Ok folks, hands down if you are a millennial pop culture fanatic who is ~extremely online~ you NEED to mark Jill Gutowitz's amazing essay collection GIRLS CAN KISS NOW as a TBR addition for next March. Written through the lens of a coming of age memoir, Jill explores how her queerness and her love of pop culture has collided through her journey of self discovery (and it is totally hilarious to boot). I have been a fan of Jill's writing on Vulture and on Twitter for the past few years, so I was thrilled when I saw she was writing a book. It did not disappoint, and can say I will read anything she writes going forward!

Incredible topics include Swifties (if you are a Swiftie, this is also a must-read for you), why queer women want older women to step on them, Perez Hilton/Lindsey Lohan/Samantha Ronson, Orange Is The New Black and lesbians on television over the past few decades, queer paparazzi photos, and how not to have the FBI show up at your door because of something you've tweeted. Her stories can also be heartbreaking and and heartwrenching -- my personal favorite is the last essay, which begins as a rundown of Taylor Swift's latest album, but ends unexpectedly with a poignant look at life during a pandemic and coming to terms with what matters in life (something that I have been struggling with at the moment, so this punched me in the gut out of nowhere -- in a good way). I learned so much about lesbianism in pop culture, something I thought I knew about but really appreciated Gutowitz's deep dive into the history and framing of it in new ways. I can't recommend this collection enough.

This ARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It comes out March 8th, 2022!

Gutowitz is even sharper, funnier, and more insightful in essay form than in the 280-character limit dictated by Twitter. If you’re looking for a quick but engrossing and thought-provoking read to pull you out of the pandemic doldrums, this is the one.