Exalted
ExaltedAnna Dorn
Buy on Amazon

Exalted (2022)

Anna Dorn

Others: Negative

Emily Forrest runs the hottest astrology account on Instagram, @Exalted, but astrology is on the outs, and her finances are dwindling. Emily doesn't even really believe in astrology, despite her gift for deciphering the moons and signs, until she comes across a birth-chart that could potentially change her mind. Beau Rubidoux’s chart has all the planets in their right places—it is exalted. She decides that Beau could potentially be the love of her life and begins following him around Los Angeles in hopes of getting close to him and catching his eye. Meanwhile, in Riverside, CA, Dawn Webster has been dumped once again. At 48, she is forced to return to the diner where she started waiting tables at 18. With no girlfriend, no career, and her only son gone to Hollywood, the once-vivacious Dawn is aimless and alone. Persona non-grata at the local lesbian bar, she guzzles cheap champagne and peruses @Exalted to feel seen. When Dawn spots her son's estranged father one day during a work break, she decides to track him down and reshape the flailing course of her life. Told from Emily and Dawn's alternating points of view, Exalted is a deliciously dark novel that explores desire, the projection of love, and what we're really searching for when we keep scrolling. Anna Dorn's signature wit and biting social commentary takes readers across Southern California until Emily and Dawn's shocking connection is finally revealed.

ISBN:
9781951213497

Genres: fantasy, romance, literary fiction

Lists: …

Similar books

1 of 6
  • Woman, Eating

    Claire Kohda

    2022 · 288 pages · 7 reviews

    Others: Overwhelmingly positive

    A young, mixed-race vampire must find a way to balance her deep-seated desire to live amongst humans with her incessant hunger in this stunning debut novel from a writer-to-watch. Lydia is hungry. She's always wanted to try Japanese food. Sashimi, ramen, onigiri with sour plum stuffed inside - the food her Japanese father liked to eat. And then there is bubble tea and iced-coffee, ice cream and cake, and foraged herbs and plants, and the vegetables grown by the other young artists at the London studio space she is secretly squatting in. But, Lydia can't eat any of these things. Her body doesn't work like those of other people. The only thing she can digest is blood, and it turns out that sourcing fresh pigs' blood in London--where she is living away from her vampire mother for the first time - is much more difficult than she'd anticipated. Then there are the humans--the other artists at the studio space, the people at the gallery she interns at, the strange men that follow her after dark, and Ben, a boyish, goofy-grinned artist she is developing feelings for. Lydia knows that they are her natural prey, but she can't bring herself to feed on them. In her windowless studio, where she paints and studies the work of other artists, binge-watches Buffy the Vampire Slayer and videos of people eating food on YouTube and Instagram, Lydia considers her place in the world. She has many of the things humans wish for--perpetual youth, near-invulnerability, immortality--but, she is miserable; she is lonely; and she is hungry--always hungry. As Lydia develops as a woman and an artist, she will learn that she must reconcile the conflicts within her--between her demon and human sides, her mixed ethnic heritage, and her relationship with food, and, in turn, humans if she is to find a way to exist in the world. Before any of this, however, she must eat.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    On 2 of the same lists
    80%
    Also fantasy and literary fiction
    19%
    Similar descriptions
    1%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Book of X

    Sarah Rose Etter

    2019 · 262 pages · 1 review

    Others: Neutral

    The Book of X tells the tale of Cassie, a girl born with her stomach twisted in the shape of a knot. From childhood with her parents on the family meat farm, to a desk job in the city, to finally experiencing love, she grapples with her body, men, and society, all the while imagining a softer world than the one she is in.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    On the same reading list
    68%
    Also fantasy and literary fiction
    24%
    A creator reacted alike
    8%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • One's Company

    Ashley Hutson

    2022 · 1 review

    Others: Negative

    One of the New Yorker 's Best Books of 2022 So Far and BuzzFeed 's Must-Read Summer Books For readers of Ottessa Moshfegh and Mona Awad, this fearless debut chronicles one woman’s escape into a world of obsessive imagination. Bonnie Lincoln just wants to be left alone. To come home from work, shut out the ghosts of some devastating losses, and unwind in front of the nostalgic, golden glow of her favorite TV show, Three’s Company . When Bonnie wins the lottery, a more grandiose vision―to completely shuck off her own troublesome identity―takes shape. She plans a drastic move to an isolated mountain retreat where she can re-create the iconic apartment set of Three’s Company and slip into the lives of its main characters: no-nonsense Janet Wood, pleasantly airheaded Chrissy Snow, and confident Jack Tripper. While her best friend, Krystal, tries to drag her back to her old life, Bonnie is determined to transcend pain, trauma, and the baggage of her past by immersing herself in the ultimate binge-watch.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    On the same reading list
    77%
    Also literary fiction
    14%
    A creator reacted alike
    9%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Blob

    Maggie Su

    2025 · 256 pages · 4 reviews

    Others: Neutral

    A hilarious and moving debut novel about a young woman who decides to turn a sentient blob into her perfect boyfriend... The daughter of a Taiwanese father and white mother, Vi Liu has never quite fit into her Midwestern college town. Now at twenty-three, after getting dumped and dropping out of college, Vi works as a front desk attendant at a hotel where she refills cucumber water samovars and fends off overtures of friendship from her bubbly blond coworker, Rachel. But when Vi decides to accompany Rachel to a local drag show, her life changes forever. In the alley outside the bar, next to a trash can, is a blob with beady black eyes. Unable to leave it behind, Vi picks up the creature and, in a moment of drunken desperation, takes it home with her. As her pet blob becomes sentient, Vi realizes it obeys her commands and she decides to mold the blob into her ideal partner. She feeds it sugary cereal and a stream of pop culture, and soon the creature transforms into a movie-star handsome white man. But as Vi's desire to be loved unconditionally threatens to spiral out of control, she is forced to confront her lonely childhood, the ex-boyfriend who has unfriended her, and the racial marginalization that has defined her relationships. Ultimately, Vi embarks on a journey of self-discovery and learns that it's impossible to control those you love.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    On the same reading list
    46%
    Also fantasy and literary fiction
    44%
    A creator reacted alike
    10%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • Jillian

    Halle Butler

    2015 · 179 pages · 2 reviews

    Others: Negative

    Megan, de veinticuatro años, tiene toda su vida por delante pero la siente como un callejón sin salida en lo que considera un terrible trabajo como recepcionista en una clínica y su tremendo resentimiento por el éxito y la felicidad de todos los que la rodean. Pero nadie aviva la amargura de Megan como su compañera de trabajo Jillian, una madre soltera de treinta y cinco años insoportablemente optimista cuyo alegre positivismo se ve oscurecido por sus constantes tropiezos. Las vidas de Megan y Jillian se vuelven cada vez más precarias a medida que sus mecanismos para afrontar sus problemas —negación, libros de autoayuda, alcohol, religión, analgésicos recetados, críticas obsesivas, novios alienados y, en el caso de Jillian, la adopción de un perro— las meten en un círculo de autodestrucción. La verdadera villana del libro no es ni Megan ni Jillian, ni ninguna persona en sus vidas, sino sus propias trampas, así que descargan su ira sobre ella mismas y contra todos los que las rodean. Malvadamente auténtica y brutalmente divertida, Jillian es un retrato subversivo de dos mujeres atrapadas en ciclos de autoengaño y autodestrucción, cada una más parecida a la otra de lo que les gustaría admitir.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    On the same reading list
    79%
    Also literary fiction
    19%
    Similar descriptions
    2%
    Personalize your recommendations
  • I'm a Fan

    Sheena Patel

    2023 · 216 pages · 2 reviews

    Others: Mixed

    In I'm A Fan, a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithful relationship as a prism through which to examine the complicated hold we each have on one another. With a clear and unforgiving eye, the narrator unpicks the behaviour of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world, in turn offering a devastating critique of access, social media, patriarchal hetero-normative relationships, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed. In this incredible debut, Sheena Patel announces herself as a vital new voice in literature, capable of rendering a range of emotions and visceral experiences on the page. Sex, violence, politics, tenderness, humour—Patel handles them all with both originality and dexterity of voice.

    Why?

    What made the match, strongest first

    On the same reading list
    52%
    Also literary fiction and romance
    38%
    A creator reacted alike
    10%
    Personalize your recommendations

Reviews1