Trick Mirror

This is the quintessential “modern person” essay collection, I think. It deals with a bunch of different things, but everything written about is a topic a 20-to-30-something would know about. Topics range from the Internet, reality TV, marriage, drugs, and scams.

Tolentino is thoughtful, clear, and very good at expressing herself personally and on a larger scale. A lot of nonfiction essays and books depend on context, and she does a great job of relating her specific life to a bigger point. So even if I didn’t grow up in Houston, for example, I still feel like I did thanks to the writing.

The standouts to me are “Ecstasy”, which I think is the best of the bunch, “Reality TV Me”, which is comparatively lower stakes than the rest, but I really enjoyed it, and “We Come from Old Virginia”, which is certainly on the higher stakes end.

There are some points that feel like re-treads. The internet comes up a lot, the cost of things on the internet comes up a couple of times. The election of 2016 plays a prominent role, as do feminine literary characters. Not to say those topics coming makes the essays bad or good, but in a collection, it makes me think that I’ve read some of this stuff before. Thankfully, they’re not that intrusive than I ended up having a bad time. Overall, I think a big majority of these essays have their finger on the pulse.

Worth your time, for sure.