Unprecedented Times: A Novel

by Malavika Kannan

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.

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

Kindle Edition

Expected publication August 18, 2026

Reviews

[Malavika Kannan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I hope you like it!

[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.

[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!)

[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!

[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.

[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