Rejection is an electrifying collection of short stories dealing with nothing other than rejection - across seven stories we meet loosely connected characters each with their own conundrums. Some of these stories were what one would consider highly online, which I absolutely ate up. The juxtaposition of the stories was fantastic - my personal favorite back and forth was Ahegao, or the Ballad of Sexual Repression, with Our Dope Future where we move between an incredibly sexually repressed man to a man who is so lacking in shame that he believes he is the best partner ever as he love bombs and ultimately attempts to pyramid scheme his way into making a cult comprised solely of his children and their offspring. Re: Rejection was incredibly meta and I loved every word.

I highly recommend this story collection - if you are someone who enjoys reading about...perhaps less than moral characters but with absolutely fascinating psychology you're going to have a great time.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow for the copy.

Absolutely adored this bizarre, beautiful collection of *~spoiler?*~ interconnected stories. I am eager to dig into Tulathimutte's earlier work and to recommend this book to the discerning patron. The style and flow of these distinct but overlapping stories kept me glued to the page - just what I needed to get myself back into the swing of things this Fall.

one of my favs this year. almost every story was a colossal dark humored (and just plain dark) character study of, well, social and cultural rejection. i devoured it and it was one of those reading experiences where when i put the book down, I couldn’t wait to pick it back up because you didn’t know in what direction the author might be headed next. just absolutely bonkers and wild.

lovers of the unlikable protagonist look no further. for readers who loved moshfegh’s homesick for another world.

Rejection is an excellent book. If I read a better one the remainder of this year, I’ll be shocked. Tony Tulathimutte is an excellent prose stylist with a sharp eye for the sorrows of modern life. Every story paints the most pathetically human moments of people who want nothing more to be loved and the embarrassing, awful things they’ll do for it. They’re painful portraits of the everyday cruelty and inhumanity we knowingly and often unknowingly inflict on others.

Speaking of energy, holy cow. These fictions have enough static electricity to power a defibrillator.

Props to Tony for giving me the longest sustained full body cringe I've had while reading in a long time! I like that he doesn't try to redeem his characters and lets them sink even further into the messes they made because of their own hubris, and I will admit that the meta rejection letter for this collection was a particularly cute little touch. Highly recommended fall read.

This series of interconnected short stories is possibly one of the most effective and brilliant satires I have read recently. Rejection is both the theme and the object of obsession for each character. Tulathimutte's incredible grasp of hyper-specific neurotic behaviors allows him to portray the most unsympathetic people in the most nuanced ways. Let me give you a snapshot of some of the characters that populate Rejection. First, we have a white Nice Guy™️ who is a proud Feminist but also furious that no woman will sleep with him. Second, we have a selfish, entitled white woman who gives too much significance to a one-night stand to the point where she becomes quite unhinged. Third, we have a deeply introverted gay Thai-American man whose very niche fetishes keep him from being able to connect in real life. Fourth, we have a hyper-positive white entrepreneur dudebro who is constantly optimizing his life. Fifth is a nonbinary Thai-American prolific Internet troll who gives us their entire backstory... Or do they? And sixth we have Tony Tulathimutte himself in a very meta passage where he imagines this book being rejected by publishers.

If you like cultural criticism and satirical fiction, then you absolutely must read this book.

Whew! I don't think there has ever been a book like this written. Playing with form, POV, autofiction, and truly uncomfortable topics, Tony Tulathimutte has created a masterpiece (even if you have to cringe your way through it). I don't even know how to review this really. I had so many different opinions throughout, which I guess makes for a solid and accomplished novel? A wild reading experience is never a bad thing, but this book is at once difficult and hard to put down, hilarious and disgusting, and pretty genius at the end of the day.

Taking the form of short pieces lightly interconnected, we are taken on a journey through rejection (romantic, social, artistic, and interpersonal) via Tulathimutte's adept writing. The book is often too smart for it's own good, but that' snot a bad thing. The ending will delight and surprise you, and make you rethink what you have just read (which I love in any book). Just the cover, with the oddly placed "Fiction" clues you into the journey the reader is about to take. I can see why it's on the National Book Awards longlist. It's a trip that places with the novel as an art form, and you can't ask for more than that.

I should not like Rejection (every story centers on, basically, a brand of incel). But I loved it. Tulathimutte masterful prose is hilarious, tragic, incisive, bitter, hopeless and hopeful all at once. A bold, graphic, discomfiting satire about isolation, shame and loneliness in our too-online modern age. The second story, in particular, had me laughing out loud. Can’t wait to see more from this author.

Thanks to William Morrow for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

Whew! What a ride!! An ode to Rejection, a commentary on modern love, relationships, control, loneliness, manipulation, denial, desperation, repression, identity, race and wokeness. The book is a collection of loosely interconnected stories dealing with these issues told through the experiences of several unreliable narrators none of whom are particularly likeable. An underlying common theme is the internet - blogs and online communities. The author's writing style is unique and brilliant. No mean feat in what he has achieved here. There is loads of sexual content, pretty explicit at times. I must admit I felt pretty ancient having to google the meaning of the internet abbreviations. There were several times I wanted to throw this at the wall in exasperation but then it was so compulsive that I couldn't let it go and kept reading. This is not a book for everyone and there will be much meaning to be gained with each consecutive reading.
Thank you NetGalley and William Morrow books for the ARC

This book was not for me. Reading this I realized that it will hit home better with a younger generation. This is a meta/post-modern book, which is not the type of book that I enjoy, not the style of book I like. But many people do. Certainly this book will have many fans and will love all the different levels to this book. This will be a good book for a book club discussion.

This was a very unique reading experience to say the least. Did I enjoy it? No. But is it a good book that I'd recommend? Yes (with caveats)

Tulathimutte is a virtuoso for sure. Cutting, insightful lines all over the place, and minds of narrators that feel lived-in and real to the present moment...To me, it doesn't get more relevant and contemporary than this. Mostly the stories are about terminally-online losers, so expect hits close to home. It's the relatability of the characters, even at their worst (well, maybe not their worst) that makes the book so [canned blurb voice] "compulsively readable," though; in some sense it feels like you've spoken to these people, or at least seen them on Twitter.

The two best stories in the collection are "The Feminist" and "Ahegao," the latter of which, published in The Paris Review, is what made me interested in the book. The book is really funny and Ahegao, about a young gay man with extremely convoluted fetishes, is probably the prime example, but there's a lot of humor in all of the stories. I felt like the book slowed down a little towards the middle—there's one story which takes the form of a Reddit thread that didn't quite capture me as much as the others—but any hiccups are ultimately forgivable.

The interwoven threads from different stories, and the jump to metafiction towards the end, make the book feel like a tangled web, but it's one I didn't mind getting caught in. One of the best things about the book is you can recommend it to people who don't think they're interested in literary fiction, because it's so easy to fall into, and so obviously "of the moment". It's a great book for subverting expectations that way and showing someone that actually literary fiction is not all meandering around and looking at sunsets while remembering things (even if that is my favorite kind of literary fiction).

Can't wait to see what Tulathimutte does next.

Loved it! 5-stars. Please see the following review on my Substack and also on GoodReads.

This Book Cured My Constipation.
Review: Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

It’s not what you think. Despite the fact that I literally was constipated, due to several surgeries and a daily medication regime of Percocet and gummy laxatives when I started this book. What I am more accurately referring to is my reading constipation, which was alleviated by my absorption of Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte.

For me, a reading constipation is when my TBR list keeps growing, along with the stacks of books in my house(new & used), the books in various tote bags that I carry with me during my travels and then when all my holds on Libby become downloadable for my Kindle… it’s too much too soon. For me this makes it difficult to focus on the entire idea of reading and I get a feeling of being backed-up, or reading constipation. Do you ever get that? Maybe you call it something else. Rejection was a much needed cure to get my reading flow going.

Tulathimutte is fucking brutal and funny as he connects seven stories of rejection that skewers the so-called complications of modern life with no absolution for his subjects. His characters are the product of always being online, their existences shaped by a solitary confinement of their own making. Their judgements and rejections living solely in their own perspectives of the situation they created. In the opener, “The Feminist”, you read the unenviable story of a person who’s sexual decline comes at his own hands, yet his final and inevitable act is a gut punch we all see coming. In “Pics” it is the group chat that had me hollering! The group chat blowing up as it usually does, but Tulathimutte’s perversions takes it to the next level.

The other stories follow the same patterns and finding how the characters relate to one another is like a fun Easter Egg hunt that Tulathimutte has seamlessly created. Yet, at times I did falter with fatigue of having to go through the olympic style grind of self-destruction of these unlikable characters. Reading breaks were definitely necessary to finish. But that is a minor objection to an overall intoxicating and wickedly fun book that serves up brilliant satire that is firmly cemented in the modern age.

Most readers came upon Tulathimutte’s story, “The Feminist” as a first read in N+1 magazine. I found his book through a friend’s and fellow substak-er, The Mojave Tumbleweed Association’s, review of it here. Her “not not a book review” made me jump on the chance to get an advanced readers copy. Big thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins Willam Morrow Books. PreOrder your copy of Rejection here.

This was hard to read, because of how raw and realistic is was. I was cringing and wanting to skip through at some points. The central themes of shame, rejection, dating, repression, online culture, all made the stories hard to get through. I enjoyed 'The Feminist' and 'Pics' the most, as I feel like I know many people like the main characters in those stories. I really loved how the stories were all connected, and I could see characters from different perspectives but it was all very subtle. While not a requirement, it helps to be very online or aware of deep online culture. This was a very spot-on satirical story collection.

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for the ARC.

A doom scrolling study of internet interpersonal relationships. Smart, self-aware cautionary tales and one of the funniest books I've read this year

‘Rejection’ got me thinking about feelings of rejection and their role in my own life. Which, I consider a compliment to the humanity the author put in this book. (Although, if I ever act like anyone written about here, take me out back and put me down like yeller.)
Absurd and clever, with a great finale.

I am unsure what to write about this book that the author didn’t already write. Rejection is a collection of fictions all about rejection with some loose, frayed, and cum stained threads connecting some of the characters and stories. It is a hilarious and disturbing book. Midway through I put it down, took a picture and posted it to Instagram where I said “Halfway through and so far it’s given me nightmares and also made me cry laughing.” I tagged Tulathimutte and he responded, “in the second half you can expect rashes, acid reflux, and hearing loss.” I include this here because I think it’s a good indicator of the kind of author Tony Tulathimutte is and the kind of humor he is ensconced in.

“Ahegao, or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression” has stood out for me for the disgusting, visceral imagery in it. I fell asleep halfway through reading it and had the aforementioned nightmares. They weren’t related to the actual story, not on the surface at least. My nightmares are often repetitive feasts of pain and evasion where I am mostly screaming at myself to wake up and let it end already and these were no different. At times, reading Rejection felt like a neverending nightmare, like being a part of a conversation that’s so painfully awkward and mundane with no way to walk away that isn’t perceived as rude or bitchy. But, I absolutely loved that about Rejection.

I loved that there was no preoccupation with creating characters that have morals or ideals or even goals that aren’t just absolutely self-serving. Reading Rejection also felt reminiscent of reading some of the most wild, over the top, and perhaps TMI posts on the internet I’ve ever read. It even reminded me of the feeling (arousal) of reading a subtweet and then spending 45 minutes (edging) figuring out the origin of that subtweet and then learning that someone in publishing had done something stupid (again)(climax). All of the main characters seek validation and approval online and all of them are eventually rejected. Some of the stories are structured like a Reddit post, one includes a group chat whose implosion is imminent, there’s a message board confessional. I wouldn’t say I’m terminally online. I’ve removed myself from existing on X (Twitter) for months (a year?). I have been a part of or at least an avid consumer of internet pile ons, memes, and liked mundane posts like one of the ones in “Main Character.” I laughed at the frivolousness of “not all of you contain multitudes tbh. some of u are just one guy” but also cringed that I probably thought that would make a good tweet once in a period where it seemed like all of my thoughts were concerned with what made a good tweet or didn’t. Rejection is not for everyone, and that’s kind of the point. I think if you’re in/around/aware of certain corners of the internet, read for actual pleasure and not for some form of moral superiority, and aren’t carrying a torch for representation or identity then this book will make you cackle, howl in pain and pleasure, and yeah, break into a rash or two.

Straight up mainlined this book. Tulathimutte exactly nails the feeling of being on the internet too much, that kinda gross addictive feeling of spending a third hour deep in a controversy you know is inane but can’t look away. I hope he takes this as a compliment.

This book is about, obviously, rejection, and shame and obsession and the internet and the fracturing of identity. The flip side of the internet’s promise - you can be anyone - is that you are no one. The internet and the discourses spread on it don’t owe us anything, don’t care about us: here we see online identities co-create some really nasty shit with people who suck but are also really, really hurt.

I put this in dialog with The Default World by Naomi Kanakia. Both about Bay Area lib posting and sad, ugly rejects trying to get their just desserts. Kanakia’s book is more hopeful, actually trying to answer questions about community. Tulathimutte rejects the premise of community, at least for the protagonists stuck in their own victimhood.

I liked this - quite a lot actually, but I feel kinda yucky and I need to stop thinking about it for now. I do think this is a pretty brilliant depiction of how we all have the tendency to invest all of our hopes, dreams, desires in what the internet can give us, and how the dissonance of going back to “real life” can hurt.

There’s more to say about the meta aspect of the book but I haven’t gotten there yet with my digesting. I’ll update this later if I have something intelligent to say.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

these were searingly hilarious: what if Black Mirror but it was happening in the already-existent present? i cringed, i laughed, i already told my friends to read.

many thanks to william morrow and netgalley for the advance reader copy.