The Book of X

“There are very few good reasons to use the word oneiric in a sentence and here is one of them: It’s one of the few English adjectives appropriate to Sarah Rose Etter’s novel about a woman born with a stomach disfigurement who navigates the world (as we all do) with the trepidation and fury and occasional exultation that results from having a disappointing body.”
—Molly Young, Vulture

“At its heart, Etter’s is a coming-of-age novel about difference, the female body, and the male gaze, but the author’s surreal imagination and laser-precise prose make for an indelible read.”
—James Tate Hill, Lit Hub

“Sarah Rose Etter’s The Book of X belongs to a literary conversation about the grotesque and surreal. Shaped like a prose sculpture, her debut novel juxtaposes the surrealism of youth with the realities of capitalism; it is the story of being raised in a rural area, and disappearing into a city. Sarah Rose Etter discusses life as loose ends, not something tied up with a pretty bow, and creating a novel not in search of resolve, redemption, or everything becoming better. The Book of X has a fresh vision that makes it a strange book in strange times.”
—Michael Silverblatt, Bookworm on KCRW

“Sarah Rose Etter’s The Book of X is dizzying and grotesque—and I say that with the utmost love. It’s an astute exploration of humanity and the body—specifically the female body—through the lens of young Cassie… Etter has built an eerie, surreal world… and she seduces you into it with dreamy lyricism. You won’t want to leave.”
—Arianna Rebolini, BuzzFeed

“In the utterly unique and remarkable The Book of X, Sarah Rose Etter takes the surreal and expertly shapes it into a portrait that is as beautiful and compelling as it is horrifying and unbearable… Etter brilliantly, viciously lays bare what it means to be a woman in the world, what it means to hurt, to need, to want, so much it consumes everything.”
—Roxane Gay, author of Bad Feminist

“I loved every page of this gorgeous, grotesque, heartbreaking novel.”
—Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties

“The Book of X is a tremendous subversion of the disability as metaphor trope… A fabulist exploration into the reality of living with a chronic illness/invisible disability. No one sees Cassie’s knot if she chooses not to show it, but it impacts every iota of her experience. In a grisly world of meat quarries, fantastical imagery, and ambiguously named settings, Cassie’s condition is not disgusting or dramatized. It is the realest part of this surreal book.”
—Lillie Lainoff, Lit Hub