RaveNPR...[a] phenomenal essay collection ... a collection that feels somehow riskier than [Tolentino\'s] usual output, unburdened by the demands and constraints of a big, mainstream publication ... Tolentino finds...little truths in just about every corner of American cultural life. Her best pieces read like viral Twitter threads written by the Frankfurt School, seamlessly blending cynical humor with academic rigor ... As somebody who could be considered very online even during the early days of the internet, and who is now dependent on the internet for her livelihood, there are few forced to navigate it\'s machinery the way [Tolentino] is. \'I don\'t know what to do with the fact that I myself continue to benefit from all this: that my career is possible in large part because of the way the Internet collapses identity, opinion and action,\' she writes. It\'s this kind of constant self-awareness and inward inquiry that give Trick Mirror its most chewable moments ... More often than not, the essays here end up concluding with a well-articulated shrug of the shoulders. If you\'re expecting feminist praxis, or ways of repairing the many broken and flawed systems being critiqued in Trick Mirror, you won\'t find much of either here. But there\'s an undeniable catharsis in seeing such a great writer lucidly communicate the conditions of our most absurd forms of misery.
