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Cultural Criticism with LOLz

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

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Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino is a collection of essays published in 2019. The essays are a mix of autobiographical musings and cultural criticism. Tolentino is primarily a journalist, though she’s also written fiction. I went into Tolentino’s book not knowing what to expect. I think we live in a time over-saturated with memoirs and collections of essays. I’ve been burned before, but Trick Mirror is honestly great! Tolentino finds a way to achieve some great humor while maintaining a sense of journalism. […]

“The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you’re uncool.”

I Would be Doing this Anyway by Jia Tolentino

Rewards by Emma Cline

Crewelwork by Justin Torres

The Tomorrow Box by Curtis Sittenfeld

If You Are Lonely and You Know It by Yiyun Li

The Summer House by Cristina Henriquez

Me and Carlos by Tom Perrotta

Simplexity by Kiley Reid

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Ahh, Lester Bangs. Or at least, Philip Seymour Hoffman as Lester Bangs via Cameron Crowe in Almost Famous. Did I just grab this quote because it features the word “currency”? Well…yes and no. Currency, my latest dive into Amazon Original Stories (but not the latest collection released) describes itself as being about “friends, trends, and dividends”. The link between these eight stories is the currency between people; social, professional, and personal transactions made when money is too much to offer or not enough to cover. The players […]

Feminist Think Pieces

Bad Feminist by Roxane Gay

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

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Bad Feminist Roxane Gay is a writer and academic and Bad Feminist is her 2014 essay collection. The book is divided into a 5 thematic sections, with two very personal sections bookending three less personal sections. The more personal sections focus on Gay’s experiences as a black woman, the sexual assault perpetrated on her as a child, and her issues with mainstream feminism and its rigidity. The less personal sections contain essays with Gay’s reviews/opinions on news and culture, focusing on what this news and […]

Everything Sucks and Here’s Why

Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self Delusion by Jia Tolentino

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Trick Mirror is a collection of nine essays by millennial writer and cultural critic Jia Tolentino. And these are ESSAYS. At times, I felt like I was reading a succession of a particularly insightful and eloquent student’s final papers. Thoroughly researched and vaguely connected by the theme of the line between introspection and narcissism, the essays examine everything from the ecstasy of the highs brought on by religion and drugs, the wedding industry, rape on college campuses (her alma mater of UVA in particular), her […]

Stick with the pieces; they’re long but worth it.

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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Jia Tolentino has put together a collection of essays that span from modern womanhood to the Internet. The essays cover a myriad of topics, yet Tolentino found a way throughout all of her essays to find some throughlines. At the end of the collection, I felt that I had read a full complete collection despite the huge swath of topics. Tolentino very, very clearly sees many problems in the world and is able to articulate those issues clearly. She makes connections between problems in this […]

A Tolentino Gateway Drug

Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino

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My boss bought me Trick Mirror, a collection of nine essays by The New Yorker, Jezebel, and The Hairpin writer Jia Tolentino, for my birthday this year. As usual, she’s gifted me something meaty to absorb that suits my tastes well. The collection of essays in Trick Mirror includes a range of topics spanning marriage, the 2016 election and Trump presidency, life as a teen reality tv ‘star’, Big Tech, and religion. But it’s not just a bunch of millennial naval-gazing reflection. This is a well-researched, sourced, […]



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