Dykette

A Novel

By: Jenny Fran Davis

Narrated by: Alex Schmidt

Long-listed, New Yorker Best Books of the Year, 2023

Named one of the Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2023 by Vogue

Named a Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2023 by Buzzfeed, Electric Lit, and Them

Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Our Culture, Yahoo!, The Millions, LitHub and SPY.com

Named a Most Anticipated Debut of 2023 by Debutiful and Goodreads

An addictive, absurd, and darkly hilarious debut novel about a young woman who embarks on a ten-day getaway with her partner and two other queer couples

Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians—prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda—invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple—Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy—whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.

As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future.

Unfolding over ten heady days, Dykette is an unforgettable love story at the crossroads of queer nonconformity and seductive normativity. With propulsive plotting and sexy, wickedly entertaining prose, Jenny Fran Davis captures the vagaries of desire and the many devastating places in which we seek recognition.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt & Company.

©2023 Jenny Fran Davis (P)2023 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

“Dykette is a riveting and often darkly funny novel that accurately examines New York queer culture with an insider's authenticity.”—BUST Magazine

“In her first novel for adults, Davis explores what happens when people are isolated physically while remaining very much online...A view of contemporary queer life presented by a spectacularly unreliable narrator.”—Kirkus

“Davis delights in upending concepts of gender and sexuality...It's worth adding to the weekend bag.”—Publishers Weekly

Vapid

Disappointing. You hear from the perspective of a self conscious and immature “dykette” throughout the entire novel. She’s problematic, whiny and self obsessed. I endured, waiting for the good part that never came. The narration was also weak with little differentiation between characters, mispronounced words and lack of emotion.

Classic mfa brooklyn vibes

Idk just didn’t go anywhere for me. The writing was good but the story was lacking.