In this highly anticipated debut, we meet Sneha, an ambitious queer college grad eager to create a stable life for herself in Milwaukee.
She lands a decently paid job — enough to establish some savings and even help out her parents back in India — but as she establishes connections with a web of new friends and lovers, Sneha somehow feels more isolated and lonely than ever.
With stunning prose and metaphors that made me literally gasp, Mathews unpacks the impossible mental task, especially for folks with many intersecting identities, of distilling a lifetime of experiences and traumas into one concrete personality, all while trying not to be crushed under the psychological weight of capitalism.
The cast of side characters, just as loving and charismatic as they are selfish and stunted, are so richly developed you can't help but recognize them.