Florence in Ecstasy (Jessie Chaffee)
This is the only book about anorexia I have ever liked. It’s been YEARS (8?!) since I’ve read it, but Chaffee does something spectacular with the setting and with Catholic saints and with the profound compulsion of disordered eating that I have never seen anywhere else. She manages to capture just how addicting anorexia is without romanticizing it, which I think is a pretty phenomenal feat. Nobody knows about this book!!
I’m Thinking of Ending Things (Iain Reid)
I don’t think I’ve ever read a book that’s upset me as much as this one. (Other than this one book I bought at the San Francisco International Airport that I had to recycle when I finished, but that was in a BAD way). Nothing will ever be as scary to me as the inside of my own mind, and Reid takes that fear to its absolute, most existentially horrifying limit. I feel like the content warning here is pretty obvious, but handle with care. Also, I read this book for a horror class and everyone else agreed that it “wasn’t that scary,” which just goes to show you that some people aren’t mentally ill.
Detransition, Baby (Torrey Peters)
Okay so this one’s maybe too obvious to recommend, but I finally read it for the first time last year and Torrey Peters’s writing style is holy grail to me. She blends humor and pathos so effectively that I don’t even know if “blend” is the right word — one of the most painful scenes in the book is immediately preceded by series of pages that truly had me yucking it up, and it couldn’t have felt more natural. It feels true to life for me — some of the saddest times in my life have also been objectively funny. She was also a phenomenal guest on my favorite podcast, if that helps. I still haven’t read Stag Dance!
Interview with the Vampire (TV Series 2022– )
I know it’s called The Vampire Lestat now, but whatever. It makes me SICK that more people aren’t watching this show. I have personally begged multiple friends to watch it and they have IGNORED me. I don’t watch a lot of TV these days (not bc I’m above it, you should see some of the books I read), but this show is really the peak and I cannot wait till June.
