I really enjoyed this -- it offered a great balance of well-researched and descriptive information blended with expected nostalgia coming from a millennial author whose formative years were during this "Y2K era". The author herself is just one year younger than I am -- so much of the personal stories she shares feel familiar to my own experiences or that of my childhood friends/family. I particularly liked that each chapter presented the reality of the time compared to how things "turned out", the attempt at foresight at the time versus how things actually turned out. While there is a fair amount of conversational subjectiveness, overall I found this a great supplemental read perhaps for younger readers who "missed" the Y2K era or older generations looking to understand a more center/progressive millennial perspective.

I requested this on a whim because I was looking for a nostalgia trip, but I was pleasantly surprised that the essays were much deeper than that! I'm a bit younger than the author - old enough to get most of the pop culture references while also being too young at the time to understand any of the political context, so it was really interesting to see the connections. Also apt timing to read about the Bush presidency and some of the comparisons to Trump later.

While I was reading this I had friends at When We Were Young Fest and I'm getting bombarded with anniversary album tours and a relaunch of Warped Tour. The essay about millenial nostalgia definitely resonated with me, as I'm always trying to keep the balance between "self-soothing" and hope vs. "trauma-induced age regression" or "a surrender to the world as it is" and not giving in to the nostalgia capitalism targeting our age group with full force right now.

I would recommend this to any millenials or anyone interested in the intersection of American politics and pop culture. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC!

I really enjoyed this essay collection. "Y2K" chronicles the years between the dot-com bubble (1997) and the housing bubble (2008). Colette Shade is an excellent writer. Her writing style felt personal and poignant. She really did her research. This book was fun, refreshing, and razor-sharp. There's a wide variety of topics in each essay from Starbucks, the aftermath of 9/11, pop culture, fashion, technology, reality shows, politics, climate change, gas-guzzling vehicles, etc. I like the balance of fact and opinion-based observations. Essay collections are usually hit or miss for me, but this one was hands-down a major hit. I had such a great time reading this. I could really relate to this essay collection because I am a millennial. And the cover art is absolute perfection.

When I saw this available to request, I jumped at the opportunity as a girl born at the dawn of the 90s.
Inside you'll find poignant essays that reflect the tumultuous era that was the millennium. I expected a much more light-hearted read, but was instead faced with tons of insight pertaining to how our culture (when I was an adolescent) truly shaped today's world.

I'm a huge fan of nostalgia, and this was right up my alley.

Thank you to NetGalley and Dey Street Books for an eARC in exchange for my honest review!

Y2K by Colette Shade was incredibly nostalgic to me. As someone who had grown up in the era being discussed, many of the events and topics were familiar to me, but talking about them in an almost academic way was fascinating. I loved Shade's thoughts on how the politics of the time intersected with the cultural moments. I highly recommend.

Great essays about a time when everything changed. Millennials are very nostalgic right now, and this book feeds right into it. The insight about the times surrounding 9/11 was sharp and resonated with me.

ARC releasing 1/7/25. Essays revolving around various Y2K topics. I simply wanted so much more from this. I felt like it went into present times as much as it did Y2K and the voice wasn’t consistent throughout. I wanted something a lot more ~fun~ than this provided.

Concept? 10/10

I love me a pop culture history essay collection with hints of personal story in there ala Klosterman and Abdurraqib

Execution? 7/10

A couple chapters felt a little wandery without a full point? The info while enjoyable somewhat surface level? One chapter in particular was meant to talk about Bush and ended up being mostly about Trump instead.

I did however appreciate some comparison to liberal thought from then to now and the conversation of the shift in culture pre and post 2008. I think it's important to look at the things that have brought us to where we are now as a culture.

I would recommend reading it and I'd be willing to reread a finished copy

overall a bit of a mixed bag for me like most essay collections but this was a fun time capsule to dip back into and also good contextualization of some of the foreign affairs at the time i was a bit too young for

What an enjoyable read! I am a younger millennial so I loved remembering all the references in this book. Well done.

As a connoisseur of Y2K and a child of the culture itself, I have to commend Colette Shade for writing this all down for us. It feels like a gift to those of us in our 30's to have it chronicled like this, in such a beautiful way.

I've gotten into the habit of reading a book at night before I fall asleep. I've called it my nightbook, because it's different than whatever I'm reading during the day. Y2K will forever be the first nightbook I finished slowly. Every night I'd peel through a chapter or two on the early aughts, and then I would fall asleep and dream about the Spice Girls and hit clips and my butterfly blow up chair and the bedroom of my preteens.

If you want to be transported back to the AOL chatroom of your youth, this book is for you.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending over this advanced copy.

Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything* by *Colette Shade* is an insightful and darkly humorous exploration of the early 2000s—a decade often remembered for its quirky pop culture, technological optimism, and promises of a utopian future. Yet, as Shade deftly reveals, beneath the surface of inflatable furniture, flip phones, and low-rise jeans, there was a complex and sometimes troubling reality that continues to shape our world today.

Shade, one of the most incisive critics of her generation, offers a series of essays that blend nostalgia with sharp critique, dissecting the cultural and political artifacts of the Y2K era. From the Hummer H2 to Smash Mouth’s “All Star,” and from AOL chatrooms to early internet porn, Shade paints a vivid picture of a time when the internet was new, technology was fun, and the future seemed bright. Yet, as she carefully unpacks, this optimism was laced with contradictions and undercurrents that would have lasting impacts.

In one essay, Shade reflects on the cultural influence of Ludacris’s hit song “What’s Your Fantasy,” revealing how it shaped a generation’s sexual awakening. Her analysis is both affectionate and critical, capturing the duality of the Y2K era—a time of liberation and repression, empowerment and exploitation. In another essay, she candidly examines how the influx of rail-thin models from the collapsed USSR in *Vogue* played a role in her own struggles with an eating disorder, linking personal experience with broader societal pressures.

Perhaps most striking is Shade’s exploration of the McMansion, an architectural symbol of the era’s excesses, which later became a haunting reminder of the housing collapse. Through these and other essays, Shade connects the dots between the cultural phenomena of the early 2000s and the economic and social crises that followed, showing how the Y2K era was both a beginning and an end.

Fans of cultural critics like Jia Tolentino and Chuck Klosterman will find much to appreciate in Shade’s writing. Her essays are not just critiques but meditations—thoughtful, poignant, and laced with humor. *Y2K* is a book that challenges readers to reconsider the early 2000s, not just as a time of quirky nostalgia, but as a formative period that continues to cast a long shadow over our present and future.

*Y2K: How the 2000s Became Everything* is the first book to fully reckon with the mixed legacy of the Y2K era, offering a mirror to our past while asking crucial questions about where we’re headed. Shade’s writing is timely, provocative, and utterly compelling, making this collection a must-read for anyone interested in understanding the cultural forces that have shaped the 21st century.

Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher, and author for an advanced copy to review.

Calling all millennials - you need to read this book.

I was so sad to reach the end because it felt simultaneously like a trip down memory lane, with violent and vivid flashbacks, but also a learning of facts related to those memories.

Colette’s essays feel like you’re having lunch with a friend, chatting about memories of your teenage years but this chat is filled with facts that you may have overlooked at the time the events happened.

This was one of my favorite reads of 2024.

I firmly grew up in the Y2K era so this book was a hit for me! It was a fun little trip down memory lane, plus an overview of the political climate I was too young and silly to grasp at the time. I did have to read certain paragraphs over and over to get them to sink in, but I’m almost positive this is just a me issue and nothing to do with the writing. I’m just a little tired and burned out from reading like 25 ARCs in roughly 6 weeks 😂

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

A fun, nostalgic little book! This quick read was a trip back to the past for someone like me who lived through this all and I had a total blast.

The book is an excellent read. It mentions around the time the Y2K is around as well as the writer’s life, the late 90s, and the 2000s. There’s so many things in this book that I remember back in the day. Thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book in order to do a review.

I swear, I tried SO hard to like this.

First guess why I didn't - I started the 2000s at 5 years old, hence was a little later to the party than the author. I got 99% of the pop culture references though... Next guess - I had no clue what was going on in politics at 5 years old. DING DING DING!

Next question - why is there thisss much politics anyway? Yes they played a huge role in developing our culture at the time, but is this what I really signed on for? No, it is not.
If I sound grumpy about this, it's because I am. There was ssooo much potential here. The references outside of the in-depth look into politics were spot on. I was surprised more than once to learn new details of a time I thought I knew well, being that I lived through it. Heck I'd even be okay with mentions of the political environment and breaking news stories of the time; Like I said before, governmental decisions certainly did play a large roll in our day-to-day lives (whether we knew it at the time or not). But sheeeeesh. The title, cover and description all failed to mention the poli sci lesson you'd also have to endure.

I also struggled with the huge discrepancies in voice from essays to essay (sometimes even paragraph to paragraph). One min I felt like I was listening to one of my girlfriends, the next I felt like I was in AP gov. It's weird hearing me say this (reading me write this?) since that's usually exactly what I'd go for in a book. Unfortunately it just wasn't done well here and felt abrasive, like they were trying too hard to be edgy while still proving they'd done their research.

Again, I wouldn't sound so pissy about it if this book didn't have SO MUCH potential.

Also side note, if you <i>do</i> care about the finer details of 2000's political aspects in addition to pop culture, this is the book for you. You will give it 5/5 stars.

{Thank you bunches to NetGalley, Colette Shade and publisher for the eARC

Oh man, this book hit me with all the feelings -- and predictably, all the nostalgia -- right from the introduction. It's so easy to look back on the Y2K era with rose-colored glasses, especially as a '93 baby who came of age right in the middle of it (and who feels both decrepit and grateful for the recent resurgence.)

Shade is really great at blending the view from those rose-colored glasses with the bleak realities of both then and now. From AIM and Starbucks to 9/11 to the rise of internet porn, Shade covers it all in a satisfying blend of wistfulness and valid critique. As strange as it is to even be so far-removed from the time that we're reading books in retrospect of it, I'm so glad I stumbled across this one.

(Thank you to NetGalley and the author for providing me with a free digital copy in exchange for an honest review.)

Nostalgic in the best and worst ways. A recommended purchase for collections where pop culture and history titles are popular.

When I saw the title, I knew I had to read this book. Being just a couple of years older than the author, I vividly remember all the events and pop cultural events she describes. All of these moments, both political and entertainment-related likely shaped our current culture, which were fascinating to reflect upon.

Initially, I expected a relatively light-hearted read, but it turned out to be a profound commentary on how that era influenced our world today. There were critiques of the era and how certain things in pop culture were problematic, then and now. The writing was insightful and thought-provoking. It took me back to my early teens where I loved glitter eyeshadow, logging onto AIM, and seeing if my favorite song was number on TRL. The book also delves into significant events/people like 9/11, Occupy Wall Street, Starbucks, unions, global warming/climate change, George Bush Jr, etc, making it a comprehensive reflection on the era.

As a fan of nostalgia, I appreciated the references to pop culture and the political climate of the time. I had just about every single experience myself that she had in that time period. The book made me recall both the good and bad, and it made me realize how optimistic us millennials were right at the start of the millennium. As time went on, I saw how those feelings faded in the post-millennium era. It makes me wonder are those same millennials optimistic now or do they still feel existential dread and hopelessness for the future

Thank you to the publisher Dey Street Books for providing an advance reader copy via NetGalley