Praise for A/S/L

A Kirkus Reviews Editor’s Pick

The Seattle Times Most Anticipated Books of the Year

Lit Hub’s Most Anticipated Books of the Year

“[A/S/L is] a friendship saga rendered in glimmering prose, chatroom transcripts, and the occasional diagram . . . Expansive, ambitious, idea-driven, and full of delightful details. And as in Thornton’s previous novel, Summer Fun, characters jump off the page.”

—Lit Hub

“Ambitious . . . Thornton is very good on damaged transsexual lives, on the rolling disaster set in motion, not by transition, but by the way we’re punished for it . . . A/S/L lets onto the page the everyday struggles around work, housing, social life, and mental health beyond that.”

—McKenzie Wark, e-flux

“Beyond astonishing, imbued with witchery, lust, the isolation and connection of a game, devastating heartbreak, and the ageless, aching wrap of friendship and time. I can’t remember the last time a trans novel affected me this deeply. I can’t remember the last time any novel affected me this deeply. Jeanne Thornton is like a literary sorceress becoming more and more powerful with every new volume.”

—Casey Plett, author of Little Fish

“If we see the Great American Novel less as a singular achievement than as a genre—lengthy and humanistic, concerned with individual destinies as a means to addressing What It Means To Be An American Now—then it is no exaggeration to say Jeanne Thornton is the greatest living Great American Novelist.”

—Cat Fitzpatrick, author of The Call-Out

“For those of us in that generation that first grew up behind computer screens in the intimacy of strangers, the book is a vital touchstone. Characteristic of Thornton’s work, A/S/L doesn’t cheat, nor dumb down the complicated circumstances of its characters and their obsessions; she makes legible even the most esoteric of obscura. The novel is unapologetically authentic and unflinchingly honest.”

—Bill Cheng, author of Southern Cross the Dog

“A dazzlingly creative and heartfelt novel . . . Thornton has a skillful command of worldbuilding, both in the physical world and within chat rooms and 2D video games. She writes with profound, incisive authority about relationships, not only between trans and cisgender people . . . but also about the dynamics that exist within trans communities, as well as among co-workers, families, and, perhaps most importantly, friends.”

—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Ambitious and playful . . . As Thornton chronicles the characters’ sex lives, relationships, and gender transitions, she explores their deep-seated longings and regrets . . . The determinedly upbeat tone carries the reader along, as do the novel’s dynamic stylistic elements, such as old-school online chat threads and low-bit illustrations of the game.”

—Publishers Weekly

“Intricate . . . [A/S/L] traces the lives, problems, woes, and tribulations of the game makers. Thornton has created a one-of-a-kind book, with a great idea propelling it . . . The story increases in power and interest as it develops.”

—Library Journal

Praise for Jeanne Thornton

“I suspect [Summer Fun] will come to be considered the Pet Sounds of trans literature: a masterpiece that feels both astonishingly new and comfortingly familiar.”

—Torrey Peters, author of Detransition, Baby

“In Summer Fun, Jeanne Thornton, that slow-burn superstar, has dropped a punk’s pop masterpiece.”

—Andrea Lawlor, author of Paul Takes the Form of a Mortal Girl

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