Mood Swings

Praise

“Mood Swings is a master class in maximalism . . . The magic here is in the prose. Though the story itself is sprawling, Barnet’s writing is restrained and intentional. Moments that could turn saccharine are made meaningful by astute, almost insulting observations.”
—Sarah Rose Etter, The New York Times Book Review

“Barnet can be extremely funny, but her book is more pointed . . . Despite the title, Barnet doesn’t convey the swing and rush of the present so much as its inanity. She’s a devastating parodist.”
—Katy Waldman, The New Yorker

“A delicious satire that gripped me from the first sentence. Frankie Barnet is not only an architect of the surreal and the absurd, but something of an anthropologist keenly observing society’s unique derangement. Mood Swings whips from devastation to euphoria with the same fluidity it takes to doomscroll until the sun rises.”
—Layla Halabian, NYLON

★ “Barnet presents a canny portrait of the doomscroll generation, set in an absurdist near-future world . . . This is a sharp satire of a hyperonline culture, with genuinely moving insights into modern inequality and climate crisis throughout . . . This book is a great choice for fans of Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This (2021). An off-kilter, hauntingly hilarious debut novel.”
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“Frankie Barnet is hilariously witty in her work . . . I fell in love with the magical realism that has validated everything I’ve felt as a twenty-something-year-old existing in the digital, post-pandemic age. Barnet’s novel is positively exquisite: a satirical love letter to Gen Z, a chaotic diary entry from my personal records, and a parody of the gloomy world dangling right in our faces.”
—McKenzie Wurtz, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, AZ

“A clever trick mirror for the ‘extremely online,’ Mood Swings deserves its devotees.”
—Lauren Puckett-Pope, Elle

“[A] clever debut novel . . . a uniquely modern love story.”
—Layla Halabian, NYLON

“[A] delightful debut novel . . . Ridiculously funny and as smart as satires come, Mood Swings is a pitch-perfect Instagram novel attuned for the modern age.”
—Sam Franzini, Our Culture

“For a novel that doesn’t feature a single paradox, time loop, or change to history, Mood Swings offers up an incisive critique of time-travel narratives . . . [A] darkly satirical novel.”
—Ian Mond, Locus

“[A] bonkers story . . . Despite the sobering material, this is a hoot.”
—Publishers Weekly

“There is a lot in this novel that should feel deeply strange . . . And yet, this surreal world full of tech oligarchs and unmoored 20-somethings feels all too close to home, as if we’re looking at our current reality through a funhouse mirror.”
—Bustle, “Most Anticipated” Book of Spring 2024

“Frankie Barnet’s propulsive, wholly original novel probes our dark preoccupations and our sources of hope in a seemingly hopeless world. Whether digging into the consequences of climate change, the allure of tech billionaires, the repercussions of cancel culture, or the love/hate dynamics of intimate relationships, Barnet’s singular voice is dazzling and unexpected. She has that rare ability to be at once poignant and genuinely fun, moving and totally hilarious. This book cracked my brain open in the best way possible—I’m obsessed and want everyone to read it!”
—Alexandra Chang, author of Days of Distraction

“What a wild ride—Frankie Barnet has written a fast, funny, witty, chilling first novel that, while ostensibly about a future or alternative reality, summons up the feeling of living in this reality with startling acuity.” 
—George Saunders, Booker Prize-winning author of Lincoln in the Bardo

“Mood Swings is a book of vicious wit and glittering, feral prose that lingers like a strange dream. Frankie Barnet possesses an enviable agility with language, zipping between characters with the jubilant chaos of a tilt-a-whirl and unspooling a deceptively devastating meditation on power, morality, and the end of the world. I couldn’t stop reading once I started, and I can’t stop talking about it now that I’ve finished. You’ll want to hold its beating heart to yours; you’ll want to keep it as a pet.”
—Aiden Arata, artist and writer