Disappoint Me: A Novel
“One of the sharpest and most emotionally vulnerable novels on the complicated dynamic of dating cisgender straight men as a trans woman.”—Autostraddle (7 New Trans Novels to Read this Summer)
“Dinan writes like some kind of demigod. Her fictions make thinkable new realities for how we live and what we might expect from each other.”—Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR (SO FAR): Elle, Vogue, BookRiot
You can fall in love with an outline, you can even make a home with one, but there will come a time where you can’t deny the bones their flesh. A person is no fewer than two things.
Thirty years old with a lifetime of dysphoria and irritating exes rattling around in her head, Max is plagued by a deep dissatisfaction. Shouldn't these be the best years of her life? Why doesn't it feel that way? After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity.
Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent. While his corporate colleagues, trad friends, and Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman, he cares for Max in a way she’d always dismissed as a foolish fantasy. But he is also carrying baggage of his own. When the fall-out of a decades-old entanglement resurfaces, Max must decide what forgiveness really means. Can we be more than our worst mistakes? Is it possible to make peace with the past?
Funny, sharp, and poignant, Disappoint Me is a sweeping exploration of love, loss, trans panic, race, millennial angst, and the relationships—familial and romantic—that make us who we are.
“Dinan writes like some kind of demigod. Her fictions make thinkable new realities for how we live and what we might expect from each other.”—Torrey Peters, bestselling author of Detransition, Baby
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR (SO FAR): Elle, Vogue, BookRiot
You can fall in love with an outline, you can even make a home with one, but there will come a time where you can’t deny the bones their flesh. A person is no fewer than two things.
Thirty years old with a lifetime of dysphoria and irritating exes rattling around in her head, Max is plagued by a deep dissatisfaction. Shouldn't these be the best years of her life? Why doesn't it feel that way? After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity.
Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent. While his corporate colleagues, trad friends, and Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman, he cares for Max in a way she’d always dismissed as a foolish fantasy. But he is also carrying baggage of his own. When the fall-out of a decades-old entanglement resurfaces, Max must decide what forgiveness really means. Can we be more than our worst mistakes? Is it possible to make peace with the past?
Funny, sharp, and poignant, Disappoint Me is a sweeping exploration of love, loss, trans panic, race, millennial angst, and the relationships—familial and romantic—that make us who we are.
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Community Reviews
I was locked into this book from start to finish. Nicola Dinan does an incredible job of inviting you into a slice of life of two people as they start dating. As their worlds open up to each other and they meet each other’s friends and family, we see how their backgrounds impact their relationship. Don’t go into this book thinking you’ll either love or hate certain characters, instead think of them as incredibly human– still capable of fucking up, still having to confront their mistakes, and still able to love and be loved.
Told in dual timelines and points-of-views, we follow Max as she’s going through a pivotal change in her life and she starts dating Vincent. We also have Vincent in the past on a trip he took to Thailand when he was a young adult and a relationship that changed many aspects of his life.
This book covers difficult topics but also offers nuggets of comedic relief with Max and Vincent’s friends and family. Full of conflict and forgiveness, this novel left me pondering how much we are willing to forgive the ones we love for their past mistakes, and more so, do we even have the right to offer that forgiveness?
Told in dual timelines and points-of-views, we follow Max as she’s going through a pivotal change in her life and she starts dating Vincent. We also have Vincent in the past on a trip he took to Thailand when he was a young adult and a relationship that changed many aspects of his life.
This book covers difficult topics but also offers nuggets of comedic relief with Max and Vincent’s friends and family. Full of conflict and forgiveness, this novel left me pondering how much we are willing to forgive the ones we love for their past mistakes, and more so, do we even have the right to offer that forgiveness?
.Disappoint Me by Nicola Dinan – A Summary
Nicola Dinan's Disappoint Me is a contemporary novel that delves into the complexities of modern relationships, identity, and personal growth. The story follows Max, a 30-year-old trans woman and published poet, who, after a literal fall at a New Year's Eve party, decides to pursue a more conventional path in life. She meets Vincent, a British-Chinese corporate lawyer, and they begin a relationship that challenges both of their preconceived notions about love and identity.
The narrative alternates between Max's present-day experiences and Vincent's past during a gap year in Thailand, revealing how past actions and secrets can influence present relationships. As their bond deepens, they confront issues related to race, gender, societal expectations, and the lingering effects of past mistakes.
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