Perfume and Pain

April 8, 2024
In the rollicking latest from Dorn (Exalted), a writer gets canceled after calling herself a “female faggot” during an event at a West Hollywood bookstore. Disgraced by her public shaming, Astrid Dahl returns to her writing group, Sapphic Scribes, in search of inspiration and support. While her agent anxiously awaits her next manuscript, Astrid exchanges flirty messages with her crush Ivy, discovers an attraction to her nosy older neighbor, Penelope, and receives endless affection from the gorgeous Kat Gold, a movie star who “preys on tragic dykes all the time.” These new prospects prompt Astrid to try and kick her addiction to what she calls the “Patricia Highsmith,” a simultaneous bingeing of Adderall, booze, cigarettes, and sativa; and to break away from the “deranged” Sapphic Scribes. When Ivy reveals her jealous side after discovering that Astrid might have feelings for Penelope, she puts the gritty details of their text message exchange online and Astrid must live in fear of her image getting tarnished once again. Drawing inspiration from the eccentricities of the internet (on finding her agent, Astrid writes: “I sent her my gay Kendall Jenner fanfic, and the rest is history”), Dorn keeps her finger squarely on the pulse. This brash novel pushes the envelope in all the best ways. Agent: Sarah Phair, Sanford J. Greenburger Assoc.