Dykette is so gay. The gayest Sapphic book ever. You'll fall for the main characters as the three couples head up the Hudson Valley for ten days around Christmas and New Years.

There's power struggles between the six. Age imbalance. Femme, butch. Influencer/artist sucking the oxygen out of the room. Life-sized angel wings and thin green ribbons. Drugs and home-cooked meals. Attraction, fidelity, and temptation. And a dog.

This would be better if this wasn't the author's debut. The seeds are there.

I was excited to read this after seeing a lot of hype around it but I couldn’t really get into it: I felt like it was supposed to be shocking and provocative (the opening scene was so silly!) but it felt flat and false. Very calculated to be an “edgy” hit. Pass.

*Special thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review. Pub date: May 16, 2023

This read like a chaotic artsy queer fever dream. It starts with a sexy grinch photo shoot and continues off the rails from there. While I should have been the ideal audience for this, it left me feeling inadequately queer enough to enjoy. While I don’t think that’s the case—I’m just not at a point in my life to entertain this much drama in my relationship/friend group anymore. This will definitely find its audience though!

I thought this was hilarious. I think the negative reviews I’ve read this fad were possibly taking this too seriously? The characters are hard to like and it’s just so weird, but this is why I read!

This book does not cast a wide net. Prepare for:

- early gender studies grad school level analysis of nearly everything
- a narrator who is not only unreliable, but who takes Grinch nudes on the first page
- adherence to a strict butch/femme pairing system in lesbian relationships
- an incredibly graphic torture livestream as plot device

If you can stomach all of that… then you may enjoy this thought-provoking and absurd story of 3 lesbian couples who vacation together over the winter holidays. It’s messy and dramatic- or maybe dramaturgic, as the characters repeatedly perform for each other (and the world; lots of social media in this book). Even in more intimate scenes, when two characters close a door and have a private conversation, the dialogue reads like a play. It’s less that it’s conversational and more that the characters are concerned with who is listening and how everyone is being perceived.

I particularly enjoyed the queer couples in their 20s and 40s as foils, as well as the ongoing portrayal of the intricacies of consent. There’s some polishing needed, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find another book this wholeheartedly, beautifully queer.

Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis follows a queer couple on a drama and jealousy-filled getaway with two other queer couples in upstate New York. The reader is put deeply into the mind of Sasha, our narrator, as she considers her role in her femme-butch relationship, how this leads her to compete with her friends, and how her identity and self-expression affect the way she’s loved, admired, or competed with. Overall, the novel focuses in on relationship roles, performances within relationships, and how norms of gender and sexuality play a role in queer relationships.

The specificity of the world Davis has created is one of the things that stood out to me most about the novel. I’ve never read anything where I felt quite so fully aware of the culture, language, and experiences shaping the characters and which builds the people and characters in ways that are so specific, and I was fascinated by Fran Davis’ writing style and how slipping in so many details that made this story, which happened mainly within a vacation home, feel like it couldn’t possibly be happening in any other time or place. These references were a fun way to deepen the understanding of the characters and their relations if you understand the reference. For example, for those as ‘Gossip Girl’ obsessed as me, considering which ‘Gossip Girl’ character each person would immediately give me a deeper understanding of how Sasha thinks of each of her friends.

I hadn’t read Jenny Fran Davis’ essay which the novel is to some extent in conversation with before reading the book, and while it’s possible to follow the book without having done so, I wonder how much deeper my understanding of the story would be if I read the works references throughout the novel before returning to it. And yet, I liked that Davis for the most part didn’t explain the references, because it made me feel more like I was in conversation with the characters. Having just finished the novel, I definitely think I will return to it for a second reading.

**Thank you to Netgalley and Henry Holt & Company for an ARC in exchange for an honest review**

We meet Sasha shifting her body into a holiday themed Grinch filter for her enthused boyfriend Jesse. The task proves to be difficult for the self proclaimed “busty Jewess” as she fiddles with her image nestled in the warm green fur and signature pert nose of the classic Christmas villain.

Her vanity doesn’t prevent her from eavesdropping on Jesse lamenting to their therapist about the relationship woes of the couple. Startling news to be priviy to before their weeklong excursion to Hudson with two other butch/femme lesbian couples. Where Jesse will partake in an avant- grade performance piece with Sasha ( an influencer femme “it girl” for the Brooklyn queer community). Who also might be Sasha’s nemesis, but she waffles between dislike and admiration for the fellow “Dykette”.

Now what is a Dykette? Dykette is the ability to inspire the butchest desires and the attract the awe of the femme gaze. Sasha finds herself in battle of the femmes and Jesse’s dwindling affection in their Elder Queers presence. Which happens to culminate in some lofty adventures between the six couples.

Jenny Fran Davis’ prose is funny and detailed. I cringed at Sasha and her queers obliviousness (or bimbo aesthetic), grimaced at the green ribbon performance piece (trigger warning for this one) and chuckled at her clever character retorts. It was also an interesting and knowledgeable take on Lesbian culture/identity.

If anything, I definitely want to join a Lesbian Volleyball tournament on Fire Island.

Thank you to Holt books for this ARC.

Dykette is out now, and I recommend this one highly.

I could not finish enough of this book to be able to leave a comprehensive review, but I hope it finds its audience and I am grateful to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy.

Thank you to NetGalley, author Jenny Fran Davis, and Henry Holt and Co for providing me with a free ARC in exchange for my honest review!

I'm being reallyyyy generous by giving this 2 stars because I personally hated it and would give it 1 star, but I don't think this book was meant for me at all, so I'm rounding up. When I say that I have not DNF'ed a book since high school, I mean that, and when I say that I almost put this book down in either boredom, confusion, or disgust more times than I can count, I also mean that. I hated every single character in this book, and it made me realize that I'm not queer enough to fully "get" or resonate with this book. The abuse disguised in "high femme camp antics" (real term from the book) was extremely uncomfortable for me personally to read, and I felt that the story was too bogged down by long, meandering sections of gender studies analyses that I wasn't prepared for going in. As an English major, I focused primarily on critique through a lens of gender and women's studies, so I understood what Davis was trying to say and get at, but I have a feeling the general audience won't. I was also very confused by the switching pronoun usage for Jesse for the first bit, simply because it was not explained AT ALL. I did enjoy some of the meta-critique and messages of self that were present between the lines, but I finished this book feeling icky and glad my partner and I aren't like any of the relationships present in this book.

All of the characters in this book were so annoying and so selfish, but I could not stop reading the book.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt and Co. for sending this book for review consideration. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

3.5/5 stars

If you’re a fan of Otessa Moshfegh or Mona Awad but you find yourself wishing their books were more outwardly queer, then I have the story for you! Sasha and Jesse are a young queer couple approaching one year of dating. To mark the occasion they head off on a holiday vacation with a well-known older lesbian couple, Jules and Miranda. To Sasha’s dismay, this group also includes Jules’s best friend Lou, and their influencer socialite turned artist girlfriend Darcy. Whose Instagram Sasha has been privately stalking. Although starting off cordial the group slowly devolves into a fit of betrayal, misunderstanding, and mushroom-induced arguments. Forcing protagonist Sasha to navigate her own insecurities alongside a tumultuous relationship and a curious wandering eye.

As the days unfold she knows she must come to terms with her jealousy of Jesse and Darcy’s budding friendship. However, this begins to prove itself increasingly difficult as their interactions turn sour. Darcy’s effortlessly cool vibe undermines Sasha at every turn. Not to mention her and Jesse’s oh-so-secret livestream taking place at the end of the trip. What could those two be planning? And she can’t help but notice the growing peculiarities of Jules and Miranda’s relationship. Are those cracks she senses? Sasha is determined to find the truth while trying not to show how attracted to Jules she is. Or how intimidated by Darcy she is. Or how insecure she is about her relationship with Jesse. Easy, right?

If you enjoyed Detransion, Baby, or Eileen in the sense that you have no idea if the story you’re getting is the truth or some skewed reality then I would recommend this read. I did enjoy this book but it was quite a wild ride. Sasha is my perfect example of an unreliable narrator. Her way of viewing the world reminds me of Eileen from Eileen or Ren from Chlorine. The way in which she openly allows her biases and opinions to cloud her version of reality just goes to show how deluded some of us can be. And mainly being a linear story from Sasha’s POV allows for a crucial understanding of her inner workings. Although we do receive multiple POVs a few times. My favorite was the brief POV from Sasha’s dog. It was so sudden and normally an intrusion like that would bring me out of the story. But the way it slowly weaved in just worked. Kudos to the author for that one.

Sasha’s determination to remain stubborn and participate in her game was surprisingly endearing. Once she decided on something she really dug her heels in and I respect that. I wouldn’t say I necessarily liked Sasha’s character in the sense that I would want to be her friend or date. But I empathized with her complex web of emotions. She is very self-aware of why she does the things she does. But in the true fashion of mental illness, is powerless to stop herself from making the same decisions. I think a lot of people, myself included, can relate to that feeling of helplessness in spite of knowing exactly what led you to this point. So even though I was frustrated with her, I never once rooted against her.

I will say the actions of everyone in this book are absolutely wild though. It goes to great lengths to showcase how truly messy being queer can be. No couple or even individual is immune to the chaos that ensues on this holiday trip. It is really hard to pick a favorite scene because something was always going wrong. In a good way though, it keeps you interested and invested. I never knew what was going to come next in terms of plot.

I really only have two qualms with this book. One is how gross it is at times. I’m kind of a squeamish person and when Sasha talked about how they fed their eye boogies to their dog I threw up a little in my mouth. So I do not recommend if you are the squeamish type. It’s not the entire book but it doesn’t hold back at the gross-out factor. My second “issue” I guess you could say is the fact that two of the characters have J names, Jesse and Jules. So for the first 3 or so chapters, I was taken a little bit out of the story trying to keep the J characters straight. But other than those two minor issues I can’t think of anything that stood out to me as being “bad”.

I gave it three and a half stars because I did enjoy the book. I think it is well-written, the characters have depth and complexity, and the plot kept me gripped. However, I do not see myself re-reading this book. And I don’t mean that in a bad or negative way at all. It’s just one of those books where I recommend reading once because I think a re-read would take a certain magic out of the book. I was a fan of Sasha’s unreliable POV and uncertainty over what she or another character would do next. But knowing those answers would, for me at least, ruin parts of the book I really enjoyed.

All in all, if you’re a fan of unreliable narrators, literary fiction, and messy queer people this book is for you! I would recommend if you do have a slightly higher reading level. And I would also say this book is for you if you aren’t in a fragile place as a few content warnings are listed above. Thanks for reading and let me know what you think. Enjoy!
CW // self-harm, sexual violence, graphic and explicit violence, sexual assault, blood, anti-semitism, profanity, nudity, torture, cheating, depression, emotional abuse, misgendering, religion.

First, thanks to Henry Holt & Company, Jenny Fran Davis, and NetGalley for an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest thoughts and feels.

Dykette follows Sasha and Jesse, a couple who join two other queer couples on a ten-day holiday at a country home. Things get heated when the couples' motivations and desires start to come to a head, and a web of infatuation and jealousy emerges. Davis does a fantastic job writing out the way sometimes our lives together can be little more than a game of cat and mouse.

Of course I am also so glad for more books written for queer readers by a queer author. I never felt Davis shy away from nuanced (some new to me as well!) aspects of queer identity and culture, as the plot of Dykette explores themes like kink, relationships, and consent in a way that feels intimate. Although for me, this was only toeing the line of relatable, I still appreciated and was engrossed by the new perspective.

Something that did stick out to me after reading is that I didn't feel that several of the plot points that were introduced were ever fleshed out enough for me (Miranda's "bad patient" her twitter beef, the Jules/Sasha dynamic, more, more, more). I felt this book had the potential to knock it out of the park by coming to a head several times, but instead it would fizzle a bit and go another direction. Despite this, I loved Dykette and this subsection of queer literature, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for something new and wholly unique!

"Gee, this sure reminds me of that High Femme Camp Antics essay I read a couple years ago!" -- me, an idiot, halfway through the first chapter of this book
I was scrolling through tiktok the other day when I came across a recommendation for a forthcoming debut novel about a group of funny, emotionally fraught lesbians spending the holidays together. I thought to myself, Wait a minute! I've seen that hideous cover before! and promptly requested it from NetGalley (thnx NetGalley!! XOXO). Then I thought, Wait a minute! I've read that hideous, self-absorbed, pathetically cruel attitude about lesbian gender relations before! and promptly scrolled through my digital folder of longform essays and articles.
Full disclosure -- I did not enjoy High Femme Camp Antics, Davis's 2020 essay, parts of which are inserted here wholesale but for the change from first to third person. Or maybe it would be truer to say that I didn't like Davis, as she presented herself in that essay -- she came across, I thought, as simultaneously pathetic and cruel, self-conscious but not at all self-aware. A nasty piece of work, I thought! The worst girl you know! It sounded like something a character in a Torrey Peters story would write. And yet -- I quite liked this and even found myself rooting for Sasha, the central character and presumed author avatar. I'm not sure I can articulate why -- Sasha is just as pretty and mean-spirited as Davis seems in HFCA, if not more so. But, my god, I just felt so bad for her! Everyone, from her partner to the universe at large, seems so determined to misunderstand her and frustrate her desires, awful as those desires may be. It's like she's stuck in kind of moral-emotional America's Funniest Home Videos, sometimes actually funny but more often painfully cringe-inducing.
All of that is to say that I liked this way more than I thought I would, and expect a lot of people -- especially the Otessa Moshfegh dark comedy set, or the lesbian auto-fiction set -- would like it as well, or at the very least have a lot of thoughts about it.

Unfortunately I am absolutely not the audience for this book. I had to bail about a quarter of the way through, because I couldn't stand the characters, but especially the narrator. I struggle some with literary fiction generally, but I'm intrigued by queer desire and the tension between wanting to be seen and struggling to be perceived.

The references are by turn familiar and by turn over-explained; I think this book will be best suited for readers who thrive on the sort of drama that turns explosive and a little toxic, more on the destructive than the constructive side. The main character is self-absorbed, status-obsessed, and cruel to those around her. I don't have too high a tolerance for that sort of character, and I didn't find enough depth in the other characters to keep me reading more.

I'm not really sure it's possible to feel ambivalent about this book: you'll know if you love it or hate it within the first chapter, so that'll at least save you time.

Unfortunately this book didn’t work for me in many ways. I found it really hard to follow along with the writing style, but that is entirely a personal problem and sometimes literary fiction/fiction similar to this just simply aren’t for me. I also found it boring for majority of the book and I couldn’t connect with a lot of the characters. They are definitely all flawed and that’s not the issue per say, they just didn’t do anything for me to particularly care about them. I do see this book working for lots of people though and it all falls down to personal preference. I would still recommend if you’ve been interested!

This book utterly baffled me. I really wanted to like it but I could not relate to the characters, they all seemed very shallow. However a mild dislike turned to horror with one scene, which greatly disturbed me. It was torture, parading around as some kind of sexy queer spectacle. A very misogynistic book, I do not recommend.

As a straight person, I will fully acknowledge that this book probably wasn't written for me or my demographic and is the reason for only a 3 star rating. However, if you are queer you will probably understand and enjoy this a lot more than I did.

What I liked about it: The storytelling was very entertaining and I was intrigued by all of the relationship dynamics. I was interested to see how they would all pan out at the end of the trip.

What I didn't like: I was HELLA confused for most of this book. As a straight person but also an ally, I wanted to understand way more than I did. I almost felt like I need a queer guide to this because I was so confused.

That being said, I still learned SO much from this about queer relationships and their dynamics. I would like to broaden my knowledge more after reading this. There was SO much I still don't understand but I don't think it's really up to me to understand the inner workings of queer relationships given that I won't ever be in one. I love that this book is breaking boundaries though and exposing others to different types of relationships and ways to live.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

An honest and hilarious exploration of sexuality and identity. I loved the characters and the dialogue. A fun and engaging read! This book is going to make a lot of people confused. 😂

Thank you NetGalley for providing me with an e-book ARC!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was kinda like a fever dream lol. We follow a group of queer ladies/theydies on a trip to upstate New York over Christmas that slowly becomes more dramatic and explosive. The vacation house is owned by an older couple, the aloof therapist Miranda and her partner Jules, a butch TV presenter. Along for the ride are Sasha, a dramatic femme whose perspective through which the story unfolds, and her sporty and adoring partner Jesse, whom she refers to with both his/her pronouns. Also joining this holiday are the final couple, influencer beauty queen Darcy and her partner, quiet and reserved Lou.

Most of the story was about the drama that unfolds between couples, from long term relationship issues to new relationship boundaries and jealousies. There is quite a lot of conflict between Darcy and Sasha, which I actually did not like because it was very femme vs. femme catfight behavior. I also didn't love that most of the dynamics here were very heavily butch/femme, and seemed to kinda reinforce traditional gender roles in wlw relationships.

The drama that unfolds over the week they are there quickly spirals into something a little darker and more unhinged, and there was one scene that I won't spoil but it left me wanting to throw up a little. You will know it when you read it lol.

Overall, this was not really what I expected and I am not sure if I liked it in the end, but it will stick with me and the cast of characters was definitely interesting.

2.5 stars

I'm not quite sure what the heck I just read. It was pretty out there in a queer artsy written kinda way. Honestly? I was probably confused about 75% of the time, mostly by the writing style and some crazy plotlines. I really disliked the narrator and didn't take a real liking to any of the other characters. That makes it really hard to like a book, for me. But simply because its more queer content and hits on some some relevant topics, I'll give it a couple of stars and some change. It's definitely going to resignate with somebody, that person just isn't me. I'd highly recommend reading a sample of this book beforehand so that you can get a feel for what you're getting into.

Thank you to NetGalley and Henry Holt & Co. for providing me with a free eArc in exhange for my honest review.