I met Tony at a book event once. He seemed normal. I shook his hand. Then I read his book (vile, uproarious, I couldn't put it down). And now no matter how hard I scrub, the hand that touched Tony's will never be clean again.
— Jack
Bonkers! A book that is intense, detailed, meticulously niche, & it all gets out of hand real quick. You’re in for discovering hidden desires, designed deliberately to cause a reaction one way or another. It will have you wondering if there is an endgame. If so, what then? Incredibly well written, dark, funny, meta. In some ways, it seems to prepare us for what lies ahead, we’ll just have to see.
— pedro
A ruthless excoriation of what Mark Fisher called the Vampire Castle—the culture of online discourse that cannibalizes, rather than unites, the left—and a how-not-to guide for those who were raised on the early internet. Repulsive and unapologetic, Rejection holds a mirror up to 21st-century America. If you’re at all like me, you’ll be unable to look away despite being horrified by the spectacle.
— James
First you relate to the characters, then you feel sick for relating, then it doesn't matter because you're laughing too hard. This is required reading for anyone who spirals from self pity, and maybe spends too much time on the internet. Read about these characters so you don't end up like them.
— Ben
A horror story written in internet speak that made me so uncomfortable that I peed. Yet, I also felt comforted by my one continuous, cosmic microwave background thought of: "THAT IS SO TRUE". Then halfway, there was an unconscionable use of "IJBOL" that broke me.... and here I remain, broken. So in good faith I cannot recommend this. But in bad faith, I wholeheartedly recommend it.
— Swati S.""Rejection is unrelentingly brutal and gut-bustingly funny and spares no one--not you, not me. Tulathimutte is a pervert and a madman and a stone-cold genius."" --Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties
From the Whiting and O. Henry-winning author of Private Citizens ("the first great millennial novel," New York Magazine), an electrifying novel-in-stories that follows a cast of intricately linked characters as rejection throws their lives and relationships into chaos.
Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the touchiest problems of modern life. The seven connected stories seamlessly transition between the personal crises of a complex ensemble and the comic tragedies of sex, relationships, identity, and the internet.
In "The Feminist," a young man's passionate allyship turns to furious nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that it isn't getting him laid. A young woman's unrequited crush in "Pics" spirals into borderline obsession and the systematic destruction of her sense of self. And in "Ahegao; or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression," a shy late bloomer's flailing efforts at a first relationship leads to a life-upending mistake. As the characters pop up in each other's dating apps and social media feeds, or meet in dimly lit bars and bedrooms, they reveal the ways our delusions can warp our desire for connection.
These brilliant satires explore the underrated sorrows of rejection with the authority of a modern classic and the manic intensity of a manifesto. Audacious and unforgettable, Rejection is a stunning mosaic that redefines what it means to be rejected by lovers, friends, society, and oneself.