This collection blends insightful and well researched social and pop culture analysis with stories from Tolentino’s fascinating life. Her essay topics are broadly varied: the evolution of the internet, reality television, scams, rape culture, the marriage industry. Even though I’ve read a ton of reviews of this book on bookstagram of all places, I didn’t realize in advance that her essay Pure Heroines was going to be a deep dive literary analysis, including spoilers for numerous novels! (Mostly classics but a few more contemporary.) While I don’t think it was wrong for what this essay is, I wished I’d been more successfully able to skim past some of the spoilery bits, or that I would have possibly skipped this essay tbh. ⁣
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Most of my favorite essays were the ones going deep into Tolentino’s personal life, such as her recounting of her teenage experience on a Reality TV show called Girls vs Boys Puerto Rico, which she tends to successfully forget is a part of her past, and her discussion of her conflicted interest in Barre. I was intrigued by her essay exploring her evolving understanding of religion and drug use, and how she argues that both served similar roles in her life in their creation of a specific mental state. Definitely not a way I’ve heard anyone discuss religion before, and I thought it was uncommonly honest. ⁣
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Overall a really interesting collection, recommended especially if you’re interested in thoughtful analysis of our current world, and the ways we experience it. ⁣