Book Review: Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion by Jia Tolentino

Book: 28/100

Rating: 4/5

Summary:Trick Mirror is an enlightening, unforgettable trip through the river of self-delusion that surges just beneath the surface of our lives. This is a book about the incentives that shape us, and about how hard it is to see ourselves clearly in a culture that revolves around the self. In each essay, Jia writes about the cultural prisms that have shaped her: the rise of the nightmare social internet; the American scammer as millennial hero; the literary heroine’s journey from brave to blank to bitter; the mandate that everything, including our bodies, should always be getting more efficient and beautiful until we die.

Thoughts: I really enjoyed this series of essays; I particularly enjoyed her essays on reality television and the UVA rape case. Tolentino does a lot of reflecting and a crazy amount of research. It is interesting to do some reflection of your own while reading this book, and thinking about how really unaware we can be of the cultural influences that shape us, and how difficult it can be to really see ourselves.