Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything

by Colette Shade

A brilliantly provocative and entertaining essay collection about the Y2K era, the generation defining period that birthed everything from AOL Instant Messenger, the Hummer H2, bling era rap, and low-rise jeans, to McMansions, anti-Bush chain emails, Abu Ghraib, and the subprime mortgage crisis.   

Genres: Nonfiction, Essays, History, Audiobook, Pop Culture, Memoir, Adult

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 7, 2025

Reviews

[W.D. Clarke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Before I left New York and especially after, I became obsessed with history. And when I say “history,” what I really mean is a very specific tradition on the political left that uses history to explain economic, political, technological, and cultural conditions. In the Y2K Era, this tradition was pronounced dead (it’s what Francis Fukuyama meant when he said we were at the End of History). But in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis, it seemed I had completely misunderstood the world, and I wanted to know what really happened. Most of all, I wanted to know how I fit into that story.

So I read and I read and I read.

Does what it sez on the tin: this is an admirable quest by one young American to make sense of her own coming of age in a culture riven by all the fault lines of an era of confident, supposedly infinite expansiion.

Along the way, Ms. Shade delves deeply into the only seemingly shallow waters of Mall Life, MTV, and the rise and rise of Starbucks, only to show by relentless contextualization how all these disparate phenomena are varying expressions of the political-economic logic of globalizing neo-liberalism.

For example, what might appear at first as a glaring example of the Hasty Generalization fallacy, the chapter titled Larry Summers Caused My Eating Disorder deftly links said Mr. Summers (the bipartisan hack's bipartisan hack*) with the economic clichés which, alas, reified into the coercive material reality of everyday life ca. 1997-2008:

Neoliberalism, I would later learn, is obsessed with the term lean. Lean is part of what critic John Patrick Leary calls “late capitalist body talk,” alongside words like flexible and nimble.

Nimble and flexible mean that you bend the ways you are told to bend, jump the ways you are told to jump, pose the ways you are told to pose. When the photographer Terry Richardson cavorts naked around photo sets and waggles his dick in your face—as one model would later allege—you do what he tells you, because there is no guarantee that if you don’t you will keep working, and you must take responsibility for yourself and your debts to your modeling agency [in an era when the models most in demand were from penniless, desperate post-Soviet nations].

Lean imagines the firm and the self as “a disciplined, practiced body”: you make do with less, you maximize your effort and productivity, you do two people’s jobs for the same pay. Lean imagines the nation this way, too, and so the policies it promotes are austerity: cutting social programs, cutting infrastructure funding, reducing deficits. Reduce, reduce, reduce. It is economic anorexia.

It was an era when unions were passé (Or, as Carrie told Charlotte on a 1999 episode of Sex and the City, “It’s the millennium, sweetie. We don’t say things like ‘working class’ anymore.”) and when poverty was your own damn fault (Because service jobs weren’t real jobs. They were low-skilled labor. They were for people who were stupid or lazy or both. “What you earn depends on what you can learn,” said Bill Clinton on the 1992 campaign trail, explaining, basically, why we couldn’t give fast-food workers benefits or a living wage.) It was the era of endless optimism, bookended by two giant economic bubbles, the so-called tech (or, "the New Economy", 1999-2001) and real-estate bubbles which were really driven by financialization (and the deregulation thereof) that began with Jimmy Carter.

But it was also the era of Branding (and No Logo), Globalizing /outsourcing supply chains (and the Battle in Seattle), as well as of the dominance of Hip Hop, of the sexualization of everything (and the evangelical forces of reaction), of Being Famous for being Famous, of the SUV (and the death of the biosphere), as well as, (who can forget?) 9-11 and the inevitable subsequent War on Terror and (the ever-elusive ) smoking gun (Weapons of Mass Distruction).

Good book. It made me remember and reconsider a lot, and learn some in the bargain.

*the Man (hired by successive presidents—Bush and Obama—and with roots in the looting of Yeltsin-era Russia as one of the infamous Smartest guys in the room', the "Harvard Boys") revealed his true colours when he told the new Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, at the beginning of the recent Greek debt crisis, that he had one very important choice to make: whether he wanted to be an insider, looking out, or an outsider, looking in....
(Source: Adults in the Room: My Battle with Europe's Deep Establishment, Yanis Varoufakis)

[Whitney Scheibel · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I saw the title, I knew I had to read this book. Being just a couple of years older than the author, I vividly remember all the events and pop cultural events she describes. All of these moments, both political and entertainment-related likely shaped our current culture, which were fascinating to reflect upon.

Initially, I expected a relatively light-hearted read, but it turned out to be a profound commentary on how that era influenced our world today. There were critiques of the era and how certain things in pop culture were problematic, then and now. The writing was insightful and thought-provoking. It took me back to my early teens where I loved glitter eyeshadow, logging onto AIM, and seeing if my favorite song was number on TRL. The book also delves into significant events/people like 9/11, Occupy Wall Street, Starbucks, unions, global warming/climate change, George Bush Jr, etc, making it a comprehensive reflection on the era.

As a fan of nostalgia, I appreciated the references to pop culture and the political climate of the time. I had just about every single experience myself that she had in that time period. The book made me recall both the good and bad, and it made me realize how optimistic us millennials were right at the start of the millennium. As time went on, I saw how those feelings faded in the post-millennium era. It makes me wonder are those same millennials optimistic now or do they still feel existential dread and hopelessness for the future

Thank you to the publisher Dey Street Books for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley

[Nathan Shuherk · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of the few times I could ever say this, but I wish it had a little more about Larry Summers. Shade has a fun style, and the walks down memory lane were really well done.

[Renata · Rating 2 out of 5]

ok first of all--not knowing her personally just based on her authorial voice in this book--I think Colette Shade is annoying in the same way that I am annoying but she is like, one notch more annoying than me and somehow one notch less self aware than me even though she wrote a semi-memoir book?? Also she is less funny than me. Now I'm writing my memoir in the form of a GoodReads review.

Anyway at first I really enjoyed this book when it opened with a more memoir-slanted essay remembering her first experiences with the internet and getting an inflatable chair for her bedroom. Girl, same!!

But the book as a whole is a mixture of memoir-y reflections + political history + commentary on the present day. (Present-ish--she refers to "the Trump presidency" in the singular which was depressing to contemplate.)

It's a relatively short book and I feel like she bit off more than she could chew. Both the memoir and the cultural history are short-served and the political commentary is both scolding and base-level. Toward the end she quotes the author of the McMansion Hell blog and casually mentions that she met her at a DSA meeting and I was like "oh yes, you have the vibe of someone who recently joined the DSA and made it your whole personality." Also when she mentions having no college debt because her rich uncle gave her $100,000 in stock for Christmas.

For being so short it's also repetitive, like she explains how the internet used to make dialup sounds at least 3 different times.

I feel like this review is really mean but I was really disappointed in this book! I WAS ROOTING FOR YOU, COLETTE.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

I swear, I tried SO hard to like this.

First guess why I didn't - I started the 2000s at 5 years old, hence was a little later to the party than the author. I got 99% of the pop culture references though... Next guess - I had no clue what was going on in politics at 5 years old. DING DING DING!

Next question - why is there thisss much politics anyway? Yes they played a huge role in developing our culture at the time, but is this what I really signed on for? No, it is not.
If I sound grumpy about this, it's because I am. There was ssooo much potential here. The references outside of the in-depth look into politics were spot on. I was surprised more than once to learn new details of a time I thought I knew well, being that I lived through it. Heck I'd even be okay with mentions of the political environment and breaking news stories of the time; Like I said before, governmental decisions certainly did play a large roll in our day-to-day lives (whether we knew it at the time or not). But sheeeeesh. The title, cover and description all failed to mention the poli sci lesson you'd also have to endure.

I also struggled with the huge discrepancies in voice from essays to essay (sometimes even paragraph to paragraph). One min I felt like I was listening to one of my girlfriends, the next I felt like I was in AP gov. It's weird hearing me say this (reading me write this?) since that's usually exactly what I'd go for in a book. Unfortunately it just wasn't done well here and felt abrasive, like they were trying too hard to be edgy while still proving they'd done their research.

Again, I wouldn't sound so pissy about it if this book didn't have SO MUCH potential.

Also side note, if you do care about the finer details of 2000's political aspects in addition to pop culture, this is the book for you. You will give it 5/5 stars.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Colette Shade and publisher for the eARC

[CJ Alberts]

Twas mid

[Ward · Rating 4 out of 5]

Y2K is a short, insightful essay collection centering around the late ‘90s and early 2000s. It touches on a lot of important topics from climate change to eating disorders to internet porn, centering on American culture and politics during this period.

For me, this was the world I was born into, a Y2K baby, born on 01/01/2000, so the nostalgia is not quite as strong as it would be for some millennials.

I tend to really like essay collections, like Chuck Klosterman, and personal political books, like Naomi Klein’s Doppelgänger, so this was right up my alley. While I have no complaints about the content, and tend to agree with Shade on most political points, I think there was a lack in the depth of analysis at times in this collection. She touches on a lot but sometimes remains at the surface level.

A reflection on the prevailing ideologies at the turn of the century, Shade examines what went so astray during the “neoliberal turn” and how this impacted her own life. The writing isn’t perfect, but it’s a debut and interesting ideas are there. Personal and perceptive.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Annie J (The History Solarium Book Club) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Missed the Mark: A Personal Memoir Disguised as a Cultural Retrospective

As someone who came of age during the late 1990s and early 2000s, I am squarely in the target audience for Colette Shade’s Y2K. I picked up the book expecting an entertaining and insightful look back at the cultural, political, and economic forces that defined the era—essentially, a nostalgic trip back to my formative years. Unfortunately, Y2K leaned heavily into memoir, focusing far more on Shade’s personal experiences during the decade than on the broader context that shaped the time. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with memoir, Shade’s anecdotes included, but did not rekindle the excitement of AIM chats, the absurdity of early McMansions, or the rise of low-rise jeans as cultural phenomena. It might appeal to readers who enjoy memoirs with a dose of cultural commentary.

I am grateful to Goodreads for providing me with an advanced reader copy of Colette Shade’s Y2K.

[Ceinwen Langley]

Oof, this wrecked me (complimentary).

[CatReader · Rating 2 out of 5]

In her 2025 memoir Y2K, writer Colette Shade (b. 1988, as she reminds us many times throughout the book) essentially rewrites Kate Kennedy's One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In with a heavy dose of political retconning a la Stephanie Kiser's Wanted: Toddler's Personal Assistant. It's a bizarre choice for a series of memoiristic essays that I imagine most people pick up because they're looking for, as the title suggests, Y2K nostalgia from someone (else) who grew up during that time period. The nonpolitical parts focus largely on pop culture and its influence on the teenage psyche, though that's been quite overdone by now in the mid-2020s, with better (in my opinion) efforts like Jia Tolentino's Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion and Sarah Ditum's Toxic: Women, Fame, and the Tabloid 2000s.

My statistics:
Book 85 for 2025
Book 2011 cumulatively

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

One thing I think we’ve learned with books like this is that the author needs to make a firm choice between whether they are writing a book about nostalgia or one about cultural criticism. In theory the two should be able to coexist, but when books like this try to split the difference it just doesn’t work all that well.

Shade was clearly leaning more toward criticism, but she inserts so much personal information that it’s difficult to see this as an objective cultural critique. Shade is at her best when discussing topics where she seems to feel less personal connection (the climate crisis, forced patriotism underscored with racism). The things she seems to feel more personally connected to skew the criticism in such a way that it feels a lot more like personal disappointment.

To that end, a lot of the less successful parts of this book seem to stem from the fact that the author is clearly disappointed by the world currently (like most of us, I suppose), but also unhappy with how her own life turned out. “I thought I would be married,” she laments. “I thought I would get into Stanford.” While I can understand why anyone might feel disappointed by not finding the adult relationships they seek, it’s a little hard to understand why someone who says they were struggling to pass their high school classes and had to go to community college just to get their grades up enough to attend a four-year school thought that Stanford was ever a realistic option.

Whatever Shade was struggling with, it certainly isn’t about a lack of ability. She’s a very capable writer. That’s not the issue here. But even if you empathize with the crushed dreams of it all (however realistic or unrealistic), it’s sort of a tough assignment to effectively blame all your individual disappointments on a cultural era. While there are some truths connected to this idea (certainly the 2008 recession put a lot of people behind where they expected to be professionally and financially), but it feels silly and tired to blame issues of self worth on, I dunno, low-rise pants.

In all, I think Shade tried to be both Kate Kennedy and Chuck Klosterman with this, and ends up missing the best parts of what they both did with One in a Millennial and Nineties, respectively. The fact that this book has no sense of humor is perhaps the biggest miss (both Klosterman and Kennedy are consistently entertaining and display a sense of humor about their subjects). Klosterman seemed to be able to separate the material from his personal feelings, which helped his account feel more honest and objective. But interestingly Kennedy, who takes the most personal approach of the three, ended up making a lot more salient points than Shade did, perhaps because she took a more nuanced approach.

*I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[Andrew James]

***no star rating for non-fiction***

This was informative and entertaining enough. However, there was a lot of talk that was 2012 and beyond that kind of did not fall into the Y2k of it all.

[Cassidy Anderson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I absolutely loved this. But seeing as I'm the same age as the author and experienced 99.9% of the effects of the same pop culture, at the same points in my life, I might be the exact target audience.

Every other page had a reference, memory, or current creator that I never expected to see in bound text. It felt fulfilling and validating and wander through the author's mind and see these familiar touchstones.

I wish I could take her out for a Frappaccino.

[Thi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I can't believe I've made a Goodreads account to review this book I got from the library, but here we are. In various ways, Colette Shade, the author of this collection of essays, describes the Y2K era (which she defines as 1997-2008) as "wildly hopeful" at its outset, but I do not remember it this way at all. For reference, I'm around the author's age and also grew up in the DMV (albeit a handful of rungs lower on the socioeconomic ladder, apparently). In my mind, the Y2K era was a frightening and strange time. 

To check my own memories against reality, I pulled up the January 1997 results from a Pew Research/PBS survey about the national mood, which said: "Just once in four decades of polling has the public rated the current state of the union substantially lower than today — in 1974, when the Watergate scandal demoralized the country." You can read these results online, but the gist is about half the country was worried about everything from poverty to job security to the government to so-called progress. For example, my father became convinced America would collapse at the turn of the millennium, so he stockpiled weapons and supplies in our basement. When 9/11 happened, I didn't ask a classmate to paint an American flag on my cheek like the author did. Instead, when my school held a pep rally cum memorial service, I quietly walked out and lay down on the ground outside. I felt a dissonance reading this collection of essays, and that dissonance made me question this author's ability to assess an era that took place while she was both so young and privileged. 

I tried—really tried—to figure out when Shade was being funny, but I just couldn't. I even read certain passages aloud to a family member, experimenting with different tones, hoping to unearth some hidden humor. It didn't work. I inferred that the author, like many well-off white people, seems to think of herself as middle-class, stretching that definition to include things that clearly do not fit. She frames her uncle as the actual rich one, but let's be real—her family was rich too. Maybe not "tech startup sold to Nokia" rich, but rich enough. She came from intergenerational wealth, yet she tries to position herself as someone whose life was wrecked by the Great Recession, mentioning that she struggled to find work (in the exact field she wanted to pursue) immediately after college. I get that life can be disappointing, but what I took away from these essays is that she's a nice yet entitled person. 

The comparison to Jia Tolentino in the book's jacket copy felt like a stretch. Tolentino is a very talented writer, and while I don't know her personally, I've read enough interviews to know she'll outwork everyone in the room (especially early in her career). I kept thinking of the period when Tolentino wrote college essays for mediocre, well-off white kids in Texas: "I've had a lot of relatively demeaning jobs in my life. I never thought I deserved better than any of them—first because I didn't, and second, because a sense of entitlement means nothing without capital to back it up." More importantly, Tolentino does seamlessly what this author struggles with—moving from the personal to the larger cultural context and back again. 

I am not trying to accuse the author of outright plagiarism, but as an Extremely Online Person™, some paragraphs felt suspiciously familiar (at least one essay by Anne Helen Petersen popped into my head). Perhaps the author arrived at her conclusions independently using different sources, but I couldn't shake some doubts about the originality of her thoughts.

Shade could have written a stronger collection of essays by sticking closer to her lived experiences. The section about her sex ed program at the UU church? OK! The stuff about her parents' forwarding chain emails about Dubya back and forth? We're getting somewhere! The part about indie bookstore merch during the first Trump administration? I'll take it! Those bits felt sharply observed. But the rest of the book? A muddled attempt to analyze things she didn't understand then and (I fear) barely grasps now. The mention of a particular podcast run by grifters as one of her political entry points made me cringe with secondhand embarrassment.

Honestly, I wonder if this is even entirely Shade's fault. I looked up the imprint that published this book, and it seems to mainly publish celebrity memoirs (including one by Tom Petty's spouse? OK) and pop culture spin-offs (something about the making of Mean Girls and a Wicked coloring book, for example). I wonder if some of her essays had to be reverse-engineered to fit the imprint's needs. 

The bottom line? Someone will write a great book about the Y2K era—hopefully, someone who actually experienced its margins and understands it better (not me, that's for damn sure). But this wasn't it.

I know one star seems harsh, but since other reviewers rounded up to be nice, I'm rounding down to be honest.

[Annie · Rating 1 out of 5]

oh god. i was excited to read this because i had developed some kind of impression that it was a lot of writing on sf during the dot com boom and bust when really there was one chapter sort of about that. this book spoils the ending of moby dick and also claims the enlightenment involved the rejection of stories from religion and PSYCHOANALYSIS??? chica the enlightenment predates freud by like 200 years!

it’s also only vaguely about y2k — it reaches so often into the present because the foundational argument is so loose and thin and can’t support en entire book. also not a single thing in this except for the memoir bits doesn’t already exist on some blog or in a tweet. and i don’t want to read political and cultural analysis that is the equivalent to some blogs and tweets!

i am being a massive bitch right now, writing a book is really hard, but also no one /has/ to write a book!

[Lavelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

thought this would be fun and nostalgic, but it was actually really sobering and sombre. a good read though

[Peacegal · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wondered at first if I would be too old for this book when I found that I was in college when the author was in elementary school, so her view of the "Y2K" era would have been far different. However, my older folks shouldn't worry that this book is a collection of nostalgia for toys and cartoons that would have been meaningless to you. In fact, it's a surprisingly in-depth and thoughtful analysis of the era that spawned and normalized so much of what we now think of as everyday life...but was, for a large part, profoundly damaging.

[Chris Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

More than just a nostalgia trip — though there’s plenty of fun nostalgia for anyone who lived through the Y2K era — Colette Shade reckons with the political legacy of a time that radicalized a lot of millennials like me. Great read.

[Arianna · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is the type of book that I really wanted to read about the 2000's. I've been looking for something that blended the popular culture of the time, with the political ecosystem that was emerging post 9/11. The book was organized well, focusing on different significant events of the time, and pretty seamlessly making the connections she was aiming for. I enjoyed her writing a lot. She mentions being an avid Jezebel reader, and I think her writing feels closely aligned with that moment in history(complimentary). I think in the chapter about fame she missed one critical piece, and that's the fact that political figures were also becoming celebrity figures, which started in the 90's probably when news and entertainment kind of fused together too. You can draw a straight line from that moment in cultural history to the entertaining of the idea that Donald Trump was a serious presidential contender. I wish the book was longer, because I feel like there's so much to say on this moment and time, and how you can see the seeds of the culture we're now living in being planted. Popular culture has so much to teach us, and I wish that people took it seriously in a more academic sense.

[Brooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

I’m a xennial and I absolutely love nostalgia of the 90s and early 2000s, so I really enjoy finding books that explore this time period. I love seeing how other writers reflect on certain pop culture moments and if we had similar feelings or not.
I found this one at the library and it seemed interesting, but it ended up just being a meh read for me. I went into it expecting a more light hearted essay collection and it ended up being more of a political reflection-and while I do enjoy discussing politics, I wasn’t expecting that and so I just skimmed certain paragraphs or entire chapters altogether. Honestly it bored me and made me feel like I was reading college essay. I did enjoy the author’s reflection and commentary on celebrity worship culture and its effects today, though.

Also, how did NO ONE at the publishing house catch the glaring error that states that Matthew Shepard was murdered in Laramie, Wyoming-not Wisconsin.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went in with the wrong assumptions about this book. I thought it would be “teehee didn’t the internet make weird beep boop sounds in the year 2000?” Instead of “here is a series of linked essays on how millennials got absolutely screwed”. Shade and I graduated high school in the same year and I recognize a lot of milestones we hit at the same time. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug, and sometimes it takes an author willing to confront the truth of an era to remind us it wasn’t all plastic furniture and alien charm bracelets.

NetGalley provided me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

[Angie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays explores how the pop culture of the 2000s reflected the economic and political values of the time period and helped shape the author and a whole generation of millennials. I wish I had read this closer to reading Chuck Klosterman's The Nineties to see two different approaches and two different decades. Among the topics explored in this one: the rise of SUVs and the environmental movement, skinny supermodels and lean economics, HGTV and McMansions, Starbucks and the labor movement, the rise of rap, and more. This is part cultural analysis and part memoir, but the cultural analysis didn't go deep enough for me. One of the points the author appears to be making is how these forces led to millennials seeing worse outcomes than previous generations, all while the author also speaks of staying in her uncle's 4 million dollar second home and the stock options that paid for her college tuition. Hit and miss for me.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

i liked this book a lot, but i don't think it was correctly advertised. i expected a lot more nostalgia and a deeper dive into the culture and its history, but every chapter was pretty much "here's a page and a half about when starbucks introduced the frappachino, a page on past and current attempts to unionize starbies, and then fifteen pages on the history of unions in the united states." and i'm down to read that! i enjoyed it immensely! i actually think this is a really important way to frame history, because god knows k12 curriculums teach us that history ended after wwii and then nothing else ever happened that lead to our current situation :) but i felt like i was promised a fun nostalgia book, and instead got Baby's First Book on the Evils of Neoliberalism.

which like. again. a book i don't mind reading. but not the book i thought i was getting.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

different than i thought. i loved the pop culture aspects. it got more serious than i thought and more about politics (but i love politics so i’ll take it)

[Spudpuppy · Rating 5 out of 5]

5 stars for introducing me to that clip of gollum calling dobby a "fucking f*g"

[Janelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Colette Shade found (what I think is) the perfect balance of nostalgia, pop culture references, and insightful historical context and analysis with this book. As a younger millennial, I witnessed many of these events but was too young to really understand the full cultural and political impacts of everything happening. Shade did an excellent job at diving into the highs and lows of this era with thoughtful research and a critical but witty tone. This book was more serious than I anticipated, I expected more of a nostalgic look at the pop culture of the time, but what Shade delivered was even better, by examining the underlying forces contributing to these pop culture phenomena.

Thank you to Dey Street Books and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

[Sarah Dahle · Rating 3 out of 5]

For those who read One in a Millennial but found it too cloying and twee. This is a bucket of ice water dumped on the head of millennial nostalgia.

Though her view of the time is colored by adult regrets and disappointments, Shade still seems to embody the moody and struggling teenager she was at the height of My Super Sweet 16’s ratings. Regression is a funny thing.

Good points are made, some more convincingly than others. It gets a little repetitive and occasionally preachy (damn, this lady HATES SUVs). For me it was interesting peek into what it might have been like to be raised by left-leaning Boomers rather than conservative Gen Xers.

Notably the audio book has some pretty major pronunciation issues I hope can be addressed. The punchlines about the Bush administration don’t land unless Colin Powell is pronounced like the large intestine. And how am I supposed to trust you as a millennial authority when you think Halle Berry and Hailie Jade have the same first name? Please fix this (along with “muckraker” and Rush Limbaugh, to name some off the top of my head). I know it’s not author-read, but it undermines all credibility!!

[poet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sort of memoir sort of history, my past could not be more different from hers but the path she traces explaining how those who grew up during this time have been lead to this political moment and this leftist mindset rings obscenely true. It was an entertaining and interesting read.

[Mataea · Rating 3 out of 5]

What I, naively, expected to be a nostalgia-riddled collage of pay-by-text ringtones, rhinestones, glitter tattoos, and whale tails turned out to be a very cogent collection of essays outlining the underlying assumptions of millennial neoliberalism and the world events guiding the development of the 21st century into an era defined by hollow luxury and thinly concealed xenophobia.

[vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oof, “essays on the future that never was” indeed. This ended up being way more excoriating and biting than I anticipated. A week and a half into this presidency, I kind of needed it. This book is for the millennial inheriting a worse off world than their parents: the climate, the economy, the politics. The through line Shade offers between George W. Bush to Obama to Trump…. I felt her anger, snark, and hopelessness. Sure she has some blinders, and within all of her snark she also grew up very idealistic and privileged. But I understand her positions. Some essays were more about reliving the 2000s than analysis; I liked the ones that focused more on analysis. This is also the second book this month that is talking a lot about the DMV, where I live, which I did not expect.