Review of ​Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte

​Rejection by Tony Tulathimutte is collection of stories steeped in online subcultures, sexuality, and irony. The novel charts the lives of people spiraling into the alt-right pipeline, becoming abusers, repressing and then engaging in their sexuality, and humorously nodding to online conspiracy theories. I really enjoyed all the stories, though in particular, two stood out as the heavyweights, ‘Ahegao, or, The Ballad of Sexual Repression’ and ‘Main Character’. ‘Ahehao’ is about a closeted gay Taiwanese American, Kant, who’s repression manifests in the desire of sexual degradation in gay hentai. The story follows Kant as he first comes out to his friends and family through an email, and begins to explore dating and relationships in his mid-thirties. However, when he starts to date another man, Julian, he is reluctant to have sex due to his worry that he can’t keep his desires at bay. Eventually, they have a falling out and Kant becomes consumed by trying to get an actor to film a video that includes all of his sexual fantasies. But when he sends the email, he realizes it wasn’t sent to the adult actor, but instead to the list of friends and family he came out to. ‘Main Character’ follows the life of “Bee” who abhors the idea of labels on race, gender, and sexuality so much so that it gets Bee into trouble at their college co-op. Eventually, Bee turns to the internet to satiate their desires to “stir the pot”, where they confess in a post that they created thousands of bot accounts to wreak havoc and create discourse, all while their mother is dying of cancer. However, the story itself notes that what Bee describes is really an AI-generated story and none of it was true. The story then takes a step back, noting the theories of who Bee is and in one theory, lists Tony Tulathimutte as the originator of the Bee post.
 
Tulathimutte is a genius at metafiction, nihilism, and humor in his stories which made me feel completely wrapped up in their dramas. ‘Main Character’ itself has so many twists and turns in its narrative that I was left astounded. I did have one small gripe, which was the ending of the first story, ‘The Feminist’. In it, the main character grows up going to school with mostly girls, so assimilates into the identity of a true “feminist”, and what I assume what the internet would call a “Nice Guy”. As the story continues, he is continually rejected by women due to his “feminist” performances, eventually leading him down into the “red pilled” world of incels and the alt-right. The last scene showcases his metamorphosis as he enters a restaurant planning to shoot it up. The ending felt off because, as a reader, I’d gotten enough clues to understand who the character was and his descent into radicalization, so the payoff of his actions felt cheap and too expected. In going with Tulathimutte’s theme of the use of the internet and slightly experimental forms, I wished it went in a different direction (i.e. manifesto). However, that is the only small problem I had with the collection, and was completely entranced the rest of the time.
 
Final Rating: 5/5