Pregaming Grief

Evoking the spirit of Annie Ernaux — who in Simple Passion "experienced pleasure like a future pain" — the unnamed narrator of Danielle Chelosky's Pregaming Grief seeks destruction to accelerate the inevitable. Whether hiding in abandoned buildings, behind the wheel of a speeding car, or writhing under a stranger's body, the protagonist finds herself endlessly entangled in a series of escapades fueled by an adolescent lust for annihilation. After an intense love affair is eclipsed by her partner's escalating addiction, she soon becomes infatuated with an older man who introduces her to a new world of music, wine, and affection blurring the line between pleasure and cruelty. Is this new relationship self-sabotage in disguise, or is it the cure?