FICTION

Mona at Sea

by Elizabeth Gonzalez James
Santa Fe Writer’s Project. Jun. 2021. 270p. ISBN 9781951631017. pap. $15.95. F
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DEBUT This sharp, painfully honest debut centers on Mona Mireles, a struggling (more like drowning) millennial. Mona is the girl who succeeds at everything she tries, and she graduates from college certain that she’ll put her finance degree to good use in her new job at a megabank in New York. The only problem is that the bank that hired her has just gone under in the economic crash of 2008. Now jobless and back home with her parents, Mona is trying to live down her viral video meltdown, for which the internet’s called her the “Sad Millennial.” Despite sending out more than 400 résumés and going on numerous interviews, she’s had no offers, and months of failure have pushed her into a cynical depression and self-destructive behaviors.
VERDICT If this all sounds too painful to bear, it is, at times. It’s also caustically funny and revealing, as Mona stumbles into a new version of what her life could be. Fans of Stephanie Danler’s Sweetbitter and Sally Rooney’s novels will want to read this one.
Reviewed by Jane Jorgenson, Madison P.L., WI , Jun 01, 2021
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