GROWN UPS

A 35-year-old woman obsesses over social media and her ex-boyfriend as her life implodes.

Jenny McLaine is having a rough time. She and Art, her photographer boyfriend of seven years, just broke up. Her job at the Foof, a feminist online magazine, is on the rocks. Her roommates are moving out and her tarot card–loving medium mother is moving in. Her life doesn’t seem as flawless as those of the women she idolizes on social media, but that doesn’t mean she won’t spend an alarming amount of time trying to make things look picture perfect. She even scrolls through her phone during sex—in her defense, it was “a slow bit.” At one point, Jenny panics to the point of tears as she attempts to make an Instagram post about a croissant—should there be a hashtag? an exclamation point?—before throwing the croissant itself into the garbage (an apt metaphor for the amount of attention Jenny pays to her online life versus her real one). It’s easy to sympathize with Jenny’s put-upon single-mom friend, Kelly, who’s annoyed with Jenny’s self-obsessiveness and social media fixation. Through script dialogue, email drafts, and texts along with prose, Unsworth (who also writes for television) gives an up-close and personal view of Jenny’s gradual breakdown as her life falls apart. Although Jenny's constant need to filter every life experience through social media often feels exhausting, there’s no denying that her obsession will resonate with many millennials. Jenny’s voice is strong, sharp, occasionally disgusting, and alternately charming and horrifying as she narrates every one of her stumbles through life.

A bracing look at a breakdown that’s sometimes difficult to read but always completely captivating.