Trick Mirror

„trick mirror“ combines a selection of essays on self-delusion mainly dealing with the
patriarchy and capitalism, which I was really looking forward to. I had extremely high expectations, as some of my friends with whom I usually share similar opinions on books have recommended the book to me.

The essays I enjoyed most were „the I in the Internet“ and the one about scams of our generation. Tolentino takes many different approaches to the topics and combines them in a way I haven’t read about before. Her writing is sharp, smart, and even funny when she isn’t just talking about the most devastating occurrences of our time.
But although I agreed with the author’s opinion on almost every topic and have highlighted a lot within the pages, there were only a few aspects that wowed me, due to the choice of already much-discussed subjects, that at some point really made me wonder about the target group.

Most of the topics were covered dozen times before („girl power“ feminism, how social media encourages narcissism, r*pe culture on campus, the invention of facebook and amazon…), also in well-known documentaries and other popular sources, thus I learned less than I was hoping to. So unlike I thought before reading the essays, it isn’t about showing new ways in which our society is fouled by the media but rather rephrasing things we all already know.

To sum up I would highly recommend this technically very well-written and captivating collection of essays to anyone who hasn’t read a lot about recent discussions on pop culture before. Everyone else might not be as mind-blown as one might hope.