Tony Tulathimutte

Sharply observant and outrageously funny, Rejection is a provocative plunge into the touchiest problems of modern life. The seven connected stories seamlessly transition between the personal crises of a complex ensemble and the comic tragedies of sex, relationships, identity, and the internet.

In “The Feminist,” a young man’s passionate allyship turns to furious nihilism as he realizes, over thirty lonely years, that it isn’t getting him laid. A young woman’s unrequited crush in “Pics” spirals into borderline obsession and the systematic destruction of her sense of self. And in “Ahegao; or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression,” a shy late bloomer’s flailing efforts at a first relationship leads to a life-upending mistake. As the characters pop up in each other’s dating apps and social media feeds, or meet in dimly lit bars and bedrooms, they reveal the ways our delusions can warp our desire for connection.

These brilliant satires explore the underrated sorrows of rejection with the authority of a modern classic and the manic intensity of a manifesto. Audacious and unforgettable, Rejection is a stunning mosaic that redefines what it means to be rejected by lovers, friends, society, and oneself.

Fiction

Rejection

Annie Millman

Everyone makes stupid friends when they're young, before learning that friendship is more than a surplus of benign attention. But I can't forgive myself for getting taken in by the exaltation of vulnerability. You only trust me insofar as you can wound me? What the fuck's that about? This is the error I think people make when they mistake validation for liberation.

Ivana Varesko

The internet is million of solitudes blinking in and out of existence, each dreaming the others, where “consensus reality” is less an agreed-upon reality than a reality made of agreement. With identity it’s the same - this idea that a checkbox on a form is a service tunnel to a stranger’s soul. People will always fall for it. 

Rejection quotes

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