Avery is a grad student in New York working on a collection of cultural reports and flailing financially and emotionally. She dates older men for money, and others for the oblivion their egos offer. In an act of desperation, Avery takes a job at a right-wing dating app. The 'white-paper' she is tasked to write for the startup eventually merges with her dissertation, resulting in a metafictional text that reveals itself over the course of the novel. Meanwhile, her best friend, Frances, an effortlessly chic emerging filmmaker from a wealthy Southern family, drops out of grad school, gets married, and somehow still manages to finish her first feature documentary. Frances's triumphant return to New York as the toast of the art world sends Avery into a final tailspin, pushing her to make a series of devastating decisions.
Funny and sharp, but a bit underrealized ... Threads that are introduced with an air of significance disappear unresolved ... Still, the book effectively portrays the psychology of young women who are chronically online ... There is a layer of sadness under the flat surface, not quite accessible. This tension is ultimately where the novel succeeds in being beautiful. Levy is good at keeping the feeling out of reach.
Cynical ... [A] glittering satirical tale ... Dense and gorgeously spiky prose ... The novel is light on plot and heavy on vibes, but fortunately those vibes are meaty, juicy and tantalisingly zeitgeisty.
Uncanny and blunt, Levy’s first novel delivers a bleak, commodified reality—one that feels distant but recognizable—where everything has a price and little value ... Despite its unsettling portrayals of depravity, Levy’s prose is rich in style and sharp with punch lines ... Both a mirror and crystal ball, Flat Earth is for readers not afraid of looking deeply into society’s ills and perhaps finding parts of themselves there.
