Jul 8
Reading Wednesday, 7/8/2026
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Reading Wednesday, 7/8/2026
Vagablonde
By Anna Dorn.
Vagablonde
By Anna Dorn.
THE SUN IS setting over the pool. The wind has calmed. The palm frond floats eerily still in the murky water. I easily light a cigarette, revel in the inhale. Blue knows who I am. She said Nora Frost. She knows it's me, and she is playing along.
She's pretending to cry, pretending to be afraid, pretending she thought I was dead, but like I said: Blue is good at playing dumb. When she tied the scarf around her own mouth, she told me everything I needed to know.
I read online that being overprivileged depletes dopamine. I use this fact to comfort myself when I envy people like Blue, who grew up with everything handed to them. They're miserable. That's why Blue was constantly meditating and getting ketamine infusions and going to acupuncture and buying crystals and smoking two packs a day and hiding and lying and dating someone she didn't even like. She couldn't act because she'd never known danger. But now she's adrenalized, and some emotion has blossomed on her face. I knew I could save her.
Anna Dorn, “Palm Desert,” from The New Lesbian Pulp
American Spirits: A Novel
By Anna Dorn.
Books I Read in 2025: Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn
What’s the Maya Angelou quote? When someone shows you who they are, ignore them entirely and project whatever you want?
GOT MY FUCKING ARC BITCH!!!
I haven't read much lesbian pulp fiction (meaning I don't think I've read any) so I don't think I can fully appreciate a book like Perfume and Pain. It took me some time to warm up to it but over half-way through I've found that I'm really enjoying it. The main character is intentionally unlikable in a way that didn't do much for me at first but I'm actually kind of rooting for her now and I really like the gradual and begrudged feelings she develops for her neighbor even if it was incredibly predictable. Maybe that is the pulp fiction experience. I wouldn't know. But yeah, Perfume and Pain by Anna Dorn is pretty good!