Culture Creep is an extremely thought provocing collection of essays examining pop culture and nostalgia for the late 90s and early to mid-2000s. This is not a light and fluffy read, but rather a more discerning look at the underlying themes of capitalism, sexism, racism, etc. lurking underneath the surface of mass-marketing things and ideas, such as teen magazines, video games, and media like Sex and the City and Playboy. I would recommend this for fans of Trick Mirror, Disney High, Cultish, etc.

3.5
I really enjoyed this overall but I think this collection will fall victim to some of the same criticism as "dead girls." The essays aren't as linked or set in their purpose as the synopsis implies, so you're bound to have essays that you really like and others that you struggle to get through. I flew through and LOVED the first half of this collection but found some of the later essays a bit less focused and far too long.
I personally enjoyed Bolin's writing and I always love just escaping into someone else's head for a while, but if you're specifically interested in this based on the synopsis, it might stray farther than you prefer.

This is an interesting essay collection with some selections that I really enjoyed for their insight of ubiquitous American culture and some that I ended up skimming through because they were unfortunately too long and rambling. My favorites were The Enumerated Woman, Foundering, and Real Time. These essays were short and punchy enough that I quickly picked up on the various hypocrisies and syllogisms Bolin draws between social psychology and pop culture. However, Teen People and especially Rabbit Hole were just too long and meandering enough that it was hard for me to focus on what their main messages were. It didn’t help that her writing style involves a lot of long, complex sentences and few paragraph breaks.

Really liked this collection, meandering and smart and insightful in all of the right ways. Last essay on playboy mansion was a little long but I’ll let it slide lol