Match BookThe New Me
Halle Butler
2019 · 193 pages · Contemporary fiction
How it reads
The New Me is contemporary fiction (workplace literary fiction, specifically), and its dominant mood is melancholy. It's quietly sad, wistful and reflective. It's a slow burn: character-driven, with a payoff that comes from accumulation rather than twists. It rewards attention and suits unhurried reading more than five-minute gaps.
It's set in a big city setting, in the present day, told in the first person by a single narrator. Its central concerns are identity, class and society and art and creativity. In weight it's heavy and literary — denser, more serious, and more demanding of you.
It stands alone, so there's nothing else you need to read first or after. The ending is left open, for you to argue about. At 193 pages it's a single-sitting book. It's moderately known: read by plenty of people, but not a household name.
Pick it up if…
- you're in the mood for something melancholy
- you have time to settle in
- you want something to chew on
Maybe not if…
- you need something funny or hopeful
- you're reading in five-minute gaps
All 15 dimensions
- Genre
- contemporary fiction
- Author gender
- female
- Author experience
- early career
- Setting: place
- big city
- Setting: time
- contemporary
- Mood / feeling
- melancholy
- Pace
- slow burn
- Tone / weight
- heavy and literary
- Length
- short
- Narrative style
- first person, one narrator
- Publication era
- recent
- Popularity
- moderately known
- Series vs standalone
- standalone
- Themes
- identity, class and society, art and creativity
- Ending style
- ambiguous
What these mean: the 15 dimensions of a book.
Books with a similar reading
The closest books in Match Book's catalogue across the same dimensions, and what they share.
- Please Stop Trying to Leave MeAlana SaabShares: contemporary fiction, melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn
- Conditional Citizens: On Belonging in AmericaLaila LalamiShares: melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn, ambiguous ending
- SolenoidMircea CărtărescuShares: melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn, ambiguous ending
Last ThingsJenny OffillShares: melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn, ambiguous ending
Light Can Be Both Wave and ParticleEllen GilchristShares: melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn, ambiguous ending
Our Wives Under the SeaJulia ArmfieldShares: melancholy mood, heavy and literary tone, slow burn, ambiguous ending
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