Happy Hour by Marlowe Granados

the back of the book keeps talking about how lighthearted, witty, refreshing it is—compares it to a “gin fizz.”

where in these advertised reviews does it mention how intimately it connects to class struggle, to performance of gender, the selling/trading/purchasing of girlish sexuality, the everyday slights of colorism and racism?

to me, the book so obviously centers the lived reality of a young, poor, multiracial, immigrant woman who also happens to be conventionally beautiful and socially adept. she uses her beauty and charm in ways that sometimes disgust herself to not only survive but also procure a desirable future. she is not alone—she has a best friend, a white girl who shares much of her socioeconomic background, and a plethora of humans who have an interest in her. perhaps that gives the book that shiny, easy veneer: at no point does the reader feel like this struggling young woman will completely slip off the deep end, thanks to the (varying) warmth of her human connections.

More than a gin fizz:

young women discovering what power they can access in this hierarchical, demanding world, and how they can wield this power as currency, as a key, as safety, as a weapon.
making the most of being the racialized “Other” through self-claimed exoticism
money, wealth, luxury, and the ways that these constructs rule the lives of the poor, and the punishing nature of desire.
belonging and the inherent rejection of belonging as a multi-national, multi-racial, immigrant.
guilt & grief & numbness