see why Toni Morrison used to tell her Princeton students to NOT write about what they know. This is very navel gaze-y Ivy League grad writing exactly what they know. The main character even wants to be a writer. I also didn't love the way the immigrant parents were portrayed. Certain lines also irritated me, like one about how being suicidal is only for white women (??)

I did really want to like this one but it didn't work for me at all. However, this is still a writer I want to see more from. Sometimes you have to get a few debut books out of the way before you can really get to the real stuff. (Also always rooting for queer Indian writers!)

[Naima]

I’m just gonna be real I felt sooo cool reading an ARC of this book (thanks Netgalley!) while the author was the subject of the latest major niche queer internet discourse.

This book was a very true and real story about people who went to college in the year 2019. Everything cringey about it was unfortunately actually just accurate. Similar to another review I read on here, I did sort of wish the main character would go through more personal growth and self reflection than she did—but who’s to say that’s not realistic too? Yet another book that had more vibes than plot, but the drama and mess of it all kept me turning the pages.

[Kennedy Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

What an incredible read! I flew through this and thoroughly enjoyed the formatting. Normally, I don’t love such long, seamless chunks of texts, but I think it worked well for this novel. This story was heartbreaking, and very relatable as a recent college graduate who’s also been on both sides of the friendship breakup. I think Rishi’s character arc and overall development was written really well. I’d give this 4.5 stars, but round it down to 4 simply because this is a surprisingly dark story that I don’t think I’ll read again, but still thoroughly enjoyed.

[Steve Oyler · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advance copy!

Although I’m certainly not anywhere near this book’s target audience, there is something universal about the communicative property of the COVID pandemic that (now that enough time has passed) even allows a queer 20-something coming-of-age tale resonate with me.

Does the biographical nature of the story result in Rishi never fully understanding how destructive (disruptive?) she truly is? It seems so. Even in the end trouble is everyone else’s fault, bad times forced upon her by the evil of others. But maybe that’s the point. How many of us want to look full-on in the mirror at the effect we have on others?

[AT · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book should, by all accounts, be for me, a gay Indian-American woman who was studying the humanities at a prestigious university during the breakout of the COVID-19 pandemic. This book is, tragically, not for me. My pedigree of demographics can assure you: my problem is not with the events that unfold through the eyes of Rishi, our narrator. My issue isn't the plot; it's the prose.

This is autofiction that's far too autofiction-y for my liking. Perhaps one of my problems is with the categorization of this book as "literary," an adjective that evokes refinement, when it reads like a recent college grad's diary. It feels like it was streamed right out of a 20-year-old brain and bottled at the source. This lack of artfulness could be interesting, and I'm not a hater of pithiness nor concision. But there's nothing in the way of thematic atmosphere surrounding these short, punchy sentences to make them interesting, so the onus falls on the diction. I just reread Garielle Lutz's masterful "The Sentence is a Lonely Place," and in reading this book, I found myself longing for beautiful sentences. For rhythm, for assonance. This is not just a problem with Unprecedented Times; this is the type of autofiction debut that publishers have been stacking up for years, and I'm fatigued. And maybe I'm especially affected because I can maintain a cool distance from the white Bushwick divas and the straight Chicago lit bros writing their own curt, stream-of-consciousness narratives. This, however, is the first time I'm feeling this way about a book about someone who looks and acts exactly like me.

More things I didn't care for: A lot of the humor just doesn't land for me. The millennial-ish "punchable white men" stuff, "This is fine" dog meme stuff. These are things I tolerate in real life but don't need in a piece of literary fiction, even if it is period-accurate. There are also puzzling portions which are neither clearly satire nor necessarily a reflection of the narrator's character flaws, after which her narration continues to move on at a breakneck pace. (I'm thinking about the choking paragraph (which is reprised during a very dark, serious moment, so surely it couldn't have been comedic?), the eating-disorder dialogue, the conversation with Larkin in front of the refrigerator, and the Boccaccio invocation.) I was also confused by the narrator repeatedly saying she's prettier than her love interests, describing them as unattractive. This is an odd statement to reiterate, but the book pushes us to take it at face value, and doesn't unpack it or use it to build up a flaw in Rishi (that she will never meaningfully confront within these pages).

Some things I liked: the epistolary segments and format changes, which felt especially useful in an internality-heavy book like this. The letters and emails used some quite lovely tonal shifts out of the narrator's mental register and into her correspondence register, which I thought was well executed. I enjoyed a lot of the family stuff and found the coming out scene and post-coming out fallout especially relatable. The characterization of the parents is very careful and precise. There are some nice observational moments that start building up once Rishi moves to New York — I liked the laundering of the thrifted sweaters and the anxiety of cooking for Kavya, for instance.

The final section of the book, after the assault, is by far the strongest. This portion has some thoughtful prose, well-constructed sentences, bits of musicality, and nicely-placed references to literary figures. This is the part of Unprecedented Times that had me wishing for more meat, more thematic bulk, more critical engagement — but then it just ended! On, may I say, a very confusingly meta promise that the narrator would take some time to process and think deeply about her life events before writing any more. I just wish this book had demonstrated more of that thinking process.

Thanks to Holt for the ARC!

[Michelle Miller · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Netgalley ARC*

Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. for the opportunity to read and review Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan ahead of its 8-18-26 release!

Synopsis:
This is a Gen Z coming of age story told by Rishi, a first generation teenager in the Asian American diaspora community who is starting her first year at Stanford. As a former child climate activist and a gay child of immigrants, her story is full of the jaded, anxious, but inherently inclusive rhetoric that defines a large part of this generation of Americans. A significant aspect of the story, in addition to her peer relationships, is the relationship of Rishi with her mother and their culture, as well as Rishi's adult mentors. It starts with the chaotic and energetic early days of college - new friends and situationships galore - but quickly spirals when COVID descends on the world.

Thoughts:
I immediately liked the snarky and sarcastic tone of the narrative. The author manages to capture the tumultuous emotions of this age and experience with a raw transparency that lends to the genuine feel of the language. It was sometimes cringy, other times nostalgic, and often transported me back to my early college days.

It was well written but filled with heavy navel gazing, at times reading more like the pontification of an autobiography rather than a fictional narrative (solidly in the "autofiction" category). The story tended to be a bit on the nose but that was perhaps by design. The interactions between the characters were really well done. It read like a slow unraveling.

It was equal parts interesting to read of the college experience with the pandemic and uninteresting because I still have PTSD from my own experience and I don't think I'm quite ready to read about it for leisure! A good debut novel, not exactly my cup of tea which might be age related or just genre related (shrugs) but I look forward to seeing what she produces as she matures as a writer.

[Sara]

As I first starting reading, I had doubts about this book. I didn’t find the first section about Rishi’s college experience terribly interesting. I think stories about college freshmen getting drunk and laid for the first time are kind of like dreams — only interesting to the person telling them. It also took a bit of time for me to get used the prose, which was a little too casual. I don’t necessarily like when a book sounds like how an author talks — I prefer the prose to be more literary. Some of the sentences felt like they were pulled directly from the author’s Twitter drafts. I also realized I have complicated feelings about auto fiction. I saw another review citing Toni Morrison, who apparently tell hers students NOT to write what you know, and I also see why she would give that advice. However, as the book continued, I settled more into the style and the characters. I was surprised by how not-annoying I found a book about the pandemic to be, so I think that’s an impressive feat. The last third of the book was especially strong. Overall, I think this was a successful portrayal of a very specific type of online, Gen-Z leftist, and I liked her transformation over the course of the novel. I related to Rishi’s expansion of political consciousness, and the way she loved others fiercely in a way that wasn’t aways accepted well. I think Rishi's relationship with her mom was one of the strongest elements of the book, though I wish that had been a little bit more present in the latter half. Ultimately I would recommend it, but only to certain friends who I know wouldn’t find the characters too annoying.

[asil · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unprecedented times? A phrase that can only mean one thing: COVID-19. A phrase I truly grew to hate, if I’m being honest. And yet… here I am hugging a book wrapped entirely around it.

Unprecedented Times is written almost in diary-entry form, which I know will drive some readers a little nuts. I loved it. It felt intimate and unfiltered, like peeking directly into someone’s brain at 2 a.m. The honesty in these pages is what makes it work. Nothing feels polished for approval. It’s raw, messy, and deeply human.

Malavika writes about friendships shifting, relationships cracking, and the quiet heartbreaks that happened behind closed doors during lockdown. That strange pause in the world forced so many of us to confront ourselves, who we loved, who we lost, who we were becoming. I personally hold a complicated tenderness toward that period for what it changed in me, and I think that’s why this book landed so hard. It mirrors that unraveling and rebuilding.

A powerful thread throughout the novel is the experience of being queer and not white. I am neither, yet I felt that Malavika handled these perspectives with vulnerability and clarity, inviting readers into experiences that may not be their own without ever softening their truth. She writes naked human thoughts, the spirals, the doubts, the longing, and somehow makes them feel both specific and universal.

This won’t be for readers looking for a tightly plotted pandemic drama. It’s quieter than that. More internal. But if you want something reflective, emotionally honest, and deeply rooted in what that time felt like, this one stays with you.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC!

[Iliana · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley for providing a copy of this book.

This is such a painful reflection of the early pandemic era. It is so honest and worthwhile but you have to be a little chronically online and able to stomach an insufferable Gen Z protagonist. Rishi is self-centered and entitled but in a very “nineteen-year-old who was always told she was going to save the world” kind of way. Not only has she failed into such a cliche existence, she’s also been let down by the world’s apathy and is burned out of caring by age 18. Her narration can be so infuriating at times, she can’t take criticism, and she lacks self-awareness, often assuming her effect on others rather than taking the time to know them as their own people. I know so many people like this, and it’s also uncomfortable seeing myself in these aspects as well. The supporting characters are much more palatable and fun, they are almost fully realized individuals but in the end they all exist to revolve around Rishi (which I take to be a comment on her self-centeredness rather than a flaw of the writing). That said, if you can stand Rishi, she’ll take you on what coming-of-age journey looks like in a changed world.

The ending feels bleak, because, well, that’s the moment we’re in. We’re clinging on to desperate hope that things will get better as they get worse.

[Jules · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rishi is a freshman at Stanford, finding her people, and exploring her sexuality when the pandemic bulldozes everything. She and her classmates are faced with an uncertain future while navigating the perils of burgeoning adulthood.

This is a coming of age story set in the reality of a quickly changing world. The complications of friendship, love, family, and creativity are explored with a diverse cast of characters.

My thoughts: This one reads like a memoir. Honestly, part I of the book was a bit too long in my opinion. In twenty years when a young person picks this book up, it may be meaningful to read about the minuit details of the onset of the COVID pandemic, but having just lived through it, I wish that part would have been much shorter. However, the story really picked up for me in part II! I loved getting to experience Rishi's relationship with her parents, her mother especially. Complicated mother-daughter relationships always fascinate me. I also liked the grey areas of codependence that Rishi kept finding herself in. I enjoyed the discussions of class, gender, sexuality, and culture.
Overall, I really enjoyed this one!

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Co. publisher for the ARC!

[Rob]

DNF

Thank you to Henry Holt for the chance to read this early, but this book was not for me. That's fine. Not every book should be, or needs to be, for every reader (especially not old white guys -- however enlightened they like to think they are).

My feeling is that this book (her second, but first adult book) came too soon in life for this writer. I think back to my own writing in my twenties and my shoulders shrivel at the idea of anyone having read it, let alone having it published by a mainstream publisher. At not being able to get every last copy back. 

I also felt like her editor failed her a little bit? It's another thing I think back on, where I've felt like an editor could have protected me from myself. Yes, the writer has to write and you can't impede that, but is it not an abdication of duty to not advise, “hey, you already used ‘hearty’ on page 8, lets think of something besides ‘heartily’ for page 9”? Those are the little things they explicitly make red felt pens for. 

I really did have high hopes for this because the cover is absolutely incredible (the ARC did not have the artist or designer info filed out yet), but I just couldn't make it very far. It's a young person's book, and I've got clouds to argue with.

[Kate Connell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an intriguing work of autofiction about autofiction. While a bit woe-is-me privilege is tied throughout, it is also acknowledged as such. Also, Rishi is as self-obsessed as it gets, entirely viewing others only through their relationship to her instead of as their own individuals.

Rishi is a freshman at Stanford, sailing through on her bit-fame as a youth climate activist in high school. Rishi has decided she wants to be a writer, and this experience away from her parents and community in Florida will give her the chance to truly engage in life, and for her that mainly means exploring sex with women. Within the first semester Rishi becomes part of a tight knit queer friend group, gets into a highly coveted writing class, and gets her heart broken by her situationship she accidently fell in love with.

Everything is mostly going to plan until the COVID pandemic rolls around. Rishi and her friends decide that they're going to take some time off and instead of attending virtual classes they apply to join a farming collective run by a Stanford alumnus. Close quarters during COVID lead to careless decisions, jealousies, and the end of things that seemed to be just beginning. Rishi needs to learn that sometimes life is more important than the narrative one tells.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC of this novel.

[Angela · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was pretty interesting, i haven't read a covid novel where the people are my age during covid so that was def unique. i do think the main character was always lowkey pissing me off with her poor decisions, but i do think thats kind of just part of growing up. the book did feel quite meta with the whole "i'm a writer and this is what i do, i write" shtick where like every time something happened to the main character she would be like "wow let me write this down and imagine the narrative". esp knowing the author also went to stanford, was an activist, etc, it did feel on the nose, but they do say to write what you know!! tbh i don't read too much autofiction (and i am not even sure if this is autofiction??) but it was definitely an interesting experience and i might try to read more in the future.

overall, although i did feel like the book was uneven at parts, i thought the voice was very authentic and i was pretty interested in the narrative (although some of the parts about the farm did lose me...) so 4/5 for being pretty good!

[Melli · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall: 3/5
COVID Representation: 5/5
Introspective Elements: 3.5/5

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This review reflects my honest opinion.

Overall, this was an interesting read that explored several meaningful themes, including self-discovery, trauma, generational trauma, and coming to terms with identify. The story follows Rishi, a teenage activist navigating her first year of college, first love, and the unfolding of a global pandemic.

While the prose itself was often engaging and thoughtful, I did find it challenging to get through at times. The lack of quotation marks during dialogue made it difficult to follow who was speaking, and some sentences felt jumbled together, which disrupted the reading flow. Despite these issues, the book offered strong introspective moments and thoughtful commentary, particularly in its depiction of life during COVID.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engrossing page-turner of a semi-autobiographical novel involving a group of friends who meet at Stanford and navigate their lives before , during and after the Covid Pandemic. They ar queer, biracial, have different attitudes and interests, but shared experiences and their ability to communicate with each other keeps the bonds strong.

The protagonist goes through a sexual and platonic awakening involving her roommate, fellow classmates, and once Stanford goes on lockdown and a few members of the group retreat to a farm commune, she briefly becomes involved with the commune''s leader.

There is much drama, switching of alliances and sexual partners, eventually each person moving to where their heart feels most challenged and/or comfortable.

Thanks to NetGalley for the eARC.

[Kaavya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you to Net Galley and Henry Holt and Co. for the ARC. I love queer and messy stories so this was totally for me. The writing style was super beautiful and immersive that I was literally shocked when the pandemic happened even though that was part of the blurb. I got lulled into the coming of age college novel part but the rest of the book was good to because this was when things became messy. My favorite part was definitely the relationship drama it’s very real for when you’re still figuring out love and relationships and balancing friendship. My only complaint is how abrupt the ending was, like I was reading and then it suddenly stopped and I thought there were pages missing in the ARC but that was it.

[Lily Weiner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the type of book that makes you want to write, that you read gluttonously while sending quotes to your best friend. I'm guilty of talking about it to everyone I know.

It's both a beautifully written story of the pandemic, and an amazing portrait of freshman year of college - the highs, the lows. Every feeling is captured through the eyes of Rishi. I'm scared it will be the best book I read all year and it's only January 2025.

Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for this advance copy.

[Ammie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was worried to start this book, nervous the Gen Z author would make me feel like I was 100 years old or something, using words like skibbidi or whatever, but I should have had more faith in Malavika Kannan.

I am obsessed with this book and her writing. I highlighted a ton, laughed out loud often, and thought about this book long after I shut my Kindle. I read this while at a conference and spent more time talking to friends about the book than I did my work.

Pick this up for the coming of age story and microdosing pandemic trauma, stick around for how clear and beautiful Kannan's voice is, and how hopeful you'll feel about the future, even if you're in your mid 30's.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While "enjoyed" is probably not the right word for this book, I really did enjoy the story, characters, their ups and downs, and the insights. This book is for anyone who's been a queer college kid, an immigrant, a person during the pandemic, a leftover friend, someone in love, someone in hate, and probably even a person who's experienced being in love and in hate with their best friend. I can't say Rishi made all the same choices I would have, but she certainly made her choices with the conviction of some who's lived all of the above.

[Abbey Dufoe · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book tries to makes sense of what made no sense at the time - being in your twenties during a global pandemic. Rishi makes mistakes, falls in love, gets hurt, hurts others, and more throughout her first year alone, all while trying to survive through COVID, her relationship with her parents, and sexuality questions a lot of people faced during this time. this was a good read that didn’t drag you too much into the pandemic, if you’re worried about that. thanks netgalley for the arc!

[ryan ⚡︎]

wait, is this fucking play about us (a queer Asian kid who attended a bay area college before and during the pandemic)? 😭

this is DEFINITELY a need

[Jackie Liu · Rating 5 out of 5]

a rising gen z literary icon has entered the chat 😤 thank you malavika for making me laugh and cry.

[Piper · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing struck me as entitled and I did not enjoy it.

[Cori Ahrens · Rating 5 out of 5]

thank you netgalley for the advanced reader copy! wow i loved this so much. i didn’t know much about this book going into it ngl, but the cover sold me and i was very pleasantly surprised i could not put this down! not only was this was hilarious, it was real, messy, relatable and incredibly well written. this book follows rishi, a queer gen z college student experiencing life away from home for the first time during the peak of the pandemic. rishi is such a great and honest main character and i loved her inner perspective. i also found every character in this book to be so fleshed out and interesting, especially rishi’s mother (and the relationship between them). i feel like this covered so many topics - coming of age, exploring sexuality/identity, culture and community, class etc in such a well done way. this is the first book that i’ve read about the pandemic that i’ve loved and that has felt so relatable i can’t stop thinking about it. definitely my top read of the year so far!