
Disappoint Me
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Martin Sarreal
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Mei Mei MacLeod
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By:
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Nicola Dinan
About this listen
An electrifying story of love, betrayal, and the complicated allure of bougie domesticity from award-nominated author Nicola Dinan
“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, author of Detransition Baby
I don’t know why I feel like I’ve been caught doing something dirty. Cheating on queerness. Fell down the stairs and woke up a trad wife.
Thirty years old with a lifetime of dysphoria and fuccbois 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.
©2025 Nicola Dinan (P)2025 Random House AudioCritic reviews
“Bursting with big questions about the politics of romance, family, and care, this novel navigates moral and emotional complexity with grace, nuance, and real storytelling nerve.”―Oisín McKenna, author of Evenings and Weekends
“Hilarious and heartrending in equal measure, with lines so unforgettably funny and true you’ll be sending them to your group chat immediately.”―Elaine Castillo, author of How to Read Now
“A charming, big-hearted love story unlike any I’ve read before . . . Dinan forces us to ask ourselves: Are we more than the worst thing we’ve ever done? An absolute knockout.”―Marisa Crane, author of A Sharp Endless Need
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