endpapers by jennifer savran kelly

the problem with reading published books is that i don't know of a socially acceptable equivalent to yelling into an ao3 comment 'I STAYED UP TILL 4AM READING THIS AND I MEAN IT AS A COMPLIMENT IT WAS GREAT AAAAAHHHHHHH' you know? but for all of you, please take that as my rec for this book.

endpapers is about a bisexual, genderqueer bookbinder and is written by a bisexual, nonbinary author whose day job is working in publishing, so you can see why perhaps i don't feel equipped to have an objective review of it, bc it is just... so much my thing that even just writing that makes me feel like maybe i should restrict access to this post. i loved it. i don't read Literary Fiction or generally books set in a modern setting with no fantastical elements very often, and i'm pretty sure i found this when i went on a rabbit hole of 'nobinary books' recently (maybe i'll make another post about what else i've read/been reading from that rabbit hole? this was the only fiction book i saved from those searches tho) and probably wouldn't have even considered it if it hadn't been about a bookbinder. idk ,i just... i really liked it! the characters are messy but i cared about them, and i found it less frustrating than other 'main character is an artist but they're blocked and angsty about making art' stories i've encountered before, and the setting (shortly post-9/11 new york city) was really interesting to me, especially now that i know the author started seriously working on it in novemeber 2016.

i think there's something really nice for me in reading a book as specific and extremely focused on one character's experience in one particular limited time and place as this one is. maybe also it's a sign that this book just did that well, idk. but i didn't find myself thinking 'okay but what about other people? what about different experiences? what about other characters in this story?' in the way that sometimes i do find myself thinking that in other stories.