Pregaming Grief by Danielle Chelosky

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?

Author Danielle Chelosky is a writer and journalist from New York. She works at Stereogum and has bylines in NPR, The Fader, & Billboard. She is an editor at Hobart Pulp and an editorial assistant at Amphetamine Sulphate. She graduated from Sarah Lawrence College in 2022 and was awarded the Lori Hertzberg prize for creativity. Her debut Novel, Pregaming Grief is out now.