Description

---

Named one of the Best LGBTQ+ Books of 2023 by Vogue • Named a Best Book of 2023 by The New Yorker • Named a Best Book of 2023 (So Far) by Cosmopolitan • Named a Best Book of Spring 2023 by Esquire • Named a Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Book of 2023 by Buzzfeed, Electric Lit, and Them

An addictive, absurd, and darkly hilarious debut novel about a young woman who embarks on a ten-day getaway with her partner and two other queer couples.

Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians—prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda—invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple—Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy—whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.

As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future.

Unfolding over ten heady days, Dykette is an unforgettable love story at the crossroads of queer nonconformity and seductive normativity. With propulsive plotting and sexy, wickedly entertaining prose, Jenny Fran Davis captures the vagaries of desire and the many devastating places in which we seek recognition.

About the Author

---

Jenny Fran Davis received her MFA from the University of Iowa, where she was an Iowa Arts Fellow. The author of Everything Must Go, a novel for teenagers, she lives in Brooklyn.

Praise For…

---

Named a Most Anticipated Book of Spring & Summer by Bustle
Named a Most Anticipated Book of 2023 by Our Culture, Yahoo!, The Millions, LitHub and SPY.com
Named a Most Anticipated Debut of 2023 by Debutiful and Goodreads

“This is a book full of queer vocabulary and gossip written in a bold, unapologetic way. And why should it be otherwise? With Dykette, Davis has filled what has been mostly an empty shelf in the literary world.”
—The Washington Post

“At heart a love story, Dykette seductively examines themes like queer nonconformity and its place in a heteronormative world.”
—W Magazine

“Davis’s new novel reads like a taxonomy of queer theory, references, and history, while offering up wholly new words and takes on contemporary lesbian life.”
—Vanity Fair

“Davis gives us honest…insights into a queer domestic fantasy.”
—The Cut

“A fascinating look at queer couples and how things like gender, sexuality, age, and even horniness can affect everything about a relationship.”
—Cosmopolitan

“[A] biting tale of two young queer couples who go upstate with an older lesbian couple...plenty to cringe and laugh at.”
—Rolling Stone

“If you’re in the mood for a sexy novel that explores the messiness of queer relationships, Dykette should be on your list.”
—Advocate

“The Big Chill goes gay in Davis’s raunch-com about six queer Brooklynites spending the holidays at a Hudson farmhouse. Come for the sometimes-riotous relationship drama, stay for the myriad cultural in-jokes...”
—Electric Lit

“There’s a whiff of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf in this wry, horny battle-of-the-lovers, and also the sensation of piecing together some gossip on Instagram. Dykette makes a strong case for mixing goofiness with sexiness in contemporary fiction.”
—Bustle

“Dykette takes on desire, debauchery, and destruction through a distinctly queer—and propulsively entertaining—lens.”
—The Millions

“[A] sexy debut novel.”
—Nylon

“Through Sasha, Davis constructs a field guide to queer dynamics, making sharp observations about generational divides, the butch/femme dynamic, and what it means to perform your gender or sexuality (as exemplified by an explosive plot about performance art). You won’t soon forget Sasha, nor any of the other larger-than-life Brooklynites in her cohort.”
—Esquire

“This deeply smart, original, and funny debut novel has permanently shifted my understanding of the relationship between honesty and performance.”
—Marissa Higgins, The Millions

“Dykette is a riveting and often darkly funny novel that accurately examines New York queer culture with an insider's authenticity.”
—BUST Magazine

“A bold and refreshingly zany novel of gay millennial life in New York, Dykette is sharp and unsparing as a play piercing needle. Bound to set countless group chats afire, this book signals Jenny Fran Davis as a writer to watch.”
—Sarah Thankam Mathews, author of the National Book Award finalist All This Could Be Different

“A hilarious, astute, and captivating tour of a young femme’s interior life over the course of one long weekend upstate. Dykette is a portrait of a certain corner of queer culture that is part satire, part ode, and full of delightful cringe. Davis’s unrelenting scrutiny is a consummate pleasure; I gasped with laughter and delight on nearly every page.”
—Melissa Febos, author of Girlhood

“Dykette stared directly into my soul, pinned me against a wall, and made me look inward, consider the sharp and ugly parts of myself. A novel that can accomplish that complexity while also being wickedly funny, achingly sensitive, readable as hell--simply put, Jenny Fran Davis is a talent.”
—Jean Kyoung Frazier, author of Pizza Girl

“Dykette turned me on and freaked me out in the best possible way! Imagine if Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? were recast with two generations of very-online queer folks. Tense, smart, and thrilling . . . with a charismatic pug named Vivienne to boot.”
—CJ Hauser, author of The Crane Wife

“Dykette is an invigorating and hilarious examination of queer identity and intimacy. It’s a novel about being trapped—trapped inside your own head, trapped inside relationships, and trapped inside a chilly upstate New York vacation home. The only thing more horrifying than perceiving one’s self is being perceived by others, and Jenny Fran Davis explores both actions with an audacious and tender wit.”
—Bobby Finger, author of The Old Place