Greedy

July 26, 2021
In this sparkling debut, Winston dives headlong into a life of confusion and second-guessing her queer desire, only to realize that “maybe confusion is as queer as it gets.” As someone who grew up in the cornfields of Indiana in the early aughts, she struggled to find “sexually fluid role models” to help her understand her bisexuality. In a series of essays, Winston viscerally describes the sense of being unmoored without language to describe herself and the difficult path to finding it, all with a breezy irreverence that will enamor her to fans of millennial essayists like Samantha Irby and Jia Tolentino. One of her greatest strengths is in pivoting from acerbic wit to earnest reflection, as she does in a standout essay about the social construction of ugliness and masturbating on AIM—aptly titled “True Life: I Masturbate Wrong”—and in another about the importance of setting boundaries. Winston’s regular use of content warnings and Twitter handles may put off some readers, but those whose lives have been similarly shaped by social media will appreciate the roles these signifiers play in this story of searching for love by a writer to watch. In playfully queering the coming-of-age story, Winston has written something wholly original, and entirely delightful. Agent: Wendy Sherman, Wendy Sherman Assoc.