The Subtweet
A Novel
by Vivek Shraya
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Pub Date 7 Apr 2020 | Archive Date 3 Dec 2019
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Description
2021 Lambda Literary Awards Finalist for Transgender Fiction
2020 Toronto Book Awards Finalist
“The Subtweet is affecting, unnerving, empowering, and often truly LOL.” — Foreword Reviews, starred review
“A beautifully crafted novel about race, music, and social media.” — Booklist
Includes an exclusive free soundtrack
Celebrated multidisciplinary artist Vivek Shraya’s second novel is a no-holds-barred examination of the music industry, social media, and making art in the modern era, shining a light on the promise and peril of being seen.
Indie musician Neela Devaki has built a career writing the songs she wants to hear but nobody else is singing. When one of Neela’s songs is covered by internet artist RUK-MINI and becomes a viral sensation, the two musicians meet and a transformative friendship begins. But before long, the systemic pressures that pit women against one another begin to bear down on Neela and RUK-MINI, stirring up self-doubt and jealousy. With a single tweet, their friendship implodes, a career is destroyed, and the two women find themselves at the centre of an internet firestorm.
Advance Praise
“The Subtweet takes the topic of online life and allows it to become simply part of the lives of its fully human, complex characters. What emerges is a deeply moving tale about the relationships between artists and friends. Biting and beautiful, it’s written with heart by an essential voice.” — Jonny Sun, author of Everyone’s a Aliebn When Ur a Aliebn Too
“The Subtweet is a smart, funny, incisive, heart-crushing interrogation of art, race, friendship, social media, and the music industry. These characters and their self-destructive self-doubt are compelling, real, and vivid. I wanted to live-tweet my reading because I’m just obsessed.” — Andrea Warner, author of Buffy Sainte-Marie: The Authorized Biography
“So engaging. I can’t think of anything I’ve read that has captured Twitter culture so well. There is something special in this book that really touches on the absurdity and pressure of social media and art. I couldn’t put it down.” — Sara Quin, of Tegan and Sara
“A subtle mystery — it captures the adrenaline-filled strange alienation and over-visibility of social media, the sedimentations of racism, and the vicissitudes of female friendship. This is a literary novel as well as a hyper-contemporary one. I literally gasped.” — Erin Wunker, author of Notes from a Feminist Killjoy
Available Editions
| EDITION | Other Format |
| ISBN | 9781770415256 |
| PRICE | US$16.95 (USD) |
Featured Reviews
Tess C, Educator
THE SUBTWEET is the perfect novel for our time. Obviously, thanks to the title, the plot and relationships are rooted in social media and now technology affections our communication. But the story is also about culture clashes, women of color finding their place in a white-dominated music industry, and prejudice and jealousy from all types of people. I loved following the main characters, Neela and Rukmini, as they develop a friendship and deal with the consequences of artistic and professional jealousy. The fact that many of the plot's twists and turns happen on social media made the story all the more delicious, and I love curling myself into the pages and the world Shraya created.
The book is set in Toronto among the indie music scene there (something I know very little about). One of my only complaints about this book is that I wish I could have heard the music Neela and Rukmini made! The descriptions of the songs are so vivid and imaginative, it made me wish I could flip over to Spotify to hear them myself. I also loved that this one of those few books solely about female friendships; there was truly no romance in this story and I didn't miss it. The story is so grounded in reality it easily seems like the story is something you read about on Twitter yesterday. The writing is fresh, the book is solid, and my rating is 5 stars!
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