Trick Mirror

A lot of essays I read have a vaguely superficial feeling to them, like the writer is on the right track, but didn't pursue it far enough before publishing. Tolentino is a writer with whom you feel, oh, she went there. The few occasions when she doesn't (her parents' legal troubles, Hillary Clinton) stick out because she's doing it the rest of the time. She is especially strong when writing about the internet, social media, and sexual violence.

This is a collection of nine winding essays that center on the sociopolitical concerns of a complex, reflective, leftist feminist in the wake of the 2016 election.

The best essays, in my opinion, are the the first (“The I in Internet,” an exploration of identity and opinion in the age of social media, the internet's cultural shift from affinity to opposition, and the monolithic platforms that monetize identity and opposition), the third (“Always Be Optimizing,” on how the modern, intelligent woman is de facto subject to insufferable and unattainable beauty ideals), and the last (“I Thee Dread,” a meditation on the author's negative stance on weddings and marriage, through their history as anti-feminist and patriarchal traditions/institutions). I liked these because they reflect my own dissonances, reflections, and the complexity and nuances of feminism and identity generally. These essays resonated, and though I didn't always agree with her conclusions (too alarmist, but that makes sense in a Trump era), they made me think.

The rest felt intellectually over-wrought, too long, and explore well-known territory (at least, for me). I started to get bored as essays devolved more into anthologies of others' works of criticism than anything refreshingly her own.

Overall, this collection proves Tolentino as a respectable intellectual and wonderful writer, and for that, I enjoyed it.