Trick Mirror: Reflections on Self-Delusion, is a collection of nine essays entirely recognizable as writing that only Jia can do about the themes that obsess her — truth and beauty, solidarity and morality, literary heroines and pop stars, spiritual and pharmaceutical forms of euphoria, her loves and her Luna.
Jia’s writing comes to her readers with a quickness. Each sentence feels, to your mind, the way it feels to pop air bubbles with your fingers. As the contributing editor of The Hairpin, Jia wrote about music, beauty, power, and pop songs; as the deputy editor of Jezebel, she wrote about adolescence and maturity, gender and femininity, transcendence and ambiguity. Currently a staff writer at the New Yorker, Jia’s territories of thought have covered everything from vaping, Shen Yun, the athleisure brand Outdoor Voices, skincare routines, the work of Ovid, the film Drop Dead Gorgeous, the music of Carly Rae Jepsen, and some truly ridiculous memes.
*Excerpt and images via SSENSE, interview by Haley Mlotek, photo credit: Andrew Jacobs
