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Unprecedented Times: A Novel
Malavika Kannan establishes herself as the literary voice of Gen Z in this piercing coming-of-age narrative
Which comes first: experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford. Her future 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 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 is also a testament to the power of self-narrativizing for first-generation of writing oneself into existence where no previous script exists.
Which comes first: experience or narrative? Rishi thinks she knows the answer as she arrives on campus for her first year at Stanford. Her future 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 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 is also a testament to the power of self-narrativizing for first-generation of writing oneself into existence where no previous script exists.
337 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 18, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 313 reviews
March 12, 2026
2.5⭐️ thank you to Netgalley for the ARC. Frustrating. But it IS very funny to have your self insert character in your navel gaze-y autofiction novel state publicly that they are pro-navel gazing in the first 20 pages. That got a chuckle out of me.
This did not work for me as a meta-commentary on autofiction or as a COVID coming of age as the blurb suggests. While there are some interesting vignettes, they feel adrift in the rest of the low-plot stream-of-consciousness narrative in which our central character learns nothing and does not grow at all (except the final chapter, the strongest part of the book, which ends abruptly) These topics and experiences might be better synthesized in a collection of personal essays or short stories. Otherwise, this feels more akin to a self-indulgent glamorized diary than a work of literary fiction.
I say this with grace: Unprecedented Times, like most of Kannan’s other work I have read, feels unripe. This feels like an early draft rushed to publication in the immediate aftermath of her experiences, with no opportunity to gain the distance and perspective that this book desperately needs. That’s not to say it’s HORRIBLE, or that she is untalented, there’s good stuff here. I just wish I read it later in her career, when she was ready to kill her darlings. I wish she had an editor willing to tease the strengths out, because they ARE here. The marketing for her litfic debut (and for a lot of her other stuff) relies on “the unfiltered mind of Gen Z” element that misses the real value of her perspective, which does not derive from her youth. (If anything, the market is over saturated with Gen Z stream of consciousness opinion, it’s every corner of the internet, all the time. I say this as a zillennial) There are some interesting arguments and lyrical turns of phrase, but it’s bogged down in a lot of pithy, self-aggrandizing nothingness.
Does a story have to mean something? Does Rishi (and Kannan) have to find narrative meaning in her experiences for them to be worthwhile? It’s an underbaked thesis. If your argument is that it means nothing, surprise! It now has the meaning and purpose of declaring not all experiences have narrative meaning. Really, you need to have an editor who can call you out on shit like this. Is it worthwhile? Decide for yourself.
Again, all the love and light in my heart to this author, but if all the characters/plot points are from your real life with the serial numbers filed off AND you refuse to engage with the themes to pluck meaning from the experiences, why bother to write fiction at all? Why not a blogpost, a tweet, an essay, a memoir? If you don’t care to find a point to all of this after 352 pages, why the fuck should I?
TLDR: Best of luck to this ambitious young writer, but I’m uninterested in reading every ham-fisted first draft raced to publication that paves her way.
This did not work for me as a meta-commentary on autofiction or as a COVID coming of age as the blurb suggests. While there are some interesting vignettes, they feel adrift in the rest of the low-plot stream-of-consciousness narrative in which our central character learns nothing and does not grow at all (except the final chapter, the strongest part of the book, which ends abruptly) These topics and experiences might be better synthesized in a collection of personal essays or short stories. Otherwise, this feels more akin to a self-indulgent glamorized diary than a work of literary fiction.
I say this with grace: Unprecedented Times, like most of Kannan’s other work I have read, feels unripe. This feels like an early draft rushed to publication in the immediate aftermath of her experiences, with no opportunity to gain the distance and perspective that this book desperately needs. That’s not to say it’s HORRIBLE, or that she is untalented, there’s good stuff here. I just wish I read it later in her career, when she was ready to kill her darlings. I wish she had an editor willing to tease the strengths out, because they ARE here. The marketing for her litfic debut (and for a lot of her other stuff) relies on “the unfiltered mind of Gen Z” element that misses the real value of her perspective, which does not derive from her youth. (If anything, the market is over saturated with Gen Z stream of consciousness opinion, it’s every corner of the internet, all the time. I say this as a zillennial) There are some interesting arguments and lyrical turns of phrase, but it’s bogged down in a lot of pithy, self-aggrandizing nothingness.
Does a story have to mean something? Does Rishi (and Kannan) have to find narrative meaning in her experiences for them to be worthwhile? It’s an underbaked thesis. If your argument is that it means nothing, surprise! It now has the meaning and purpose of declaring not all experiences have narrative meaning. Really, you need to have an editor who can call you out on shit like this. Is it worthwhile? Decide for yourself.
Again, all the love and light in my heart to this author, but if all the characters/plot points are from your real life with the serial numbers filed off AND you refuse to engage with the themes to pluck meaning from the experiences, why bother to write fiction at all? Why not a blogpost, a tweet, an essay, a memoir? If you don’t care to find a point to all of this after 352 pages, why the fuck should I?
TLDR: Best of luck to this ambitious young writer, but I’m uninterested in reading every ham-fisted first draft raced to publication that paves her way.
August 30, 2026
The cover made me expect something much more satirical and unhinged, but this felt delightfully grounded and authentic to the Gen Z experience (as an outsider, so I’m guessing, but it felt real).
I loved how the story presented everything in such a matter of fact way, the way life happens, even
Early adulthood is full of wild experiences, lived against little enough life experience that you figure this is just regular-schmegular life. This nailed that so well.
I loved how the story presented everything in such a matter of fact way, the way life happens, even
Early adulthood is full of wild experiences, lived against little enough life experience that you figure this is just regular-schmegular life. This nailed that so well.
August 24, 2026
Brilliant, clear-eyed, funny. The kids are self-aware and kind of awful and kind of genius. I loved this book about Rishi, a self-serious Gen Z entering college right as the pandemic hits. This is a funny, biting novel about exploring yourself, testing boundaries, being porous, meeting people you think you’ll love forever at eighteen years old, and loss.
Trigger warnings for COVID and Gen Z faux moralism, but I loved the way Kannan pointed a laser at the defensive usage of social justice language by young people grasping for moral truths in an immoral world. She gets it.
Trigger warnings for COVID and Gen Z faux moralism, but I loved the way Kannan pointed a laser at the defensive usage of social justice language by young people grasping for moral truths in an immoral world. She gets it.
September 29, 2025
I hope you like it!
August 18, 2026
The writing in this felt so self important, immature, and faux-insightful, like reading the twitter timeline (or substack) of the worst person you know. It reads like a helplessly online buzzfeed article for the post millennial generation. I couldn’t subject myself to any more of it omfg.
February 1, 2026
4.75
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.
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.
April 30, 2026
The problem with autofiction is that sometimes the author’s life isn’t nearly as interesting as they think it is.
Things I liked:
- Rishi being a burnt out youth climate activist. Really interesting and I wish we had more ruminations on this and how it affects her day to day life.
- Time spent on the farming co-op. I could only take so much of the run-of-the-mill Gen Z characters in run-of-the-mill Gen Z places like college or NYC. The setting had so much potential! (It did also make me wish I was just reading Alison Bechdel’s Spent, which is an actually interesting and well written autofiction about queers on a farm during the pandemic)
- Solid pacing. I liked the distinct acts and the writer’s ability to skip time without it being disorienting or seemingly unnecessary.
Things I didn’t:
-The characters. Jesus Christ, the characters. Maybe the problem is that I know these people way too well. I spent too much time in college surrounded by filthy rich kids with leftist politics and cliques and infighting. Just a personal issue for me I guess but I did not like spending time with any of them. I love an unlikable character, but it has too be purposeful and well done. This was not.
- Rishi’s voice and meme references. Jesus Christ the meme references. Maybe it would be better if I was less online and didn’t know that the quilt remarks were ripped off of twitter but unfortunately I did know this and I couldn’t help but cringe, like when someone makes a joke you read online three weeks ago and you just have to fake laugh. I understand that it’s time appropriate for the pandemic but was very frustrating for me to read.
- The way privilege is addressed in the story. It’s mentioned often (slay), comparing dynamics and characters mentioning, but doing nothing to offset, their privilege, both racial and economic. I love a story with evil rich characters, and I feel like if this was more well written/edited it could be a stronger commentary on how although these kids are aware and guilty of their privilege, they do nothing to help others. That’s real, that’s believable, but I worry that many readers will not understand this, as it was very muddled.
Anyways it’s the best cover art I’ve seen in a while. I also read that the author thinks you can just choose to be a lesbian and wahoo boy I could definitely tell from the book.
Things I liked:
- Rishi being a burnt out youth climate activist. Really interesting and I wish we had more ruminations on this and how it affects her day to day life.
- Time spent on the farming co-op. I could only take so much of the run-of-the-mill Gen Z characters in run-of-the-mill Gen Z places like college or NYC. The setting had so much potential! (It did also make me wish I was just reading Alison Bechdel’s Spent, which is an actually interesting and well written autofiction about queers on a farm during the pandemic)
- Solid pacing. I liked the distinct acts and the writer’s ability to skip time without it being disorienting or seemingly unnecessary.
Things I didn’t:
-The characters. Jesus Christ, the characters. Maybe the problem is that I know these people way too well. I spent too much time in college surrounded by filthy rich kids with leftist politics and cliques and infighting. Just a personal issue for me I guess but I did not like spending time with any of them. I love an unlikable character, but it has too be purposeful and well done. This was not.
- Rishi’s voice and meme references. Jesus Christ the meme references. Maybe it would be better if I was less online and didn’t know that the quilt remarks were ripped off of twitter but unfortunately I did know this and I couldn’t help but cringe, like when someone makes a joke you read online three weeks ago and you just have to fake laugh. I understand that it’s time appropriate for the pandemic but was very frustrating for me to read.
- The way privilege is addressed in the story. It’s mentioned often (slay), comparing dynamics and characters mentioning, but doing nothing to offset, their privilege, both racial and economic. I love a story with evil rich characters, and I feel like if this was more well written/edited it could be a stronger commentary on how although these kids are aware and guilty of their privilege, they do nothing to help others. That’s real, that’s believable, but I worry that many readers will not understand this, as it was very muddled.
Anyways it’s the best cover art I’ve seen in a while. I also read that the author thinks you can just choose to be a lesbian and wahoo boy I could definitely tell from the book.
Did Not Finish
June 15, 2026dnf'ing at ~20% bc i lived this exact kind of insufferable gen z college experience and i don't feel the need to revisit it for 300+ pages. this is a great cultural document; i'll give it that.
August 28, 2026
A frustrating read that I'll chalk up at least halfway to myself not fully reading the description. This is a covid lockdown novel, which is a time period I'm completely burnt out on. It follows a privileged and immature college freshman through the pandemic—from move-in in 2019 to ending up on a culty homestead with a bunch of larpers by the end.
At first it scratched my post-The Idiot campus novel craving that I get every year around this time. Even though it was more YA-coded than litfic, I was still vibing with the culture shock of being around so many smart and intimidating people, the dating drama, and the parental tensions that come with being independent for the first time. But then the covid stuff happened and it all became very cringe and "woke 1." There's not much of a plot or character development and the writing isn't interesting or funny enough to justify that choice. It could almost be a satire but I see it's actually autofiction? Anyway, glad to be done with it.
The audiobook narration was phenomenal and authentic, I thought it was read by the author until now I see that it's not.
At first it scratched my post-The Idiot campus novel craving that I get every year around this time. Even though it was more YA-coded than litfic, I was still vibing with the culture shock of being around so many smart and intimidating people, the dating drama, and the parental tensions that come with being independent for the first time. But then the covid stuff happened and it all became very cringe and "woke 1." There's not much of a plot or character development and the writing isn't interesting or funny enough to justify that choice. It could almost be a satire but I see it's actually autofiction? Anyway, glad to be done with it.
The audiobook narration was phenomenal and authentic, I thought it was read by the author until now I see that it's not.
Review of advance copy received from Netgalley
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!
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!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I'm a big fan of coming of age novels, especially when it comes to the teenage or early twenties subsets. Life is messy. Feelings are messy. People are messy. And it turns out that no one actually knows what they're doing. Everyone's just faking it.
I'm honestly not sure who to recommend this novel to. I don't think anyone in my circle would be interested or be as amused with the FMC as I was. As someone who's a little over a decade older than the protagonist, I didn't think that I'd like this novel because a lot of it was too relatable to the point where it was uncomfortable. But strangely, that discomfort was a big reason why I liked it.
The writing style is the perfect mix of serious and sarcastic. It feels like reading an undergrad's diary of self-discovery. She writes about being Indian American, living through lockdown, the evolution and deterioration of a friendship with your college bestie, trying out new shit and new lifestyles, etc.
Like I said, I'm not sure who to recommend this to because early twenty-somethings can be a bit pretentious when it comes to their voice and thought processes. But hey, been there, done that.
Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for this arc.
I'm honestly not sure who to recommend this novel to. I don't think anyone in my circle would be interested or be as amused with the FMC as I was. As someone who's a little over a decade older than the protagonist, I didn't think that I'd like this novel because a lot of it was too relatable to the point where it was uncomfortable. But strangely, that discomfort was a big reason why I liked it.
The writing style is the perfect mix of serious and sarcastic. It feels like reading an undergrad's diary of self-discovery. She writes about being Indian American, living through lockdown, the evolution and deterioration of a friendship with your college bestie, trying out new shit and new lifestyles, etc.
Like I said, I'm not sure who to recommend this to because early twenty-somethings can be a bit pretentious when it comes to their voice and thought processes. But hey, been there, done that.
Thank you to Henry Holt and Co. and NetGalley for this arc.
September 6, 2026
I’m not sure if this book is objectively good but it almost made me sick how much I related to it. I’m feeling parasocial towards the author now, that’s how serious it is. I’m feeling so many intense feelings and remembering things I haven’t thought about since my first year and the pandemic. Basically this book looked at the inside of my soul and so yeah feeling normal about that <3
Read
October 6, 2026i enjoyed this until i didn't and then it felt kind of all over the place, ty to the publisher for the gifted arc
Read
August 18, 2026read my review here! https://thetorontoreview.ca/malavika-...
January 17, 2026
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.
August 29, 2026
Rishi is so real, I’ve been friends with her, I’ve been her, I’ve hated her, I’ve loved her. I can’t thank Malavika Kannan enough for putting this story into the world. One of my top 3 books of all time!
October 21, 2026
As a millenial, I was entirely sold on the promise of a Gen Z's perspective of a pandemic. By the time COVID began, I had a 6 month old baby and had just turned 27, so I'd consider myself to be armed with just a touch more knowledge than Rishi had concerning staying alive and the necessity of it at the time. With global lockdowns in place, precautions laid down I had never heard of, and a baby with my first priority, my needs certainly fell somewhere to the wayside. I felt so damn refreshed and normal to sit with Rishi as she understood the pandemic and displayed a lot of selfishness I, for one, was never allowed to feel. While nothing stellar or profound to write home about, this felt like floating along on a relaxation and post snack haze at a close friend's slumber party. Special thanks to Alyssa for sending me her ARC!
Did Not Finish
February 26, 2026DNF
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.
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.
Read
March 3, 2026I’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.
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.
September 8, 2026
*I finally got around to properly reviewing this book lol. Enjoy!*
I feel like I have to preface this review by saying that I am Gen Z, and I did, in fact, go to college during the global pandemic in 2020. More specifically, I started my freshman year of college with mask mandates, social distancing, and no extracurricular activities. I completely understand that this is a unique experience that not many others will have, unless there is some other global pandemic that occurs. I feel that if I were an author, I would also be compelled to write about my time during COVID. I also understand that everyone who has experienced the COVID-19 pandemic has a very different life than everyone else. My own mom is immunocompromised, so we took as many precautions as we could have to make sure she was safe, but I know that was not the case for a majority of people. That said, I think that having a perspective such as Rishi's is important; however, it was not executed in the right way, which made it difficult to give this book more than 2 stars.
The first qualm that I found with the story is that it seems like such a short time for reflection. This work is autofiction, so some parts of the book are based on Malavika's own experience during the pandemic. The start of COVID happened in 2020, which is only 6 years ago. The crazier thing is that there are still active cases of COVID happening, according to the CDC's website. It could have been just how I interpreted the writing, but it felt like Rishi, and in turn Kannan, didn't take the pandemic very seriously. It felt as if she believed that the worst of it was over. The difficult part about this is that it is autofiction! There is clearly a connection between how the character reacted and how Kannan felt about her own experience during COVID. Overall, it just felt as if COVID wasn't taken seriously, which I didn't appreciate. I understand that we are all naive and self-centered, but to publish something where a huge aspect of the book is about the global pandemic and then write how you didn't take it seriously feels a bit off. I also find it hard to believe that in the 5-ish years between COVID starting and the present, Kannan was able to do enough reflection to make her autofiction book indicate her growth and understanding. I feel that it is still too recent an event to thoroughly self-reflect on what occurred and how it made you feel, but that is just my personal opinion.
Another qualm that I had with the story was that it seemed there was no true point to what was being said. There was reflection on Rishi's part occasionally, but other than that, there was no overarching message of the book. The book can be summarized as such: Rishi goes to an Ivy League school with a bunch of privileged students, becomes very close with her roommate, COVID happens, moves to a farm commune as a gap year, realizes she might have feelings for said roommate, has a friendship breakup and leaves the commune, moves to NYC, moves home, and the end. You would think that lessons would be learned throughout all of this, but that did not seem to be the case. There were times in which Rishi did do some self-reflection, but every time she started, she seemed to slip back again to her old ways. One of the ways that I saw this happening was with her sexuality. In the book, Rishi identifies as a lesbian at one point, which helps her realize her feelings for her roommate/friend. After that goes poorly and they "break up," Rishi starts going on dates with guys because she claims they can't hurt her as her former roommate/friend did, but she is clearly not enjoying her time on those dates. Instead of doing any more reflection about her actions, she continues going on these dates, knowing that they are causing her emotional distress/she is using these men to fill the void of her romantic life. To me, I felt like I was just reading the diary of someone who doesn't think they have ever done anything wrong, as no self-reflection was completed.
Truthfully, there is more that I could say about what I didn't like, but I will restrain myself from writing any more huge paragraphs. I applaud Malavika Kannan for putting her story out there on the market and showing that being in your 20s is a time of messiness and growth, which is why I give this book 2 stars instead of one. Despite some of the language being used being too mainstream and being a bit cringey to read in a few years, I did laugh a lot when reading this book because of the way things were said. It felt like some pieces of dialogue were pulled straight from my own 2020 college experience. I do wish that this book was just edited down a bit more and that Kannan took some more time to hone her craft. Maybe this story would have been better told in a few years and not now, but that is just my prerogative!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
I feel like I have to preface this review by saying that I am Gen Z, and I did, in fact, go to college during the global pandemic in 2020. More specifically, I started my freshman year of college with mask mandates, social distancing, and no extracurricular activities. I completely understand that this is a unique experience that not many others will have, unless there is some other global pandemic that occurs. I feel that if I were an author, I would also be compelled to write about my time during COVID. I also understand that everyone who has experienced the COVID-19 pandemic has a very different life than everyone else. My own mom is immunocompromised, so we took as many precautions as we could have to make sure she was safe, but I know that was not the case for a majority of people. That said, I think that having a perspective such as Rishi's is important; however, it was not executed in the right way, which made it difficult to give this book more than 2 stars.
The first qualm that I found with the story is that it seems like such a short time for reflection. This work is autofiction, so some parts of the book are based on Malavika's own experience during the pandemic. The start of COVID happened in 2020, which is only 6 years ago. The crazier thing is that there are still active cases of COVID happening, according to the CDC's website. It could have been just how I interpreted the writing, but it felt like Rishi, and in turn Kannan, didn't take the pandemic very seriously. It felt as if she believed that the worst of it was over. The difficult part about this is that it is autofiction! There is clearly a connection between how the character reacted and how Kannan felt about her own experience during COVID. Overall, it just felt as if COVID wasn't taken seriously, which I didn't appreciate. I understand that we are all naive and self-centered, but to publish something where a huge aspect of the book is about the global pandemic and then write how you didn't take it seriously feels a bit off. I also find it hard to believe that in the 5-ish years between COVID starting and the present, Kannan was able to do enough reflection to make her autofiction book indicate her growth and understanding. I feel that it is still too recent an event to thoroughly self-reflect on what occurred and how it made you feel, but that is just my personal opinion.
Another qualm that I had with the story was that it seemed there was no true point to what was being said. There was reflection on Rishi's part occasionally, but other than that, there was no overarching message of the book. The book can be summarized as such: Rishi goes to an Ivy League school with a bunch of privileged students, becomes very close with her roommate, COVID happens, moves to a farm commune as a gap year, realizes she might have feelings for said roommate, has a friendship breakup and leaves the commune, moves to NYC, moves home, and the end. You would think that lessons would be learned throughout all of this, but that did not seem to be the case. There were times in which Rishi did do some self-reflection, but every time she started, she seemed to slip back again to her old ways. One of the ways that I saw this happening was with her sexuality. In the book, Rishi identifies as a lesbian at one point, which helps her realize her feelings for her roommate/friend. After that goes poorly and they "break up," Rishi starts going on dates with guys because she claims they can't hurt her as her former roommate/friend did, but she is clearly not enjoying her time on those dates. Instead of doing any more reflection about her actions, she continues going on these dates, knowing that they are causing her emotional distress/she is using these men to fill the void of her romantic life. To me, I felt like I was just reading the diary of someone who doesn't think they have ever done anything wrong, as no self-reflection was completed.
Truthfully, there is more that I could say about what I didn't like, but I will restrain myself from writing any more huge paragraphs. I applaud Malavika Kannan for putting her story out there on the market and showing that being in your 20s is a time of messiness and growth, which is why I give this book 2 stars instead of one. Despite some of the language being used being too mainstream and being a bit cringey to read in a few years, I did laugh a lot when reading this book because of the way things were said. It felt like some pieces of dialogue were pulled straight from my own 2020 college experience. I do wish that this book was just edited down a bit more and that Kannan took some more time to hone her craft. Maybe this story would have been better told in a few years and not now, but that is just my prerogative!
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Read
October 20, 2026Thank you Amarah for recommendation and brilliant review; thank you Malavika Kannan for reminding me that people (including the people we used to be in 2020) deserve both critique and love. Compassionate as ever. To say nothing of the AUTOFICTION of it all!!!
July 2, 2026
Thank you to Henry Holt & Co. and NetGalley for the ARC!
This coming of age novel, set during the "unprecedented time" of our generation, follows a young queer burned-out activist during her first year of college and the onset of the Covid pandemic. I worried I might see too much of myself in this novel - or worse, that I wouldn't be able to get through it because of the proximity of Covid quarantine, despite the 6 years that have passed. Instead, I was drawn into the messy inner life of a young woman trying to navigate major life transitions, and failing miserably. Marked with witty quips, one-liners, and Gen-Z slang, the book sometimes slides too far into humor and away from depth, character development, and reflection. The intensity and emotional impact gets lost when every difficult moment doesn't get a chance to stick the landing before it turns into a punchline.
The novel brought up a lot of prevalent topics: the Covid pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, climate change and climate activism, farm and manual labor, and the early stages of figuring out your sexuality. For a narrator focused on writing and making a difference, with a background in climate activism, I expected the main character to "practice what she preached," or explore the way these topics touched her life. How does a climate activist spend a gap year working on a farm, but doesn't explore the impact of that labor, communal living, or the effects of climate change on farming? What does it mean for her friend/love interest, the daughter of CDC workers on the front lines of the pandemic, to accompany her to a NYC bar at the height of Covid? What does it mean for a queer woman who declares to "hate men" to only seek out sex with men when she is feeling bored or self-destructive? This book had so much potential, but fell flat.
If you seek out unreliable, complicated, and unapologetic main characters, then Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan is your kind of book! There is a distance between the main character and everyone else in the story - this unreliable narrator has a skewed perspective of events and her role in them. Unfortunately, it was hard for me to read as an adult watching this teenager make the worst mistakes of their life and then not learn anything or take any responsibility for her actions. I feel like I aged out of the demographic that would enjoy this book - 10 years ago it would have been perfect for the teenager I was: someone struggling to find friendships that fit, coming into my queerness, and becoming angry with the injustices of the world we live in.
Anyone who: deflects trauma with humor, is still figuring out their sexuality, has a group of queer misfit friends, and has definitely stalked their ex-situationship on social media: this book is for you!
This coming of age novel, set during the "unprecedented time" of our generation, follows a young queer burned-out activist during her first year of college and the onset of the Covid pandemic. I worried I might see too much of myself in this novel - or worse, that I wouldn't be able to get through it because of the proximity of Covid quarantine, despite the 6 years that have passed. Instead, I was drawn into the messy inner life of a young woman trying to navigate major life transitions, and failing miserably. Marked with witty quips, one-liners, and Gen-Z slang, the book sometimes slides too far into humor and away from depth, character development, and reflection. The intensity and emotional impact gets lost when every difficult moment doesn't get a chance to stick the landing before it turns into a punchline.
The novel brought up a lot of prevalent topics: the Covid pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement, climate change and climate activism, farm and manual labor, and the early stages of figuring out your sexuality. For a narrator focused on writing and making a difference, with a background in climate activism, I expected the main character to "practice what she preached," or explore the way these topics touched her life. How does a climate activist spend a gap year working on a farm, but doesn't explore the impact of that labor, communal living, or the effects of climate change on farming? What does it mean for her friend/love interest, the daughter of CDC workers on the front lines of the pandemic, to accompany her to a NYC bar at the height of Covid? What does it mean for a queer woman who declares to "hate men" to only seek out sex with men when she is feeling bored or self-destructive? This book had so much potential, but fell flat.
If you seek out unreliable, complicated, and unapologetic main characters, then Unprecedented Times by Malavika Kannan is your kind of book! There is a distance between the main character and everyone else in the story - this unreliable narrator has a skewed perspective of events and her role in them. Unfortunately, it was hard for me to read as an adult watching this teenager make the worst mistakes of their life and then not learn anything or take any responsibility for her actions. I feel like I aged out of the demographic that would enjoy this book - 10 years ago it would have been perfect for the teenager I was: someone struggling to find friendships that fit, coming into my queerness, and becoming angry with the injustices of the world we live in.
Anyone who: deflects trauma with humor, is still figuring out their sexuality, has a group of queer misfit friends, and has definitely stalked their ex-situationship on social media: this book is for you!
August 9, 2026
𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗛𝗔𝗣𝗦
Rishi arrives at Stanford ready for her life to begin. Out from under the burden of her Asian mother’s love, she wants to pursue a degree in literature so she can write books and she wants to have a lot of gay sex.
Upon meeting her roommate, Georgia, Rishi is immediately smitten - and the two form a bond that looks like, feels like love. They share everything, processing every action and emotion with each other.
And then it’s March of 2020 and the world shuts down.
After a few painful months at home, Rishi and her group of friends from Stanford - including Georgia - decide to join a farm collective in the mountains of rural Pennsylvania. But once there, relationships become trickier to navigate, choices are made, and Rishi’s life changes dramatically.
𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦
Rishi is self centered and borders on narcissistic behavior throughout the story. She feels entitled and believes that simply telling someone she’s sorry should be enough to absolve her of what’s happened. She struggles with her overbearing mother without once really trying to understand her motivations.
I found her difficult to like.
And then I discovered this is autofiction, meaning much of this is based on real situations and feelings, but fictionalized to help the author deal with complex emotions. And that definitely confused the plot for me.
I don’t know. It was a lot. I struggled to get into it, thoroughly enjoyed the middle half, and then was extremely frustrated by the ending.
𝗩𝗜𝗕𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞
Gen Z behaving like fictionalized Gen Zers.
𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗗
That’s up to you. I found Rishi difficult and the selfishness to be overwhelming at times. It’s character driven and complex.
Lots of TWs - DM me or check them out online.
3.5⭐️
Rishi arrives at Stanford ready for her life to begin. Out from under the burden of her Asian mother’s love, she wants to pursue a degree in literature so she can write books and she wants to have a lot of gay sex.
Upon meeting her roommate, Georgia, Rishi is immediately smitten - and the two form a bond that looks like, feels like love. They share everything, processing every action and emotion with each other.
And then it’s March of 2020 and the world shuts down.
After a few painful months at home, Rishi and her group of friends from Stanford - including Georgia - decide to join a farm collective in the mountains of rural Pennsylvania. But once there, relationships become trickier to navigate, choices are made, and Rishi’s life changes dramatically.
𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚𝗦
Rishi is self centered and borders on narcissistic behavior throughout the story. She feels entitled and believes that simply telling someone she’s sorry should be enough to absolve her of what’s happened. She struggles with her overbearing mother without once really trying to understand her motivations.
I found her difficult to like.
And then I discovered this is autofiction, meaning much of this is based on real situations and feelings, but fictionalized to help the author deal with complex emotions. And that definitely confused the plot for me.
I don’t know. It was a lot. I struggled to get into it, thoroughly enjoyed the middle half, and then was extremely frustrated by the ending.
𝗩𝗜𝗕𝗘 𝗖𝗛𝗘𝗖𝗞
Gen Z behaving like fictionalized Gen Zers.
𝗥𝗘𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗗
That’s up to you. I found Rishi difficult and the selfishness to be overwhelming at times. It’s character driven and complex.
Lots of TWs - DM me or check them out online.
3.5⭐️
August 31, 2026
Thank you Henry Holt Books for the #gifted copy in exchange for an honest review! #HoltInfluencerProgram
Rishi is a champion in the flight against climate change. Okay, not as much as Greta Thunberg, but still a pretty big deal. Enough of a deal to get into Stanford to get as far away as possible from her parents in Florida. School is going great, and Rishi is having her queer awakening. But just as things seem to kick off, COVID-19 enters the chat. Faced with unprecedented circumstances, Rishi’s life begins to unravel as she finds herself in even more unprecedented situations and unprecedented relationships. Is this what adulthood is supposed to be like?
To start: yes, this reads exactly as you would expect for Gen Z autofiction, and yes, Malavika Kannan’s authentic voice is exactly why I liked the book so much. I found myself truly laughing at some of the awkward scenarios, sardonic comments, and self-flagellating self-righteous moralism. The main character is messy and flawed, but holds the beauty that comes from all sorts of relationships close to her chest. The main character is one of those narrators that processes her own trauma and grief through humor and sarcasm, but having your freshman year of college ripped away due to a global pandemic will do that to a person. Tara Raani’s narration was absolutely spot on, capturing the joy, jealousy, and sometimes juvenile main character, while also nailing some of the nuances of the side characters. I get that this is not a book that everyone will like. But with Malavika Kannan as an emerging voice in Desi diaspora autofiction, I’m eating it up.
Reviewed as part of an #ARC from the publisher and #NetGalley.
Read this book if you:
🔥 have had your own existential crisis from climate change
🛋️ have ever stated, “men will do anything but go to therapy”
🦄 exclusively listen to Reneé Rapp
Follow me on Instagram for more book reviews!
Rishi is a champion in the flight against climate change. Okay, not as much as Greta Thunberg, but still a pretty big deal. Enough of a deal to get into Stanford to get as far away as possible from her parents in Florida. School is going great, and Rishi is having her queer awakening. But just as things seem to kick off, COVID-19 enters the chat. Faced with unprecedented circumstances, Rishi’s life begins to unravel as she finds herself in even more unprecedented situations and unprecedented relationships. Is this what adulthood is supposed to be like?
To start: yes, this reads exactly as you would expect for Gen Z autofiction, and yes, Malavika Kannan’s authentic voice is exactly why I liked the book so much. I found myself truly laughing at some of the awkward scenarios, sardonic comments, and self-flagellating self-righteous moralism. The main character is messy and flawed, but holds the beauty that comes from all sorts of relationships close to her chest. The main character is one of those narrators that processes her own trauma and grief through humor and sarcasm, but having your freshman year of college ripped away due to a global pandemic will do that to a person. Tara Raani’s narration was absolutely spot on, capturing the joy, jealousy, and sometimes juvenile main character, while also nailing some of the nuances of the side characters. I get that this is not a book that everyone will like. But with Malavika Kannan as an emerging voice in Desi diaspora autofiction, I’m eating it up.
Reviewed as part of an #ARC from the publisher and #NetGalley.
Read this book if you:
🔥 have had your own existential crisis from climate change
🛋️ have ever stated, “men will do anything but go to therapy”
🦄 exclusively listen to Reneé Rapp
Follow me on Instagram for more book reviews!
August 5, 2026
Loved it! A coming of age story for the Gen Z idealists who had to experience a lot of historic events in a quick succession. Life and people are hard. The audio book was amazing.
August 4, 2026
Compulsively readable as scrolling TikTok 2020 style lol
And Rishi is 2020; she’s furious, she’s exhausted, she’s overinformed and touch starved. Doing her best in an impossible era to come of age into. She’s also the queer daughter of Indian immigrants, marching into an unprecedented future with a knife for a tongue and a tender hand reaching back for her mother’s. She’s bristly and annoying and completely lovable.
And Rishi is 2020; she’s furious, she’s exhausted, she’s overinformed and touch starved. Doing her best in an impossible era to come of age into. She’s also the queer daughter of Indian immigrants, marching into an unprecedented future with a knife for a tongue and a tender hand reaching back for her mother’s. She’s bristly and annoying and completely lovable.
Did Not Finish
May 12, 2026Unfortunately, this book was not my cup of tea, mainly because of the writing style. It felt very unpolished and was hard to read at times. The humor was too millenial-ish for me personally, which doesn't really match up with the marketing material claiming that Kannan is "the literary voice of Gen-Z". I can't definitively speak to the quality of the book as a whole, as I did not finish it, and these issues are specific to my preferences rather than definite flaws. So if you don't mind a very casual writing style and millennial memes, you might like this book.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Thank you to Netgalley for providing an ARC copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
September 23, 2026
Funny and intense in the way that we all were online in 2020. An earnest coming-of-age of a self-serious young woman who you want to throttle and can’t help but understand. I think some narrators feel unlikeable because they dig into and reflect back to us our most biting qualities.
August 27, 2026
This book is what happens when a chronically online, exceptionally navel-gazing young girl is given a book deal and permitted to publish her entirely unedited, true to life, teenage diaries. Unfortunately every single thing that happens in this book is so true to Malavika's real life you can figure out exactly who is being talked about in this book by observing her social media. I'm surprised no one has sued.
There is nothing literary about the writing in here; it is unedited and sprawling, with the Sally Rooney imitation-ish lack of quotation marks, and this is certainly not literary fiction at all. There are some relatable things that happen in here, such as friendship breakups, but overall this is literally just a rambling unedited version of Malavika's first year at Stanford, with no reflection, no synthesis, no cutting or application of craft in order to ascribe meaning or order--not even in service of the thesis that not everything needs meaning. Like, it's so meaningless that the possible thesis of meaninglessness is not adequately demonstrated.
This book is what would happen if I took my quarantine diaries from age 17 and published them while marketing myself as the voice of Gen Z. It wouldn't be terrible writing, since I was also a precocious teenage girl, but it wouldn't be good either, and it wouldn't demonstrate growth. I honestly think Malavika is too young to be synthesizing her own fairly recent experiences as part of some sort of profound book. She just hasn't grown enough to make anything significant out of them. Her 18-year-old main character Rishi is exactly like her, and for some reason Malavika had to put a rape scene at the end of the book again without including any reflection or meaning whatsoever. No warnings, either, in advertising or marketing. Just chronically online unedited Girlthoughts (TM) and she doesn't seem to realize that what makes coming-of-age books meaningful in the long run, or college books, or whatever else, is that you need to synthesize beyond self-absorption.
ALSO, Rishi is hella annoying. Rich, pretentious, fake-activist, leftist Indian girl attends Stanford but is chronically sad about the climate and feels perpetually victimized--like yes I've been there too, but there's just nothing BEYOND this or INTERPRETING this, which makes the book feel especially unselfaware.
There is nothing literary about the writing in here; it is unedited and sprawling, with the Sally Rooney imitation-ish lack of quotation marks, and this is certainly not literary fiction at all. There are some relatable things that happen in here, such as friendship breakups, but overall this is literally just a rambling unedited version of Malavika's first year at Stanford, with no reflection, no synthesis, no cutting or application of craft in order to ascribe meaning or order--not even in service of the thesis that not everything needs meaning. Like, it's so meaningless that the possible thesis of meaninglessness is not adequately demonstrated.
This book is what would happen if I took my quarantine diaries from age 17 and published them while marketing myself as the voice of Gen Z. It wouldn't be terrible writing, since I was also a precocious teenage girl, but it wouldn't be good either, and it wouldn't demonstrate growth. I honestly think Malavika is too young to be synthesizing her own fairly recent experiences as part of some sort of profound book. She just hasn't grown enough to make anything significant out of them. Her 18-year-old main character Rishi is exactly like her, and for some reason Malavika had to put a rape scene at the end of the book again without including any reflection or meaning whatsoever. No warnings, either, in advertising or marketing. Just chronically online unedited Girlthoughts (TM) and she doesn't seem to realize that what makes coming-of-age books meaningful in the long run, or college books, or whatever else, is that you need to synthesize beyond self-absorption.
ALSO, Rishi is hella annoying. Rich, pretentious, fake-activist, leftist Indian girl attends Stanford but is chronically sad about the climate and feels perpetually victimized--like yes I've been there too, but there's just nothing BEYOND this or INTERPRETING this, which makes the book feel especially unselfaware.
September 28, 2026
i’m sick i’m sick is this play about me
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