I COULD BE FAMOUS

These 11 stories are meditations on themes that are both timeless—women looking for love, longing for more from life, fighting for their dreams—and modern, filled with influencers and celebrity-driven culture and people living on the periphery of both. Through engaging and occasionally shocking stories, Rende deftly shows the balancing act between the online and performative world in which we increasingly live and the rich, complicated interior lives of her characters. These impressive stories lay bare the hidden worlds of both the very online and those living adjacent to the spotlight or yearning for it, for better or worse. Consider Jane, a bored receptionist who takes center stage in the opening story, “Nothing Special.” Jane spends her time DMing former child stars and befriending influencers like Ramona, who isn’t at all the beautiful-inside-and-out person she pretends to be online. What follows is a darkly funny cautionary tale about falling for illusions. In “Lopsided,” a possibly ripped-from-reality story, the young narrator grapples with the fact that she wants to leave the boyfriend who just donated a kidney to her. Is she bound to stay with him forever, or can she dump him to see what else is out there? In “High School Junkie Girlfriend,” a struggling actress and temporary hot-tub saleswoman decides to go all in while preparing for her role as the titular junkie girlfriend. She is determined to break out of her rut and reach the next stage of her career no matter what, the result is a Raymond Carver–esque vignette of life on the sidelines.