Books That Will Have You Asking, “Where are the Parents?”

Susan Choi’s novel is told in three parts, with the first chunk set in a southern high school for performing arts. The students are ambitious, overachieving actors who spend a good deal of their free time rehearsing and trying to keep their reputations (and hormones) in check. Adult guidance comes not in the form of parents but in charismatic teachers, overseas visitors, and friends’ parents, forcing the characters to determine who they can really trust.

This short story collection features protagonists of all ages and family structures, but the title story, “Gorilla, My Love,” is a swift lesson in the disillusionment of youthful innocence. The story plays out completely in the narrator’s mind, save for the blips of conversation she has with the adults in the car. She learns, in innocent yet heartbreaking ways, that adults are hypocrites and are not to be trusted. Left with her own conclusions, she leans into caring for her little brother, Baby Jason, hoping she can shield him from the truth a bit longer.

In this novel, we know exactly where the parents are: getting wasted in the next room. The children of Lydia Millet’s novel are forced to reckon with their hedonistic, wealthy, ill-prepared parents’ inability to care for them in the face of climate catastrophe. The kids collaborate and problem solve while their parents drink and party their way deeper into depression.