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i thought, wow is this the first incel novel??? before finding out that this was the internet’s general consensus lol. each character is so gross and will probably trigger my fight or flight irl but it also reads like someone having some kind of obvious cry for help online but you can’t look away because it makes such delicious gossip. like u feel guilty for liking it but you keep consuming their crisis as content anyways.
somehow it has the same vibes as rf kuang’s yellowface, but i couldn’t quite put my finger WHY, but if yellowface satirises the politics of race, rejection satirises the politics of sex. anyway again i thought this was an original thought then found a reddit thread literally comparing the two.
its so chronically online and so smutty, so the recommendation did NOT come from me (but u should definitely read it)
I mean look at these hilarious lines
Mar 15, 2025
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recommending this book to people is largely impossible so I'm grateful to have this platform lol
Vulture called it "the first great incel novel" but it's more than that. It's about shame and avoidance in the internet age and the extremes we reach when we suppress our desires.
I was thinking about this book for weeks afterwards and it really fucked me up
(in a good way)
May 30, 2025
a self indulgent gross out comedy in literature form
I had a good time
Dec 14, 2024
stories about some real desperate losers — it really is as good as everyone says !!!!! smartest book i’ve read in a long time. saying i was completely fucking gagged is an understatement
Nov 28, 2024
Top Recs from @505grapefruit
Mar 23, 2025
First one is Chloé eau de parfum: This is how I wish my girlhood smelled like: innocent and naive and angelic and knows no malice. a world before being interested in being perceived by men, just carefree and sweet and soft. a young rose, gentle, powdery and almost rose-watery. dries down with a bit of honey suckle.
This scent brings me back to my frequent trips to a gift store near my house when i was 13, which had spools over spools of gift ribbons. I’d rotate the carousel rack with scientific precision, hypnotised by the shades of pastel pinks. I didn’t grow up going to museums, but what those pastel pinks did to me is probably why people go to museums for an emotional experience. i grew my ribbon collection and life was softer around the edges.
Second layer is L’Occitane Neroli and Orchidée: There’s something about neroli that smells like a WOMAN. This is a classic white flower scent, with a whiff of nectar that feels like a cinematic cut of being on the backseat of a Vespa, with your dress being caught by the sticky summer wind. It dries down like brown sugar on my skin. A restrained sweetness, not saccharine. It’s elegant, romantic, self-assured. If this scent was a movie character, she would be Madame Gina from Porco Rosso.
I imagine our little Chloe girl has grown up and finished her master’s degree and is earning her own money. She’s got her life together. She buys herself a bouquet of tulips and sets it at the sunniest part of her living room. She’s intelligent, but never let go of her lightheartedness. She listens to Chet Baker and dreams of summering in Ischia or somewhere in the Peloponnese.
When layered together, we have the sweet innocence of girlhood to the refinement of self-assured adulthood. They’re an olfactory journey from the naivety I wish I had, to the quiet sophistication I wish to embody. And I’m just a girl with an office job.
Mar 15, 2025
Mar 23, 2025