Dykette by Jenny Fran Davis

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co

Format: Library Hardcover

Rating: 4.25/5 stars, rounded up from 4 stars for reasons explained below

Goodreads Blurb:

“An addictive, absurd, and darkly hilarious debut novel about a young woman who embarks on a ten-day getaway with her partner and two other queer couples

Sasha and Jesse are professionally creative, erotically adventurous, and passionately dysfunctional twentysomethings making a life together in Brooklyn. When a pair of older, richer lesbians—prominent news host Jules Todd and her psychotherapist partner, Miranda—invites Sasha and Jesse to their country home for the holidays, they’re quick to accept. Even if the trip includes a third couple—Jesse’s best friend, Lou, and their cool-girl flame, Darcy—whose It-queer clout Sasha ridicules yet desperately wants.

As the late December afternoons blur together in a haze of debaucherous homecooked feasts and sweaty sauna confessions, so too do the guests’ secret and shifting motivations. When Jesse and Darcy collaborate an ill-fated livestream performance, a complex web of infatuation and jealousy emerges, sending Sasha down a spiral of destructive rage that threatens each couple’s future…”

My thoughts:

This is one of the few books that I actively took notes on, as there were so many thoughts I didn’t want to forget. Firstly, from the very beginning of the book, Jenny Fran Davis shows the wide variety of sapphics within the lesbian community. I really appreciate that Davis did this through character descriptions, rather than just flat-out telling the reader. Dykette features he/him butches, high-femmes, nonbinary lesbians, and more. I have never read a fiction title with this many different types of lesbians!

I also loved the unlikability (is that a word?) of the main character, Sasha. This might sound counter-intuitive, but I sometimes find lovable and admirable protagonists to be predictable. My ambivalence towards Sasha slowly turned into annoyance the further I got into Dykette, which was a weirdly enjoyable experience.

Why did I bump the rating up from 4 stars to 4.25 stars? After reading Sasha’s definition of a dykette, I have been using it as a descriptor for myself. I will write up the quotation below this paragraph, though it’s not an entirely positive noun, so I ask you to please not judge me! I feel that, since the title word/noun influences me so much, it is only fair that I increase my rating of the book.

“Maybe a better word for it was dykette, containing both the butch’s gaze and the femme’s stare—because, of course, they’re looking at each other. It’s not a stare from below, the lesbian stare, but a pure wanting, a desire whose direction is always in flux.” (page 102)

Overall, I had a good time with Dykette. Thank you to Jenny Fran Davis for the fun read and new personal epithet!