Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion (utgåvan 2020)

Recommended by Rabia; cited in Anne Helen Petersen's Can't Even

Tolentino comments on the sensational media topics we are inundated with every day - from cancel culture to feminism to weddings to Amazon. Her takes on topics like, in my favorite essay, include: who do we exercise for?; athleisure disguised as capitalism; and group exercise classes are refreshing and bold. She's funny, well-researched, and clearly plugged in to the social media culture of the millennial generation, which is her target audience. I tended to skim through some of the essays, and a few tended to feel longer than necessary, but others described exactly how I feel about $45 group exercise classes, the tradition of weddings, and the biggest scams of the day (i.e. Trump and Jeff Bezos). ( )

As a fan of Tolentino's magazine work, I was looking forward to this collection. And at first, I was thrilled. Her examination of internet culture was fantastic. She is smart and insightful. As I read on though, and her essays became more rambling, I lost interest. Even potentially engaging subjects (wedding culture) rambled and relied too much on the author's experiences, which don't always add much to the topic. ( )

Fantastic essays ( )

A set of essays about feminism, patriarchy, and capitalism as experienced by millennials in the U.S. The pleasures of these essays largely come from the confidence and clarity with which Jia Tolentino frames her observations, rather than their originality. I most appreciated her essay on difficult women, which actually intersected in unexpected ways with some of my own academic interests. ( )