Book #1 of 2026: Audition by Katie Kitamura

I was hoping this would be my first literary New Thing of the year but sadly, this gets a big fat DNF - Did Not Finish. What killed this one for me was the mix of the book being in the first person and the author’s penchant for dissecting every single moment and look. When the lead of the book is constantly waxing poetic over every single moment of her life, it starts to feel less like introspection and more like complete and utter self-involvement. By page 60, the lead of the story was coming off like a cliche of high society New Yorkers. The stereotypical New York actor who yammers on at dinner parties and manages to spin every conversation back to herself (and then goes out about how she recognizes that flaw and has worked so hard to improve at it.) It felt like being stuck listening to someone monologuing about something that, at first, seemed interesting but you eventually realize that there really isn’t anything happening. There were some interesting insights here and there, but the main thrust of the story became increasingly annoying to me.

When I finally looked up reviews to see what Part 2 was about, I immediately lost any and all interest and tapped out.